King for a day
First things first: I’ve sold out. I admit it. If you look around on the page, you’ll now see there are unobtrusive (mostly) ads at the top of entries and in the sidebar to the right. The ads are by Google, and they’re colored to blend in and not jump out at you. And that should be all you ever see, because I think graphical and pop-up ads are of Satan.
Please don’t click the ads unless you see something that interests you; they’re merely there to offset the cost of paying for our virtual host, not to generate income for us.
I’ve also added a news headline feed in the sidebar to the left. Just, you know, because I can. Now that I have a flexible site, I’m going to keep adding shit until it gets as annoying as something on AOL, I’m sure.
A pretty yellow-backed spider hides among the leaves after someone blew on him.
Sorry I’ve been so scarce; I’ve been working on a new WordPress plugin (for forums) and it’s taking a lot of my spare time. At my current coding rate, I should finish them in 2046.
Mostly I’ve been just hiking occasionally, writing PHP code, and reading. Plus, we just went through the government’s fiscal year-end, which means I’ve been kept busy by work, too.
Obviously I need to do something to generate a little excitement in my life.
Another trail-hogger. Looks pissy, doesn’t he?
I feel like I should be king for at least a day.
For the last several months, I’ve noticed something strange in the evenings when I eat my popcorn.
I’m a popcorn-eating fool. My favorite: popcorn popped in olive oil, with a goodly shakedown of stuff from these guys (I’m very partial to the Southwest Cheddar), a dash of parmesan cheese, and a liberal dousing of the nectar of the gods, Cholula. (Side note: Robyn and I want to name one of the next foster kitties we get Cholulabean)
If a popcorn kernel lands just right between the top and bottom teeth on the right side of my mouth and I bite down on it, it hurts.
Hurts pretty bad, actually. Cavity bad.
Not bad enough to make a special trip to the dentist, mind you, but bad enough to mention when I went for my cleaning on Monday.
“I don’t see anything that looks like a cavity,” the hygienist — Cindy — said. She poked around on the tooth in question, which already has a filling, with a sharp instrument. “Does that hurt?”
“Unh unh,” I grunted. She called an assistant over and requested a piece of bite paper from the cabinet on the other side of the office. She wanted to see if maybe part of the filling was sticking up and hitting when I bite down.
“Bite down on this,” she told me, poking the red strip between my teeth. I bit. “Now grind your teeth around.”
The bite paper showed nothing, so she got a bite stick out. The bite stick is wide at one end, and designed to put pressure on certain parts of your teeth (cusps, I believe, but don’t hold me to it).
Biting down on the bite stick hurt like hell. Cindy nodded sagely and told me to wait for the dentist.
The dentist discovered the problem immediately.
“You don’t have a cavity,” she said. “You have a cracked tooth. When you bite down on the popcorn, it pushes the filling down and spreads the tooth. Think of the way a wedge works when you’re chopping wood. That’s what’s happening in your mouth.”
Well, hell. No wonder it hurts.
“How do you fix that?” I asked.
“With a crown.”
I got to watch a video then, of what’s entailed with getting a crown. First, they grind the tooth down a little, and break off the cracked part. Then they make a cast of your mouth, which may or may not entail a piece of string getting wedged down into your gum to separate it out from the tooth. Finally, you get a temporary crown until a custom one can be made in a lab.
The crown fits over your ground-down tooth like a hat, with some sort of filling material packed inside it to fill it up. It’s held in place with cement.
“Does it hurt?” I asked when the video was finished.
“No more than getting a cavity filled,” I was told.
Why don’t I believe them?
What’s the word, readers? Surely someone out there has had a crown, and can give me the real lowdown. ‘Fess up.
In the space of one month, I’ll be having a hand down my throat and a hand up my ass. Something doesn’t seem fair about that.
At least they’re both female hands, so they’ll be small.
My dentist said lemon juice on popcorn is the shit. It sure sounds like shit, I know that.
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it or not, but there are a lot of spiders in the woods.
Robyn smacked me on the shoulder with a slotted metal spoon yesterday because I said something mouthy, which I almost never do.
“Bessie, my shoulder!” I screamed, and started rubbing it. To add a little insult, I made an injured face and tried to look like I was about to start crying. “My shoulder!”
“SORRY!” she screamed, looking panicked. For the next half hour I was treated with kid gloves.
She never even noticed it wasn’t the shoulder I had the operation on.
I never had a crown, but it sounds similar to the same procedure of having porcelain caps put on (the grinding down the tooth). And while novacaine and laughing gas means it doesn’t hurt while they do it, it is a horrible experience knowing that someone ground down your tooth. And the smell of burning tooth is… horrible. Not a pleasant experience.
And I think I have a cracked tooth too - it hurts when I chew gum. My checkup is in November. Not looking forward to that discovery.
Fred,
I unfortunately have a good number of crowns in my mouth.$$$!! You know nowadays dental work just doesn’t have to hurt.
I get novacaine and “laughing gas” and it all is a breeze. I didn’t take the gas for years because I thought I would flip out with the strange feeling but once I tried it I LOVED it!! It is the way to go. My insurance does not pay for it but it is the best $45 spent!!! To me the worse part of the crown is when they make the mold of your teeth. They put a plate full of cold goo in your mouth and you bite down. The goo kind of fills up your whole mouth and you hold it there for a minute. Then they remove it. It kind of adheres to all your teeth. It feels like they are pulling all your teeth out when they wiggle it to get it loose. Just takes a second though. (Probably shouldn’t tell you the unpleasant part.) That is just me though it may not bother you at all!!
I love the pictures you post from your hikes!! Nature is a wonderful thing!!
Good Luck with your crown!!
:) Kathy
It also sounds like what they did when I had a root canal recently. Well, except b/w the grinding down of the tooth and the temporary cap, they had a sharp stick they shoved down into my canals to rip out my roots with a jagged sawing motion that reverberated through my skull.
Even with all that, it wasn’t passing-out pain, so you should be fine.
But then again, I had my 10+ pound children at home with no medication, so it could be that I have a higher pain threshold than your average guy. Whaddaya think?
Jenniffer:
Hang on, I’m still stuck on the “ripping out the roots” part. I’ll get back to you on the childbirth thing.
I’ve had crowns and root canals. Take some ibuprofen for the swelling BEFORE the appointment, and it won’t hurt so bad once the novocaine wears off. All I needed was ibu. for tenderness and was fine in a few hours; totally ok to eat anything by days end.
Don’t be such a wuss.
you meet such interesting creatures on your hikes. i never thought there were that many different spiders in the world.
good luck with the crown.
Crowns aren’t that bad, unless you have two of them back to back like I do. In that case, food gets stuck between them, which really hurts
But the process of getting the crowns themselves doesn’t hurt if you have lots and lots of novacaine (taking ibuprofen beforehand helps, too, like Maggie said). Hope you have good dental insurance, my last crown was close to $1000 and my insurance only paid half.
I have 5 or 6?? crowns without the root canal being necessary in my case. THey remove the nerve only if there is damage to it, and luckily my nerves were not taken.
THe worst part of the 2 part crown procedure is the first day, when you have to have your mouth open so long, they also make molds of your mouth and teeth with this plastic. THen they put a temporary crown on and you have to come back for the permanent one. Make sure you get novacaine before they put the permanent crown on. They say it hurts only for a “few seconds” but it is worth getting the shot of novacaine. I insist on it now!!!
GOod luck!!
Jeannine: you meet such interesting creatures on your hikes. i never thought there were that many different spiders in the world.
Believe it or not, I’ve only been taking pictures of the BIG ones. There are tons of different kinds of smaller ones. They’re weird-looking, all angular and spiny, but I don’t ever try to get pictures because I figure they’re too small.
I’ll see if I can get some this weekend…
I’ve had 2 crowns and 1 root canal and neither was painful. In fact I think making the cast was more uncomfortable than grinding the tooth down. What’s this hand up the ass business?
Y’know, when I was 10, my front top right tooth was cracked (by a frisbee, no less). Actually, the bottom right corner of it was totally broken off, I’d say about a quarter to a third of the whole tooth. My dentist bonded it. I’m almost 27 now and have had it re-done only twice: once 10 years after the fact because of yellowing due to age, and once a few years ago when I bit on a hard piece of candy and chipped off part of the bonding. But it’s the simplest procedure–no drugs, no needles, no tools. He’s always done in less than 10 minutes. I don’t know if bonding is an option for a back tooth, though.
Dale: What’s this hand up the ass business?
Ah, it’s the time of the year where Dr. Judy likes to get all physical with me.
————-
Elizabeth in NC: I don’t know if bonding is an option for a back tooth, though.
She didn’t mention that, so I’m assuming it’s not an option. Scarily, she actually called what I have “cracked tooth syndrome“, but I’ve no idea what that extra (frightening) word is all about.
I’ve had a crown, but I honestly don’t remember how painful it was. I was trying to recover from the root canal that I had on the tooth — and the root canal was a painful SOB. Probably by the time I had the crown I was desensitized by the root canal.
Fred,I am so glad that you talked to the dentist about your painful tooth.
I think that men in general like to be too stoic and long-suffering.
It backfires on them in the end sometimes though.
Bad teeth in particular are dangerous to ignore because the infection goes into the brain and into the heart quite easily.
Thanks for the turtle photos. I love that there are still wild turtles out there. I guess humankind hasn’t totally destroyed ALL of the ecosystems.
What with your cute,wee little turtle photos in an earlier post, I got inspired. I googled and found a website that sells a good range of ages and species of turtles and tortoises.
http://www.turtlesale.com/tortoise-adoption1.html
I love to look at the photos.
Keep those awesome photos coming. It’s like going on all of those hikes with you,but without all of the sweating and huffing and puffing !
My hubby got a crown a few months back - a gold one in fact. He said it was pain free. Of course, now he holds his cheek out (so I can see the tooth) and yells “ARRRRRR!!” like a pirate (cause they have gold teeth apparently) a lot, so that’s pretty painful for me. heh
Have you seen this site?
http://www.whatsthatbug.com/
I like it because it helps me to stop describing the bug I came across as “that weird, angular, spiny kinda one”.
We have scads of those Dobson Flies around here and they will freak your shit right the eff out.
Not sure if you ever used an apple machine, but your site is acting funky. The pictures (in posts) and ads (at top) blow your margins. At least for me…
Meanwhile, those spiders are scary.
About the popcorn - lemon juice AND cholula. Try it, you’ll like it!
I’ve had a root canal and a crown - the root canal was fine, actually less bothersome than getting a cavity filled. The crown isn’t terrible - I definately agree that you should take ibuprofen before hand - the worst part for me was getting the cord wedged down in my gum - imagine having a piece of popcorn kernel stuck down there - except about 250 times worse.
Ohhhh….you are cruel to Robyn! Did you eventually tell her that it wasn’t your bad shoulder?? Baad husband!
Fred,
I got a crown about a year ago - I wouldn’t describe the grinding down process as painful - more like intensely uncomfortable.
By the way, when you go back to the dentist, ask them what happens when people accidentally swallow their nice, new, expensive crowns.
Go ahead, ask.
Alrighty, I think I’ve fixed the layout. I inadverdently made the first spider picture too big, which caused problems for people with lower-resolution screens. Of course, when I fixed that problem I introduced another one: I overwrote the turtle picture with the same spider picture. I swear, sometimes I think my middle name is “fuckup”.
I guess I’ll also be taking some Advil before I get crowned. Thanks for all the pain comments, too. Y’all make it sound like it’s not going to be so bad.
I have four crowns, three porcelain and one gold. Getting them put in didn’t really hurt that much, althoughit wasn’t something I’d go out and do for fun (”Hey! Let’s go get crowns today!”).
The gold one resists pressure better than porcelain, which can break if you put really heavy pressure on it - so no chewing ice, but for the first couple of weeks, it conducts temperature like a mofo. If your crown is in the back, gold is a good choice over the long run; if it’s in the front, porcelain looks a lot better, and they do a good job of matching it to your natural tooth color.
So, to recap (ha ha, me so funny): back molar and a tendency to grit teeth: gold, but watch out for hot or cold foods for a couple of weeks. Front molar: porcelain, but don’t chew ice.
I have — wait a sec, I’m counting — five crowns, two gold and three porcelain. Thanks to modern anesthetic technology, it doesn’t hurt. But I’m bringing my iPod next time because the whining buzz of the drill is really disconcerting. The thing I hate worst is the dental dam, which forces your jaws open until they ache.
I hope you have good dental insurance.
I went to the dentist back in March because one of my molars has become super temperature sensitive. He told me it was cracked, but doesn’t want to do anything to fix it until the piece breaks off. I’m starting to get pissy now because it *still* hurts. And I don’t want to go to my cleaning that’s due because I know the hygenist is going to squirt that really cold water on it and I might have to kick her.
Yes, I have issues.
Bozoette Mary: The thing I hate worst is the dental dam, which forces your jaws open until they ache.
Why is it that I thought those were used as oral-sex-disease-preventatives for men? Or is that a different kind of dental dam?
(insurance is paying for just over half. My out-of-pocket is $284.50, SO GET CLICKIN’ ON THEM ADS, PEOPLE!
) (that was a joke)
Here’s an article that explains what a dental dam is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dental_dam
Some dentists use them, some not. My wife’s a dental hygienist … I never knew they were sometimes used with oral sex!
Martin: I’m a perv, what can I say?
Fred - just had a crown put in a month ago, cause by (drumroll, please) cracked tooth on a popcorn kernel. The procedure hurts less than a cavity - it’s pretty cool, acually. I made two visits - the first to grind the tooth down, mold taken for permanent cap and then fitted for temporary cap. Then a return visit 2 weeks later for permanent cap. The new cap is smooth like a baby’s butt in my mouth. Oof - didn’t quite say that the right way. You know what I mean. Good to hear from ya.
I work in a dental office. And, I have several crowns in my mouth. The procedure isn’t terribly painful - just usually a couple of long visits. If you don’t have it done, however, the tooth can completely break and you can lose the entire tooth. So, it’s really kind of advisable to go through with it. Root canals may or may not be necessary with a crack. It depends on how deep the crack is. But, all in all, there are procedures that are definitely worse. I would suggest that you bring a portable CD player with headphones. That way, the noise (which I think is always the worst part) will be less. Good luck!
I had one done about a year ago. My dentist has a machine in house that takes a picture of your tooth with a laser and then makes the porcelin crown right there so there is no going back a second time. It was not painful at all. Also he said I might need a root canal if it stayed painful. My mom had one and the dentist told her it might be a good year before it wasnt sensitive anymore and after about 6 months mine calmed down, so don’t rush for a root canal if you are still hurty a few months later.!!
I looked up my root canal post and reported that the worst part was the smell produced when they were grinding the tooth down. Oh, and the shot.
http://ilitafire.blogspot.com/2005/03/owowow.html
[…] 4. Have you ever hit someone of the opposite sex? I smacked Fred with a spoon the other day. Does that count? […]
You’re NOT getting a root canal, so don’t let those people scare you. Most of it’s like getting a filling, the only part that can give you pain (but only sometimes)is if the temporary crown they put on (while they’re waiting for the special one to come in) doesn’t fit quite right or sticks up too high, because then chewing can hurt. They can always grind the temporary down more, though, if it does. Also, my dentist doesn’t take a mold of my whole damn mouth for a crown, just a mold of that side of my jaw, also not bad at all, just goooey. Piece of cake, don’t sweat it.
Aw, man. Fred scares the shit out of us (not to mention grossing us out) constantly. Can’t we tease him just a little? Hmmm?
It’s all good. I’ve already decided it’ll just be a walk in the park.
no dear - dental dam’s are for girls you silly perv. Get your safe gay sex right. Well…I guess guys can use them too - but regardless in the bed or on the dentist’s chair they suck.
Really the crown thing is a piece of cake. After the shoulder this is going to be cake. My only advice is that it’s going to feel weird for a month or so after you get the crown. I had root canals followed by a few years of temp fillings before mine, so it was definately a big dif in feeling. Or rather what you can’t feel anymore. You get used to it though and I can’t even remember when I stopped being aware of no feeling vs. all normal. (does that make any sense?)
The worst thing about a crown is the temporary. It doesn’t fit well, and feels like a wierd stubby half-tooth. Also, I felt a kind of vacuumy pressure with the temporary. Like it was constantly being pulled down.
The only part that was painful, is when they take a string, and stick it up under your gums so they can make an impression. I’m sure it wasn’t much thicker than dental floss, but it felt like wool yarn being forced into my gum.
Lastly, the goo that makes the impression has sets in 6 minutes. 6 loooong minutes while your throat fills up with spongy goo and your saliva starts drippin down your chin and then you start counting down seconds….