Operation "Remove and Replace #19" continues. (#19 refers to the tooth's official number.) Anyway, yesterday I saw my periodontist, who removed this weird mesh/membrane thing that had been on my gum since the extraction back in April. Now we wait eight weeks, take an x-ray to check on the bone, and then, if all is well, the implant goes in on August 6. Fingers crossed. Until then, the absent presence remains (how's that for a bit of postmodernism?)
When he looked at the gum/socket, the doctor (a fellow Roanoke grad, by the way, class of 1993) said it "couldn't look better." I am paraphrasing a bit, but he said something like, "Couldn't look more like the textbook pictures of perfection." He was actually praising the material he used (this cadaver bone graft thing you can read about here that makes the whole implant process easier), but I still felt quite proud, which is kind of ridiculous since I had nothing to do with how well things have gone.
Of course, this sense of satisfaction also speaks to my strange desire to have random people praise me for what can only loosely be called good behavior: when the same doctor, for instance, praised me for being an excellent patient during the extraction*; when I've used movers and they compliment me on being a good packer; the time a TSA screener held up my bag of approved carry-on liquid toiletries (back when this was a new requirement) for the crowd to see and said, "This is how it's done." In that way, I am still a eight year old looking for approval from the teacher.
*Which makes me wonder, by the way, what a bad patient does. Cry? Demand they stop? Squirm?
2 comments:
But can you drink through a straw yet?
Yes! Straws are BACK, baby!
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