The Janky and Stanky Show [toothless series]

I’ve named my two broken teeth: Janky Clawtooth and Stanky Shortstump. I will be referring to them by their proper names from now on. So please, introduce yourself.

Yesterday I had an appointment at Community Dental Care which is a dental clinic for low income people. My appointment was scheduled for 9:30, but I didn’t get called back into a room until 11:00.

Prior to my appointment, Janky and Stanky have been experiencing extreme sensitivity to cold. Especially when riding my bike around in the ungodly cold weather (which probably isn’t that very cold, but compared to our 70 degree xmas weather and my distaste for winter weather, it’s cold!) The area right above Janky and Stanky going up into my nose has been painful and they have been throbbing more than usual.

The dentist could tell just by looking at my x-rays that I had an abscess in Janky. He gave me Amoxicillen for the infection and recommended that I get 2 root canals. He stressed to get a root canal done on Janky as soon as possible to avoid infections in the future and that Stanky can wait a little while if finances are tight. The clinic estimated the cost of the root canal to be $450 per tooth. I was so tired, weak and hungry that I wasn’t thinking clear enough to ask all of the questions I needed to ask. I asked him if a root canal was all I would need or if I would need fake teeth and he just kept saying a root canal was all and they would build up my tooth, but he never mentioned if that would cost more. I’m going to call the clinic on Monday and get all the answers I need. If $450 is the cost per tooth to get them all fixed up, then I think it will save me a trip to Mexico. I’m not sure though. I still have a lot of research to do and questions to be answered.

back on the bike [broken jaw series]

On Monday I got my wires cut. Tuesday I returned to work. Wednesday I returned to commuting by bicycle. My energy isn’t nearly what it used to be, and a ride that usually took me 7-10 minutes now takes 15-20. But I’ve been lucky that the weather has been nice for the most part. Other than that, I’ve been getting around by bus too. Mostly just to and from band practice.

My fixie is a bit more damaged than I thought. My friend, Brandon, came over to look at it yesterday. He’s the guy I bought the bike from. The fork is bent but he’s going to see if he has an extra one to replace it with. He’s also going to put shorter cranks on it too. I’m excited to get back on it again, but a little nervous as well.

My car is still sitting immobilized in front of my house. Some guy wanted to buy it from me over a month ago and he keeps putting it off. So I need to re-list it on the swap shop and craigslist, or just call one of those guys from the junk yard to come get it.

I get all of the metal taken out of my mouth next Thursday and then that will be the end of the Broken Jaw Series.

If anyone has any questions about anything, please feel free to comment and I’ll respond with an answer. I’ve noticed a lot of hits to my blog from keywords of “broken jaw”, “wired jaw”, “what to eat when jaw is wired shut”, etc.

Speaking of food, I’ve been able to open my mouth more and more each day and I’m getting a little cocky when it comes to yawning and try to open it a bit too much. I ate pizza last night and the night before had yellow curry with tofu and drunken noodles. It’s still a bit hard for me to chew. The way they reset my jaw: My back teeth are aligning fine so chewing with my back teeth is no problem. But my front teeth don’t line up anymore which makes it hard for me to cut with my teeth. This could be because of my gnarly snaggle tooth which looks like it will fall out sooner than later or maybe my muscles and jaw are still too tight that I can’t move my mouth enough to make them align. Well hopefully one of those is the case and that eventually I’ll be able to use my front choppers.