A little more dental drama

Well, folks, I might be getting near the point when I pop my teeth out before bed.

It wouldn't actually be teeth. It would be just one tooth, but it sounded more dramatic the first way.

I got worried on Friday when a piece of an upper tooth chipped off when I was eating a soft Cliff Bar. It wasn't even an almond or a Tootsie Roll, two of the previous culprits.

The major culprit of course is chemotherapy and how it suppresses the immune system. Chemotherapy causes dry mouth, which in addition to feeling bad, is also bad for dental health, since saliva helps prevent tooth decay. Chemotherapy also disrupts the balance between the beneficial and harmful bacteria in the mouth.

Without chemotherapy, of course, I wouldn't be here to write about this.

My teeth have been pretty calm lately. This after losing 12 teeth over the course of my treatment. Dr. Debian has been able to repair the remaining teeth that shed little pieces or pieces of fillings. He was on vacation this week. So yesterday I saw a different dentist at one of my homes away from home, Holyoke Dental Associates. (The other being Dana-Farber.)

After looking at the X-rays and checking the chipped tooth, Dr. Griffin looked at me solemnly.

He said the tooth was infected (in other words, a dental abscess) and in "normal" situations could be saved with a root canal and a crown. But he did not think there was enough left of the tooth for it to hold a crown.

He thinks it should probably be pulled. But he is deferring to Dr. Debian, who is returning next week. I have an appointment for Tuesday.

Say it is pulled. I then have two options.

I can go the route that I did when filling the gap on the upper left side: getting a permanent bridge (not paid for by insurance).

Or he said I could get a denture, which is covered.

I asked, "You mean the kind you pop out at night? "

"Yes, that's right," he said.

Not a good visual.

In the meantime, he gave me a "z-pack," or Azithromycin. The tooth hurt but started to feel better pretty quickly.

I won't be happy if I find out on Tuesday that I need tooth number 13 pulled.

But it could be worse.