ORAL SURGERY

I went to a periodontist (Dr. Moulton) for my oral surgery. It was finally time for my implant to be placed...in my mouth, of course. The whole procedure cost me $600 more than I had allotted money for (and that was after they felt sorry for me and brought the price down $1,300), so I couldn't afford the anesthesia, which meant I was numbed locally and wide awake for the whole thing. It really was much less frightening than I expected. The tears rolled only once, which is impressive for me considering my track record with difficult dental care issues.

Basically, he cut my gums so he could flap them up, then he scraped away the damaged bone, screwed the implant in, and scooped flakes of cow bone onto where my bone was damaged, put the skin down and stitched me shut.

After the surgery was done, I was a little swollen, but not too bad.

The next day I had a bruise that eventually crawled all the way up my top lip so you could see it when my mouth was shut.

The swelling was worse the second day, and even my nose, which is already big enough as it is, was huge!

I looked like a Who from Whoville, just in time for Christmas!

Third day wasn't looking any better. Only worse!

Of course I know I look ridiculous! Yes, I AM embarrassed of these photos, but I'm over it. I'm not that proud of my appearance that I can't throw a nasty picture or two of myself in my journal for generations to see.

I was only on pain meds for 2 days though, then I felt totally fine. I just looked really deformed for quite a while.

Next up? In 3-4 months, after the implant is secure in the bone, I'll go see my dentist and he'll cut my socket open again to put a post in the implant and put my pretty new crown on after that. They'll also cut my gums higher over my other front tooth so they will both match, and I'll get a new crown for that tooth also. The worst is over, I hope.