"That's unusual, we don't see that often"

That's right! I'm special. Errr....a freak of medical nature. Hey we all have to carve some kind of niche in this world and apparently my niche is giving doctors cases that they only hear about in school.

3 weeks ago I went to the dentist for a routine cleaning. http://livingintheubaydifamily.blogspot.com/2009/08/im-medical-anomaly.html

Today was my follow up with the Endodontist who was scheduled to preform the root canal. I was stressing and panicking in the waiting room. They charged me for the root canal before I even stepped foot in the back of the office. It was a done deal. I was planning on asking for sedatives. I was texting my friends fast and furious...support pronto, pray for this root canal. Well...somebody must have prayed for NO root canal. Next time I ask for prayers I'm puting stipulations on them. (Like specifically praying for no root canal AND nothing worse than a root canal).

The doctor comes in to examine the new xrays they took when I got there today and he makes that face :-/....

Oh geez...here we go! He summons another doctor from the hall and I hunker. They both look at the xrays, scratch their chins and mumble and whisper to each other. I think about my blog post from 3 weeks ago and I start to smile. I scripted this right? The second doctors says "ooooo, yeah, this is different". I laughed and said "next you will tell me you don't see this very often". He looked over at me (sometimes I think these guys forget that there's a living, breathing person sitting there who is scared out of her mind because she had a traumatic root canal 2 years ago) and smiled and said "yep, we don't see this often". A few more whispers and a few more mumbles and the first doctor says "well, there won't be a root canal today because what you have is not internal resorption, it's external and it's below the buckle. It's more rare than we originally thought and there is not yet an effective treatment for this. So we have to wait until it destroys the tooth". My eyes got big, destroys the tooth means not being able to save it at all. I said "sounds like a dental implant to me"...he grinned (I think he knows now he can't be elusive with me) and nodded and said "but not for a while". It could take years for the body to finish fully attacking the tooth and when I start feeling pain I should let them know.

So, for now I get the joy of going back every 6 months to monitor the progress of the tooth. We know that it has taken at least 18 months from the first sight of a spot on the xray to half the tooth being destroyed. So, it could take another 18 months or it could take 5 years.

The doctor said...now get out of here before we change our minds. I asked for a refund on my root canal and practically sprinted out of that office.