The Johnsons: Uncut: TOOTHLESS

Just days after I turned 11, in July of 1987, my family went to a ward campout for the 24th of July celebration. Shortly after arriving, my sisters and I went swimming at the lake. There was a waterslide there, and when I say waterslide, I mean there was a playground-type slide with a large hose pouring water onto it. This slide landed in a pool of water that was dammed off from the rest of the lake. Someone said they hit a rock on the bottom when they slide down, so I decided not to do anything too daring.

After I had slid down regularly several times, I decided to try something different, so I slid down on my side, feet first. When I got to the bottom and half my body was off the slide, I was suddenly turned onto my stomach, which resulted in my face smacking the end of the slide. When I came up out of the water, I remember being in horrible pain. I spit into my hand and saw blood, pieces of teeth, and blue paint from the slide. I instantly went into shock.

I remember being carried to my mom who promptly drove me to the pediatrician. They told me not to fall asleep on the way. I got to ride in a wheel chair into the building and I remember the doctor looking me over and saying that all I needed was a dentist. I had badly chipped my two front teeth.

So my parents' dentist of choice was a backyard butcher type dentist with his office behind his house. He fixed my teeth with bonding, and he made them lopsided in shape. One was much wider than the other, and they were rather short.

Soon after, one of the teeth died as a result of the injury, so I had a root canal. In college, the other one died, so I had another root canal. Along this journey, I had to have several internal tooth bleachings because my two front teeth kept getting discolored, and several more root canals due to repeated infections.

In the summer of 2000, I finally got crowns since my teeth wouldn't stay a normal color. They looked a million times better than my bonded teeth since they were now the same shapes, but they still didn't look great. I wished they were whiter, and they left my gumline grey.

When I was newly pregnant with Kiersa, I had a painful tooth infection (of course my front tooth). I had to have antibiotics. The summer after I had Kiersa, I kept getting a lot of infections, this time manifesting with blisters on my gum that would pop like a zit. Talk about disgusting! My dentist said I would need to see a root canal specialist, but I didn't have money for one. So I waited.

It eventually got so painful by this summer that I couldn't smile outdoors without pain if there was even the slightest breeze. Ceiling fans, or inhaling quickly, caused me pain also. Also, my gum was starting to receed above the infected tooth, exposing my discolored, death tooth. When we got our tax return, Hyrum said I could go get my front teeth fixed...the right way this time. Fixed for good! I can't even tell you how excited I was! I've been waiting since I was 11 to have pretty teeth again, and a smile I could be proud of.

My kids have a great dentist out here, so I asked him who the very best of the best dentist was for fixing a problem like mine. He referred me to a dentist in Driggs, who I found out later graduated from high school the same year I did!

Dr. Marshall told me that my tooth was going through "external root absorption," which means my body was attacking my tooth from the inside and trying to get rid of it entirely on it's own. In the x-rays, you could see that one root canal looked really good, but the other root was all deformed and short. He said the tooth needed to be pulled or I would continue having painful infections forever.

Just in time for Halloween, I went in to get my front tooth pulled. You can see how the front tooth on the left looks longer since my gumline receded so much. You can also see the dark shadow above my front teeth. I'll be so glad when people won't ask my why my gums are gray anymore. My gums are also scarred with a crater from all the blisters.

And here it is out of my mouth!

The crown is on the left (it came off during the pulling), and my original tooth (ground down in size to fit a crown over it) is on the right. Lovely yellow color, isn't it? Yuck!

See how the left side of the root looks all chewed up? My body did that, trying to get rid of it.

This is the back of my tooth. You can see where the root canal patch is. (The white crescent shape on the root is just from my crown.)

See the metal interior of the crown? This is why my gums turned gray.

And here is the after picture. My tooth is gone! And I feel like a hillbilly. I've been teased so long in my life about my teeth that I've become very self-conscious about them. I developed a tooth fettish and notice people's teeth before most anything else about them. I've always dreamed of having really nice, straight, white teeth...and now I'm toothless! Ugh.

You can see up into the socket here. The pulling of the tooth really wasn't that bad. I just closed my eyes the whole time. It's the first time I've ever had nitrous (laughing gas), and just thinking about the movie Paleface would make me laugh. Talea stayed the whole time and held my hand. She REALLY wanted to see it get pulled. The moment it was out, her comment was, "Wow! It's like a waterfall of blood!" So my dentist quickly added, "Oh, it's not bleeding very bad."

Some gauze and extra strength Tylenol and I was good to go. Not as bad as I expected! My new flipper (the temporary tooth that's hooked to a retainer looking thing) looks so much better than my old crown! With the flipper in, you really can't tell that anything is wrong.

So the plan of action is this: let the socket heal a little and clear the infection, then get an implant placed so a new crown can be attached. I'll have to get a bone graft since the infections destroyed so much bone. The implant will be an artificial root for the new crown, which will be a new porcelain material with no metal in it, therefore no gray gums. Once the implant is healed and secure in the bone, I'll get a crown for the implant, and a new crown for my other front tooth so they'll match. I'll have my other teeth bleached so the crowns can be as white as they need to be (you can't bleach crowns like you can your regular teeth). Shortly before everything is done, I get to wear a temporary crown that is exactly like the permanent one so I can see if I want to change anything. I'm really pleased with this dentist and he's confident I'll love the end result. I can't wait!

After returning from the dentist, it was time to carve pumpkins. Hyrum did that with the kids while I rested on the couch.