So i called back and booked my appointment, its for march 25th at 12:00. I think the thing im worried about the most is not eating all day lol. I am the kind of person who if i dont eat in the morning i almost black out and feel so sick.. so im hoping its one of those days that those symtoms dont show up. I have to admit i am a little nervous about being put under cause i have never been before but researching about it helped me. I am actually more likely to die breathing on my own then being under cause i will be constantly monitored. I am taking the week off work since my operation is on a monday. Works pretty good cause that friday is good friday so i am really only taking off 4 days of work. My hubby is also taking the week off to tend to me :) Yay. Sucks i guess that its easter but me and my husband have no kids yet so its a good time for me to get this done. And i need it so bad, my tooth is literally rotting away as it is completly exposed.
Appointment is getting closer... only 20 days away now. I am wondering when the secretary will call me to give me instructions (she said she would call closer to the appointment when i called and made the appointment). Anyways i wanted to add a picture of my gums now as i will take pictures of the graft every day after the surgery is done. I want to keep updated so people who are wanting to know about gum grafts, can come here and read my story.
Before the Graft (affected tooth is actually on the right)
Well thats it for today. Ill post the night before the graft to update.
Feel free to comment with questions or just comments :)
Alright so let me start with a introduction. My name is kaitlyn and I am 21 years old.. guess thats all you really need to know lol. Oh and my spellings not the greatest so bare with me if theres some spelling mistakes.
Okay so i just got my braces off about 3 months ago now, after abotut a year and a half, great i know! But my braces caused problems to my teeth. They caused my front gums to receed because all the teeth movement and brushing. So when i got my braces off my dentist said i needed to see a specialist about it... that worried me. So i got the referral paper for the specialist and i made an appointment, which was wednesday december 26th.
I had to leave work a few hours early to make my appointment. When i arrived it was a super nice building, really high class. My first thought.. this is going to be expensive lol, my second was that its a really nice, warm, loving atmosphere. I filled out the papers they make you fill out and i waited for my name to be called... nervously waited may i add. It was only one tooth (#41) my front left bottom center tooth. This tooth is extreamly senstive and DOES NOT like to be touched. Anyone who has experienced root exposure or painful receeded gums knows the feeling when its touched. So i was nervous that they would have to poke and pry at it, but yet again i was not going to let them lol. When i first started having problems with this tooth, my gum sort of looked infected below my tooth. my gum was all poofy and white and i went to my dentist to see what was up and they took a X-ray, said everything was fine inside and cleaned it and omg, that was a big mistake.. never again. Although it did help a little, even though i was frozen it was still a horrible, horrible feeling that i never want to feel again.
Anyways so back to the specialists office... They called my name and i was greeted by a lovely dental assistant which took me into the x-ray room so he could have a copy of x-rays as well. So i got the x-ray done, she wrote down some of my symptoms and concerns and left insuring me the doc would be in soon.
So i got moved to a more comfortable room, i mean really comfortable... the chair was like memory foam. Made it a bit better but my palms were still sweating and i was burping alot (something that happens to me when im nervous). So it took about 5-10 mins for the doc to come in. He was a really nice, funny guy and made it for comfortable for me. As soon as he came in i wasnt nervous anymore. I told him about the pain and sensitivtiy (which actually has been alot less since my teeth got used to life after braces). I forwarned him about touching it, so he didnt, just looked at them. Did some pressing on my gums but thats pretty much it. He went on to tell me what i didnt want to hear although i pretty much figured he would say...
He told me that i have very thin gums and i will need a gum graft, not only on the affected tooth but the one beside it too(because the same thing would most likely happen to that one too) I have heard of this before cause as soon as my dentist told me i need a specialist i went on the web and did some reasearch and found gum grafting would probably be my situation. So i understand the proceedure and have mixed thoughts about it. So he expained the process to me after he told me i would need a gum graft. He explained it so simple and easy, which was funny to hear because of all the reasearch ive done and youtube vidoes, i know exactly what goes on. He just simply said were going to take a little piece of skin here and slide it under your gums. I said yes, ive done some reasearch on this surgery and i kind of understand whats going to happen. He said OH.. and went on to say.. well its a bit painful lol. Which he didnt not say before... I found that kind of funny. Anyways so after this he told me that how a donor tissue doesnt work too great and i wasnt even interested in taking someone elses skin so of course im going to let you take a piece of mine. After that was worked out, he told me what kind of anesthesia they provided there. To my surprise they did have all 3 (well not to surprising cause it was a fancy looking place). So they have the just needles (freezing) one, the pills and gas (which i have not heard good things about), and the completely out which you have to have a special doctor there to do and monitor your heart rate (anesthesiologist).Now i sat and weighed my options... #1.. was a no go right off the bat.. after reading what ive read about this surgery and the fact that i ALWAYS need way more needles then most people to not feel anything. And the fact that i have watched youtube videos of this surgery and know what goes on. Hell no i do not want to be awake lol. Soo...
#2... hmmm.. gas and some pills.. sounds good enough. Funny how thats all he says and doesnt explain what pills they give you. Well like i said i reasearched this and also read alot on this site about the surgery and the anesthesia. Ive read and heard enough that i didnt want this option either. Why? because i have short term and long term memory loss and the pills they give you are amesia pills. So during the surgery, you are awake, but you basically forget whats happening as its happening. But your still awake, still see and hear and feel (the pressure) of whats going on. So that being said... that was also a no for me.
#3.. being totally out.. sounds pretty good to me. Although being very expensive and never being put under before, i still wanted this option. Expecally since all the horor stories in this site are from people who didnt choose this option. So after all this the dentist took all the papers and me to the front desk for a quote. I shook his hand and wished him a good day and went to the lady at the front desk.
I was there waiting for a quote and talking with the lady (again very warming and nice). I paid for the appointment, which was $25, for x-rays and $45 for the appointment itself.. love how they tell me this after lol but only cost me 20%, my insurance covered the 80%. So my quote for the gum graft is $800 per tooth and $450 for the anesthesia I chose. This came to a grand total of $2050 for everything. Since I am young I dont have much insurance coverage (only about 2 grand a year), this would take up my whole budget for the year. In that case my father agreed to pay for the surgery for me. I am a lucky one thats forsure.
