Thursday, February 12, 2009

Dental Dilemma


Well folks, it’s been fun and games around here these past few weeks. To say I’ve been having a few problems with my teeth would be putting it mildly. Although it’s not so much the teeth that are the problem as the gums. Apparently, when you get to my age it’s not tooth decay you need to worry about, but rotting gums.

It’s my own fault, since moving to the US I’ve been very erratic about dental visits, back in England, I used to go religiously every six months. But here it’s just so bloody expensive, even when you have insurance. Hell, you need to re-mortgage the house just to get your teeth cleaned. Mind you, sad to say, I hear things have gone much the same way in England. What’s the National health Service coming to, I wonder?

Anyway, when I began experiencing some discomfort in an area of my gums, I thought, uh oh this feels expensive. But I did go and get it checked out – even though I did have to wait five weeks for an appointment. They took a whole bunch of x-rays, and scared me to death by telling me I definitely had something going on back there, but they didn’t know what. Of course, in my mind it had to be cancer of the jaw, at the very least. They also said I had lost quite a bit of bone around my teeth, so they were referring me to a periodontist. Needless to say, the nearest one was 50 miles away in Joplin, Missouri. (Sigh!)

To cut a long story short, it turns out my bite was out of line and needed correcting, and I had gum disease which was causing the bone loss. This resulted in spending four (yes, 4 hours!) in the chair on Tuesday, having my teeth sandblasted, sorry, deep cleaned and ground back into place. By the time I staggered from the office, my jaw felt like I had gone ten rounds with Mohammed Ali.

But it gets worse, she put all this packing around my gums, and put me on a liquid diet for a week, and soft foods for a week after that. "What about my blog?" I wailed, "my readers don’t want to look at a can of Ensure." It was to no avail, so I told Mick to get extra wine in, and resigned myself to my predicament. ;-)

Fortunately for me I have lots of tomato and basil soup in the freezer, thanks to Cheryl’s lovely recipe, and you can find more yummies here http://cookingdunkinstyle.blogspot.com/ It’s also a good thing that it’s winter, and I can still make soups, and pop them in the blender.

But if any of you have any recipes that require zero chewing for this week, and little chewing for next week, I’d be much obliged if you’d pass them along.

I’ll be back later with something I prepared earlier, in those halcyon P.D. – Pre-dentist days.

Cheers.

13 comments:

DeniseinVA said...

Jan you have all my sympathy. I have had my own issues with dental problems. I hope you heal fast and will soon be on the road to perfect, healthy gums.

BanginFood said...

I hope you recover soon. Dentists are very expensive. It took me ten years to have my wisdom teeth removed!

Jersey Girl Cooks said...

Oh, Jan your poor thing. Heal fast and have a nice thick milkshake (if your allowed too).

Jennifer said...

Ohh Peach, that is awful. I guess I better pay more attention to my teefies, dang! Milkshakes baby!

Silverback said...

Seep smiling, Jan. Well if you have the teeth left to do so !

Yes finding a UK dentist that will take you as an NHS patient is getting harder and harder. Mine went 'private' a while ago and oddly enough I see less and less of him and more and more of his hygenist. I guess a quick exam and cleaning is beyond him now that he's raking it in.

Paula said...

Oooh Jan. Oh man. Oh. Four hours in "the" chair. Ugh. You certainly have had to write out lots of co-pays in the past few months. Well, on the bright side, when you are all healed up, you'll have an awesome smile! I just made my kids milkshakes and am getting ready to post it. If you were here or I were there, I'd make one or two or three for you. Actually, Ensure milk shakes are pretty good.

Pam said...

Oh Jan, I am so sorry. It not only terrible to have a sore mouth but no food too? UGH! Feel better soon.

David Hall said...

Ooh! Sorry to hear about the teeth Jan. Why not just slurp soup for a few weeks? :o)

Get better soon
Cheers
David

Beth (jamandcream) said...

I can sympathise. My wisdom tooth is coming through and Ive got a gum infection - its so bloody painful. My last check-up at the dentists cost me £41 - it only lasted 10 minutes!!!

Maria said...

Sorry! I hope your mouth feels better soon! Just eat a lot ice cream:)

Sara said...

Yikes, feel better soon!

Lakeland Jo said...

damned teeth- they are such a nuisance

Jason said...

Jan, Im so sorry to hear about your teeth, what a huge pain in the butt! I hope you feel better very soon.