Atomictumor

On Tuesday, I saw my dentist for a crown fitting.  There was much drilling and even more pain for about an hour.  A bitchin’ temporary gold-colored crown (made of aluminum) was put on till the real one comes in.  There was some soreness to the area after the novacaine wore off.  He had warned me about this and suggest 2 Aleve for pain as needed.  Last night, however, there was more pain than Aleve could handle.  My mom gave me a narcotic (she is seriously hooked up) and it barely touched the pain.  I had hoped it was only temporary, but again this morning I woke up with swelling and pain, much more than the day I had the procedure done.  AT suggests the delayed pain could be due to tissue bruising.  Having had two abcesses myself, I’m worried that there could be an infection.  It has that pulsating thing going, which is never good.

I called his office a few minutes ago, only to discover that not only have they already closed the office for the day, they won’t be back in until Wednesday.  Great.  If I do have an infection I’m totally screwed.  Unfortunately there are no other dentists in the area (read 50 miles) that take our peculiar insurance.

I’m not sure if this is just a dentist thing, but absolutely nothing he did was explained to me.  I don’t know from one appointment to the next what is going to happen, and there is all manner of equipment unceremoniously crammed into my mouth at any given time.  I don’t want a play-by-play, or detailed descriptions about every little thing he does, but it wouldn’t hurt him to give me the broad strokes.  When he’s done working on my teeth, he’s up and at the next patient before his assistant has gotten all the various instruments out of my mouth.  If I have any questions, I have only her to ask, and usually end up getting vague and dubious answers.

What’s a girl to do?