63 Years Old and Teething

Yes, you read the title correctly . . . I am 63 years  old (as of Jan 11) and I have one tooth starting to erupt from my gums!



Can you believe it?

Quiet a number of years ago my dentist in Indiana asked me if I knew my wisdom teeth were still in my jaw ready to come through. I said I didn't. I figured I was born without them. But he showed me the x-rays and there they were . . . lined up in my jaw like four little soldiers ready to come through.

Fast forward to today. I scheduled an appointment at UB (the University of New York at Buffalo) Dental School to get my teeth cleaned and find out if I had lost part of a filling. You know that feeling when something in your mouth isn't quite right and your tongue automatically goes to it? We,, that was what my tongue was doing . . . going to the last molar I have on the right bottom of my mouth and it was feeling  a relatively sharp (not cutting sharp, but not tooth smooth) spot between that tooth and the next one in.

The student I got this time checked everything out and discovered I had two spots that were starting to decay in two other teeth . . . both could be covered, she thinks, instead of drilling and filling. But, the sharp spot was a part of a tooth that chipped off.

"Hum," I wondered, "when did this happen? I didn't feel anything "extra" in my mouth? Weird."

Next I asked her how my wisdom teeth were doing. The last time they took x-rays these teeth have started to grow toward the molars next to them. No longer are they  lined up ready to march into my mouth. They are relaxing ready to push the next tooth into the rest of the teeth . . . NOT a good thing to have happen.

After the Dental Hygienist professional came and checked the cleaning of my teeth, the resident doctor came and checked what my student thought she saw. She had been right: chipped molar on the bottom back right, decay starting on the upper tooth next to the back right molar and some kind of decay starting at the gum line of the upper right back molar and the same thing on the lower left tooth next to the back molar.

Now the "what shall we do discussion" started. First of all the student needs to schedule an appointment with the periodontal dept to get their input. But the Dr said the options would be: 1. a cap on the chipped tooth and the one above it or 2. removing those two teeth because there wasn't much viable tooth left in either spot and they would have to cut into the skin and I didn't have enough of that to work with PLUS, they are in God Awful (not her words, but that is what she meant) positions to do any work easily.

Oh, and the wisdom tooth on the upper back right of my mouth is erupting through the skin and pushing on the molar that is next to it!

Right now, my top back right molar is a partial eruption . . . wonder if it will actually come through this time? I have felt skin flaps over all 4 wisdom teeth at one time or another in my adult life, but, until now, no teeth have erupted . . until now :(

My tooth looks pretty much like this molar, only mine isn't that horizontal. On mine, the side next to the tooth is erupting through the skin, not the far side.

I told them to check with perio dept. and call me and I am ready to lose both teeth. Food gets caught in between them and the teeth next to them all of the time. So I know I will end up having to have more work on them if left in. I would just like to get it over all at once. Then. at least, one side of my mouth will be easier to brush and clean so the plaque and bacteria don't build up.

Makes me feel like a little kid who doesn't brush their teeth. But I do brush . . . I guess those wisdom teeth (and I use THAT term lightly) have pushed the teeth next to them closer to the teeth in their left. Perhaps the mouth will feel better all the way around . . at least when the pain of 2 extractions is over :(

Then, we will have to closely watch the left side of my mouth and see what happens to it.