Teething
Ring
Nope, this is not
about my 9 month old….it’s about me and my dental woes.
Yesterday, I had a
very busy day. I had a few appointments
so I was able to take the whole day off work.
First, I went to
the dentist, where I received some news I was not quite ready for. Apparently, pregnancy wreaks havoc on your
dental health! I have had 1 cavity in my
entire life….I now have 5 cavities that need to be addressed.
What the
what?!?
PLUS, the one
cavity that I had filled when I was around 9 or 10 years old is the old kind of
metal filling. I guess that kind of
metal contracts and grows with hot and cold and the “movement” of the filling
has cracked my tooth! AHHHH! So, my
dentist has to remove the old filling, repair my tooth, and refill it with the
new tooth colored enamel in addition to all of the other fillings I need to
have. Great…well, at least those will be taken care of. Not only do I have cavities, but I developed
pregnancy gingivitis which unfortunately did not end when I had the baby. I had
NO earthly idea what was going on!
Pregnancy is not
the only contributing factor here. I was
born without my thyroid gland and my parathyroid gland. The parathyroid gland distributes calcium
throughout your body to the places it is most needed. Basically, I have to take a calcium
supplement to give my body what it needs…but who knows if it’s even getting to
where it needs to be? There is no
conductor at this station! So, my growing bundle of joy pretty much stripped my
body of its calcium leaving my teeth weak and unable to properly protect
them. Also, I have GERD; Gastro
Esophageal Reflux Disease. Which is
pretty much a fancy schmancy way of saying I have some SERIOUS heartburn, all
the time. Imagine drinking molten
lava….yea, that’s how I roll. Anyways,
the lava, I mean heartburn has also helped strip my teeth of much of their
enamel as well. Fun stuff, right? Okay, one more, one more. During my first trimester, I was sick every
single day, multiple times per day. The
vomiting was also a culprit in all this drama.
When I was about 8
years old and still living in New York, I wanted to be Nancy Kerrigan (the ice
skater, duh, keep up!) One day, my mom took my sister and I to the roller
skating rink. After a while, it was time
to go, but being the hard-headed child I was (am), I decided to go around the
rink a few more times….I just wasn’t ready!
After a few more rounds, my mom is standing on the side and pointing her
finger at me shouting, “Kristen Norma Bonaparte, I said NOW!” Again, I didn’t listen and I continued
skating around doing twists and twirls feeling as graceful as a swan. I spread my arms to my side and lifted my
right leg behind feeling the wind on my face…and then feeling my face on the
floor. I ran over a tiny little pebble
and unfortunately my front tooth broke the fall. As a kid in school used to tease me about, “I
bit da flo.” Yes, I broke my tooth and
had to get a fake one put on. One year
later, we’re living in North Carolina and I’m about to give my sisters dog,
Bernard, a kiss on the nose when he jerks his head up and his long tooth hit
mine and broke it AGAIN! This time, I
had to have a root canal and the fake tooth was replaced. I was teased incessantly in school…they said
if I hadn’t been trying to make out with my dog, that wouldn’t have happened.
So, fast forward to present time and here I am
bill in hand, trying to figure out how I’m supposed to afford $2,000! I was told that the material used to fix my
tooth should only have been good for about 5 years….I’ve had it for 15 years
and my dentist was shocked that it’s even still attached. Now, I have to get a
porcelain crown which is nice and expensive; to the tune of over $1,500.
Sorry about this
post ladies….spending money makes me mad.
Kristen Riggan
Chock Full of
Cavities
