Showing posts with label pain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pain. Show all posts

Thursday, February 28, 2008

through the wire

"I broke my jaw in two places last night but I don't need any wiring or anything. Just thought you would want to know."

the message i got a few weeks ago from dan. "you better call your dad," i told aaron. "danny broke his jaw last night."

"what?"

after finding out details: running and sliding on ice, falling, hitting his chin on a friend's knee, we're told he's doing good and will be on a liquid diet for the next week. mark took him to a radiologist the following day and that's how they found out it was fractured in two places.

after dan went back to u of i, mark asked an oral surgeon friend if anything else needed to be done. long story short, he recommended dan see a specialist to make sure everything was healing properly. mark drove up to champaign and took dan to see an oral surgeon. it was decided that full metal gear was needed to stabilize his jaw. to ensure no movement would cause it to fracture more. considering how it got fractured in the first place, it was definitely a good idea. now poor dan can't talk or eat anything unless it's in pureed form.

i've never seen what a jaw wiring looks like so i asked him to send me a photo. behold.

looks like braces for your gums. they compromised and he's getting the vertical wires taken out next week, so he'll be able to talk again. don't know if that's a good thing! :) a few weeks later he'll get the rest taken out. now he's a walking advertisement why you shouldn't run and slide on ice, kiddies!

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

the tooth diaries

a power chain, an additional metal chain, new arch wires and another rubber band. <-- in case you were wondering what this means, i've included a visual representation.

an unflattering photo, i know. my orthodontist informed me i have less than 6 months left in these bad boys. i will have a definitive answer september 24. september 5 will be my 2 year anniversary. i can hardly believe i've been wearing them this long. i've come a long way, oh yes, a long, straight way.

left incisor is the devil tooth that received the root canal. it only took 20 minutes, i could hardly believe it myself. drilled a hole in the back, scrapped out the pulp and infection, sealed it temporarily up and i was out of there. been nursing it with vicodin and antibiotics since. heading back september 10 to have it permanently sealed and internally bleached. $700 for, perhaps, an hour of work. i'm definitely in the wrong business.