Running falsely – is it worth it?

Running falsely – is it worth it?

Yesterday was a memorable Friday.  I left Uthiru at one, got a matatu to Kawangware, and then another one to Adams Arcade.  I had not even settled and taken a breath when I was called into the dental room.  I was ushered straight to the reclining seat that I am now so used to.  There was no time for niceties.  I appreciate that DSes are busy people.  Additionally, I do not like anything that starts with ‘dent’ and I try to give such the minimum of the minimum time available.

I had already seen that dental crown for the few seconds that I had, before being ushered onto the recliner.  It looked so real!  That premolar ‘imposter’ was almost like the real thing.  It had been shaped like a real, had the colour of a real and even had the hardness of a real one when I touched it briefly.

“Let us fix him in there,” the DS said as he probably pointed at the crown, and waved in my direction in my recliner.  I could not see much from my semi-sleeping position.  I was already having on my face that large pair of goggles that I loathe.  Of course, I got to appreciate them soon, when water splatter and some flying debris from all manner of dental works started flying about.

I was now used to this dental chair, in this very room for the last five months.  I had started this in early October 2021.  I was finally ending in in March 2022.  I had second guessed my decision to get this prosthetic into my mouth to fill that gap on the lower jaw, the gap that had been there for over twenty-years with no effect at all.  I was comfortable with that gap as was, after all, it was these same DSes that extracted a premolar from that very spot, when they claimed that it was of no use, rotten, they called it.  Why did they want that gap now filled, when it is them who wanted it created?

The same DSes had now changed their narrative and told me that if that gap remained open, then the upper premolar would progressively grow longer and get into that gap.  This was surely impossible.  The gap had reduced in size as a result of the neighbouring teeth filling it up over time, though the gap still remained.  The upper tooth had grown longer than the rest, but with just a manageable bit, not as exaggerated as the dental surgeons, DSes, were stating.  Anyway, they are the experts.

The discussion to get that gap filled started earlier in 2021.  October just happened to be decision time.  I went for it.  It was more of I had no choice based on the Armageddon that the DSes had promised if that gap stayed for a day longer than October.  It is then that the procedure started.  That is when the implant was drilled into my jawbone in that three-hour operation.  This is already in the public domain, so let me not remind myself of it.

Five months later and here I was on this Friday, finishing what I had started.  A was paying up an instalment of almost 50k in each of those months, all from my pocket, after the insurance had declared such an important treatment as ‘cosmetic’, despite this being something that would be spelling doom to my life.  How can something that affects your life adversely, in the opinion of those who have our lives in their hands, be considered ‘cosmetic’?

Soon the temporary cap that had been affixed on the gum of that gap was unscrewed and the implanted screw exposed.  It was not long before that crown, with a hole brought it, was affixed onto the implanted screw.  A small wrench was fixed onto the small groove on the crown and this fixed the crown into position.  Finally, that groove through the artificial tooth was filled up with some materials, which I just heard them ‘mix it up’, ‘fix the primer’, ‘UV it up’.

Just when I thought they were through and….

“Try to close your mouth and try fit your jaws together,” the doc said.

I tried.

The jaws did not fit!

I could feel the very high level of the prosthesis preventing my already lowered upper premolar from settling onto the lower jaw.  I did not know that the upper and lower jaws have a natural comfortable resting position!  

“I feel a hard thing in the mouth,” I responded.

“OK, let me see,” he tried seeing.

“Bite on this, and move your jaws in a chewing motion,” he continued, after fixing something like a piece of paper into my mouth, on that right side next to the now filled-up gap.

A series of grinding sounds would soon follow.  Each grinding sound would then be followed by that chewing on paper thing, then another examination of that paper, then another round of grinding.  Four repetitions later and, “It is almost comfortable,” I said.

“One more time,” he said, “Get me the diamond,” he instructed the nurse aid.

The nurse gave him something that I did not see.

“This is when we usually need such,” he told the nurse in a manner of education, as he proceeded to fix something to one of the gadgets, but I could not see the motions from my reclined position, which was now completely flat – and I hate flat!

Another round of grinding of both the upper tooth and the new lower crown followed.  When it was done, I did the last chewing motion and all was just about well.  Not exactly OK, since I still felt that something new and hard was in my mouth.  It did not feel like a tooth, more like a piece of stone in my mouth.  The upper tooth was still hitting that new tooth and responding with some uncomfortable knocking sensation.  However, I had to live with it for now.  I just hoped that the strange feeling in the mouth would subside.

Hardly twenty-four hours later and that strange feeling in the mouth is gone!  I hardly feel any new different tooth in the mouth, nor is there a knocking action of the upper tooth onto the lower ceramic.  I feel nothing at all.  I have only experienced a sharp pressure pain once, when I chewed on a tough piece of bone.  Other than that, I am not even sure if there is a new tooth in the mouth.

WWB, the Coach, Nairobi, Kenya, March 5, 2022