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It was three weeks ago Thursday that I had the partials cemented to my poor cracked teeth, and it hurt really rather more than I was expecting. A week later, they told me it might take months before it felt completely normal again, because this wasn't a root canal, after all - there's still a nerve in there, and the crack is still near it, so. And I get that. As long as the progress is forward, they said to me, that's good. If every week is a little better than the week before, you will likely escape root canal.
So okay. I can live with that, I think, because I do prefer to have live teeth to the extent possible. And a lot of what was worst about the pain had to do with the abuse they'd done on the gums; now that that's healed it does in fact hurt less often.
But when it hurts, it doesn't hurt any less intensely, is the trouble. I'm taking a handful of pain relievers three times a day - and granted, the handful of pain relievers is three or four ibuprofen, so 600 or 800 mg, which is not the big guns or anything, and I know I'm lucky that's been working. But it's not like I take them only when it hurts - I mean, I do, but when it hurts is when the pain relievers wear off.
Putting pressure on the cracked teeth hurts - so with the bite-adjusting mouthguard in I'm okay as long as I don't clench my teeth (back to this in a second); without it, I'm fine because my back teeth don't touch, but chewing food on that side is right out. And of course - it's been a second - the thing is that with the mouthguard in, I do (as it turns out) still clench my teeth in my sleep, which means I routinely wake up in kind of mind-boggling extremely localized pain. Sometimes this is in the dead of night - Saturday night I woke up at 3am and it was several minutes before my mind cleared enough to realize the sooner I took more ibuprofen the sooner it would stop hurting enough for me to fall back asleep. This morning I woke up right before my alarm went off, but I had to reset the alarm instead of getting up and getting on the elliptical because it hurt so much I couldn't think. It's kind of a surreal feeling, lying there being very aware of being comfortable everywhere except the right side of your jaw, which hurts with stabby fire.
So, yeah. I don't know if this counts as forward progress or not. The dental assistant was very careful to make sure I understood that it wasn't going to feel much better very quickly, because hi, cracked teeth under those partial crowns, so this is a slow, slow healing process. But I just can't tell if it's getting any better at all; I can't focus through the pain, so I can't tell (and it doesn't much matter) if one day the pain is slightly less but still excruciating.
This post has been brought to you by a wimp who, once again, has no idea how people with more serious pain issues do it.
So okay. I can live with that, I think, because I do prefer to have live teeth to the extent possible. And a lot of what was worst about the pain had to do with the abuse they'd done on the gums; now that that's healed it does in fact hurt less often.
But when it hurts, it doesn't hurt any less intensely, is the trouble. I'm taking a handful of pain relievers three times a day - and granted, the handful of pain relievers is three or four ibuprofen, so 600 or 800 mg, which is not the big guns or anything, and I know I'm lucky that's been working. But it's not like I take them only when it hurts - I mean, I do, but when it hurts is when the pain relievers wear off.
Putting pressure on the cracked teeth hurts - so with the bite-adjusting mouthguard in I'm okay as long as I don't clench my teeth (back to this in a second); without it, I'm fine because my back teeth don't touch, but chewing food on that side is right out. And of course - it's been a second - the thing is that with the mouthguard in, I do (as it turns out) still clench my teeth in my sleep, which means I routinely wake up in kind of mind-boggling extremely localized pain. Sometimes this is in the dead of night - Saturday night I woke up at 3am and it was several minutes before my mind cleared enough to realize the sooner I took more ibuprofen the sooner it would stop hurting enough for me to fall back asleep. This morning I woke up right before my alarm went off, but I had to reset the alarm instead of getting up and getting on the elliptical because it hurt so much I couldn't think. It's kind of a surreal feeling, lying there being very aware of being comfortable everywhere except the right side of your jaw, which hurts with stabby fire.
So, yeah. I don't know if this counts as forward progress or not. The dental assistant was very careful to make sure I understood that it wasn't going to feel much better very quickly, because hi, cracked teeth under those partial crowns, so this is a slow, slow healing process. But I just can't tell if it's getting any better at all; I can't focus through the pain, so I can't tell (and it doesn't much matter) if one day the pain is slightly less but still excruciating.
This post has been brought to you by a wimp who, once again, has no idea how people with more serious pain issues do it.