Last Wed. I drove to Michigan to pick up Gilbert since his Spring break has now extended until May 11. I didn't sleep well Tues. night, but that is nothing abnormal for me prior to taking trips. I left early Wed. morning with no problems. Along the road I stopped for breakfast and noticed my lower left jaw hurting. It was nothing major just noticeably aggravated. As the morning progressed my pain subsided. Then I stopped for lunch, and again my lower left jaw bothered me. This continued progressively getting a little worse as the day continued. I stopped for the night and figured I would get a good night's rest and finish out the trip.
I picked up Gilbert Thurs. morning and by this point I realized that my jaw was in pain. I had Vernon set up an appointment for me Fri. morning with a dentist and I went to Walmart to pick up some Advil for the trip home. All day Thursday I took Advil and/or Tylenol. We arrived home Thursday night and I went to bed.
My dentist appointment was set for 8 am. Friday. With all the Covid 19 stuff going on I was only allowed to see the dentist because I was physically in pain. I was his only patient for the day. The dentist xrayed my jaw, determined I had no obvious signs of infection, adjusted my bite a little and sent me home to see how things went over the weekend. On a side note, he said that I had 3 root canals in a row. This made me suspicious as to why I would be feeling any pain. I have had a LOT of dental work done over my life time. In fact, I only have 6 teeth in my mouth that have not had some kind of work done on them. Some of this is due to my lack of hygiene as a child, other is just because I have weak teeth.
After a long weekend of ever worsening pain, I called the dentist's office back Monday afternoon. They prescribed me an extra strength Advil and decided I would need to see an endodontist. I am to take the Advil every 10 hrs. I got into see the endodontist yesterday morning. After taking a 3D xray he determined that two of my previous root canals have failed and there is or was infection at the base of the root. Because of the infection, my understanding is that my body has developed a torus, which is a bony growth. I have known about this growth for over 10 years. It is on the outside of my jaw and can be felt through the skin, but has never given me any trouble, until now.
I am scheduled to undergo an apicoectomy on Monday, April 6. The doctor will surgically go in and remove the torus as well as the lower portion of my teeth root or roots. He will then plug the remaining roots and sew me back together. I am told the bone will regrow and fill in the portion of the jaw that is removed. In the mean time I am still on Advil, however this long lasting prescription is now wearing off after around 9 hrs. That is not so bad during the day. I usually just deal with the pain until it's time for another pill. At night however, I take a pill just before going to bed and then end up being woken up with pain quite early. That means staying up for an hour or two before I can take another pill, and then waiting an hour after I take the pill for the pain to subside enough for me to go back to bed for the rest of my night's sleep.
I will be extremely glad for Monday to get here. The other thing the dentist told me is that they will be sending the torus off for a biopsy just to be sure everything is normal with that. He nor I anticipate them finding cancer, but he needs to do this as a precaution. I will keep you posted.
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