During the last few weeks I’ve been plagued with a dental care problem. I lost a crown off one of my front teeth while I was eating a tomato sandwich, while sitting on the patio by the new fish pond. Its outer edges are graced with a million little white stones and my teenie, tiny, little tooth just disappeared into the abyss.
(FYI, I looked “other” places, for a few days, too, but that adventure is not a discussion for a public blog.) 
Without finding my tooth, I was left with the decision of what to do about my missing crown. A new one would cost almost $1000.00! I asked my dentist about whether I should put in a second one in place of the one I lost. It was so small that I wasn’t sure that was the best dental care option. (There was very little tooth showing to put the crown on. He surmised that that is why I had lost the first one!)
I thought my only other option might be to investigate dental implants. My dentist didn’t think that was the best idea and advised against considering one. He had other ideas.
Plus, according to this article talking about dental implants by Dr. Mercola, maybe it’s better that I didn’t go that route.
So… what am I doing instead?
I went last Thursday for a “tooth lengthening” procedure with an oral surgeon. He proceded to numb me up with about 10 shots (some in the back jaw muscle and several in the gum area around the tooth). He surgically removed some of the gum tissue and underlying bone connecting tissue to expose more of my tooth so that when I do get the new crown, it will have more tooth surface to hang on to.
That makes sense and I’m hoping that it works. (This extra surgical procedure was over $900.00, but dental implants are about $3500.00 or more… YIKES!)
Well, money or not, I’m pretty particular about my mouth. Now that my immune system is so much better than it used to be and I’m enjoying good health, I’m not anxious to do anything to challenge it unduly and cause any symptoms of Fibromyalgia or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome to resurface. I spent about 7 years getting rid of all my amalgam fillings and having them replaced with crowns. An expensive venture, yes, but so worth it. I’m convinced that the mercury/ amalgam fillings severely challenged my health and made getting well that much tougher.
So now, I’m waiting to heal from a different cause, albeit, one tooth short. If you want to check out another post I made on the dangers of mercury in your amalgam fillings, see this June 2009 entry. I truly think this is more of an important issue than many medical professionals want to acknowledge.
So I encourage you to share right here on my blog, if you’re going through tooth or teeth problems of your own. How do you think your dental health is impacting the rest of your health? What are your symptoms? What are you facing?
Or, if you’re a dentist or dental surgeon, feel free to share away. We patients are always wanting to know what dental care options are in our best interest… be they amalgam fillings, crowns or dental implants.
Thanks and here’s wishing you the best of health today and always,
Cinda Crawford, your host of the Health Matters Show
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