Wednesday, September 29, 2010

I Promised You Grody. This Is Most Definitely A Promise Kept.



In my previous posting concerning dental travails and triumphs, I told you that I was going to post some grody photos from my actual time in the chair getting the procedures performed. And then, because my dentist hadn't actually sent the photos to me by the time I posted, I instead gave you this silly photo of me showing off my new choppers in a somewhat grotesque fashion.




I had no real need to re-publish this photo, as you could have easily clicked onto the link and seen it, but since some of your blogs have an interesting feature whereby your blogroll listings include the current first photo displayed on any given blog you've got listed, I felt it was prudent to put a photo here, because...

Good news everybody! The grody photos showed up in my e-mail yesterday. And let me tell you, they are grody, indeed.

From: Encarta

gro·dy [ grṓdee ] (comparative gro·di·er, superlative gro·di·est)

adjective

Definition: very distasteful: disgusting or extremely unpleasant (slang)

[Mid-20th century. Alteration of grotesque]


Let me assure you, the photos are NOT pretty. They do, however, illustrate rather well every bit of what I went through. If employed to scare children, I think these shots might get the kids to brush their teeth about twenty times a day. In that regard, they have true value.

Before you get to see the photos - if you really truly want to see them - I will point out that they are the property of Domenic D'Amico, DMD (Long May His Tribe Increase!) and unauthorized reproduction, without the express written consent of the person with whom you're reproducing, is frowned upon in every state, even Mississippi. I will also point out that the mouth is mine, and unless you want your mouth to look similar, you shouldn't pirate these shots.

(Even if your mouth already looks similar - and I know, from some of your comments, that a few of you sport hardware of the same sort - you shouldn't steal the good doctor's photography. Not only might I beat you up, but he has all sorts of drills and things which could make life extremely unpleasant.)

OK, enough preamble. I'm going to leave a whole bunch of white space between here and the photos. Scroll down at your own risk. I will not accept responsibility for heart attacks, premature births, soiled drawers, or any other results of you viewing my sad and sore mouth. You've had more than enough warning.



















Here comes the nasty! Bail out now if you have any misgivings!
















This shows my mouth following the extractions, but prior to the final placement of the screw-in pieces of the implants. The metal bits are the implants proper, which were placed into my jaw via the expedients of slicing open my gums, drilling into the bone, screwing in the titanium rods, then stitching up and waiting, basically, for the bone to get tricked into accepting the rods as being teeth and healing around them. In a small percentage of cases, a rod will be rejected by the body, necessitating a second attempt at placement. Luckily, all of mine took. I have four similar rods in my upper gums, holding a full prosthesis permanently in place.

There is what appears to be a sore or an ulcer on the right side of this shot, but it's an optical illusion formed by reflections off of pooled blood and saliva. I hope it is, anyway. I sure as hell didn't feel it in my mouth anywhere before, nor do I now.





And here we see the screw-in bits screwed in. Notice the change from flat metallic to gold. The denture snaps onto these gold bits for secure placement.

Notice the sort-of burned-looking area to the right of one of the gold bits? It looks that way because it was literally burned. The doctor felt that access to the implant was impeded by my gum tissue having healed around it, so he used a laser to burn some of my gums off.

Also, you'll notice the whitish bits where suturing has been done. That would be collagen, inserted following the extractions. It was felt that I had lost a bit too much tissue on the side of the implants, so this was done to build up the area.

Lovely stuff, isn't it? Here's another shot of mostly the same view.





I want to make clear that all procedures performed by Dr. D'Amico were done in as painless a fashion as humanly possible. He always cares, and he asked me many times if I was all right or if I needed more pain relief (which he never denied me, if I requested it) and he explained every procedure, in plain English detail, both before and during their completions. He is the best dentist I've ever had. If I had had him for my dentist for a longer time, maybe I wouldn't have had to undergo such hideous-looking procedures.

Now, as a reminder as to why I needed this done, here's how my bottom teeth looked last year.




And here's how they look now!




NOT grody. Not in the least.

Well, OK, the stains on the uppers aren't pretty, but they're nothing that can't be taken care of with some heavy-duty cleaning, which I'll ask Dr. D'Amico to do this afternoon on my next follow-up appointment. I didn't realize how bad that was until I saw this photo. Anyway, it only shows in a shot like this where the dentist asked me to really smile wide to show off the lowers, which are freakin' Pristine!

Soon, with more better stuff.


24 comments:

Crazed Nitwit said...

That looked very painful and they look incredible!!!!


BTW my Monday wasn't a bad day just crazy busy!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Oooohhh grody indeed. It's great! The after, not the during, the during sends shudders of horror down my spine.
- Jazz

Michelle H. said...

That's a mouthful! I understand (well, not really) your pain now. Pictures say a thousand words, and those say, "OUCH!"

Gold pieces for the posts. You know can claim you have a mouth of gold and the words to match. At least your storytelling is worth that much.

Expat From Hell said...

A great combination of empathy and a little stomach-turning going on over here, 'Dog. What a difficult process, but you are definitely the better man for it. And, I didn't read your title carefully: I was getting ready to read about Fred Sanford's neighbor....EFH

Craig said...

Hope you never have an appendectomy, or a coronary bypass. Or a hernia, or hemorrhoids. . .

Daryl said...

Thanks for that .. I was thinking about an early lunch but now it can wait .. and once you stop smoking those new choppers will look pristine all the time

(not necessarily your) Uncle Skip said...

That scene looks familiar. Snap-on teeth are definitely superior to the unattached variety.
I was amazed most by how quickly the implantations (in my case, four.) went. I'm not sure I want implants to hold in the uppers.
Did you say six years? Man, I thought thirteen months was too long.
I'm not sure I could get my oral health care professionals to turn loose any photos either.

Cricket said...

I dunno, bro. Thosearen't too bad, but as a fellow dental vet, maybe I'm a bit hardened.

Of course, my sister and I used to leaf through Mom's Big Book O' Rare Diseases to alleviate Sunday afternoon boredom. That might contribute, too.

"Oh yuck... look at this one!"

The new teeth look great, though. Enjoy 'em

Christina RN LMT said...

Hooray for you! Not grody at all.

And your new choppers are spectacular!

Maggie May said...

Oooooh er!
That is quite a difference but with much suffering in between! Good for you having it done! Brilliant photos!
Maggie X

Nuts in May

Buck said...

Yeah, the pics aren't all THAT horrendous. I've seen the stuff dentists use to scare ya, and that's truly uglee.

But, Hey! Lookin' good! I'm glad it's over for ya.

Karen said...

Very interesting - and not grody at all (at least to me) A good dentist makes all the difference in the world - glad you found him :)

Anonymous said...

Oh Boy oh boy oh boy!!!!!

What you must have gone through...but so worth it not to have moving things in your mouth.

Now just a normal smiling non goofy picture please Jim.

Chris said...

I have a whole new respect for the dental industry. Looks great, Jim!

Jackie said...

Jim....I hope that you are feeling well after your procedure. The photos and explanation were fascinating to me. Your new teeth are gorgeous!!

Chris Stone said...

AAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHH!

lime said...

dude that looks like it hurt like hell! and you didn't lie...totally grody, unlike the new choppers which are uber groovy. :)

word veri: orlness, i'm sure it has to do with painful oral surgery and the orneriness it induces.

Don't Bug Me! said...

To be honest, Suldog, and no offence intended, but the most grody photo of them all is your original before photo - my god, what a sight. Your new choppers must be worth everything that you went through, no? I am off to brush my teeth, again........

Jeni said...

No I don't envy what you went through -pain, money, time in the chair -to get these good looking choppers but I do so envy that you were able to find a way to get them. Really and truly I do. As one who has pretty much always coveted a nice set of teeth -something that I never had with my originals and didn't even get even teeth with the replacements (which still ticks me off 10 years after that fact) I am happy to see others get good teeth but still wish this were an option to me. More than that, I still wish it had been an option back when I was 10-12 years old and wonder how much straight teeth might have changed my life over the years too. Who knows!
But enjoy these beauties to the max now that you have 'em my friend!

Ananda girl said...

YIKES! Glad that's over and done with for you.

Sniffles and Smiles said...

OUCH!!!!!! So glad you're past this!!!! Poor Jim!!!!! Hugs, Janine

Carolina said...

hideous, grisly, grim, ghastly, horrendous, nasty, repugnant, repulsive, revolting, shocking, sickening

I clicked on the link in your next post. Stupid! As if you didn't warn us. Poor you for having to go through all that. But the result is wonderful. Well done dentist. It is a work of art.

No more coffee, tea, red wine and cigarettes (how is the non-smoking thing going?) for you Jim. I'm sorry. ;-)

Sandra said...

Wow, those are some movie star teeth you have now! Hubby's upper teeth have worn down, so I'm going to show this to him and suggest he ask about implants.

Ruth and Glen said...

Geesh, that looks painful as hell and yes, grody too! Glad it's all behind you now Jim. Wishing you many years of brilliant smiles. :o)