Flossing for Gold
You know that satisfied feeling when you are flossing, and a nice, meaty chunk of something pops out when you’ve slid the floss out from the canyon between your molars?
Yeah, I know that feeling. And yeah, that wasn’t the feeling I got last night. No, it was a large *clunk* of something far too large to have originated from between my teeth that splatted onto my tongue. I unwrapped the floss from my fingers and pulled it out of my mouth. It was irregularly shaped, It was shiny in the ready-for-bed subdued lighting of my room. With a saliva-covered object resting in my palm, I turned on the overhead lights (not particularly bright, but better than the glow of a screen), and looked into my hand with more than a little trepidation.
I saw the glint of gold.
Now, if I were sifting sand in a broad, flat pan while crouched along some stream in the western USA or Australia, seeing that glint probably would have engendered a far more positive reaction than the “oh shit” reaction, which was mine.
Attached to the gold was a chunk of white. I couldn’t tell if it was tooth in the dimness. Whether it was tooth or just cement, I now had a ragged slot in my mouth where there should be the slickeryiness of smooth enamel and a crown. Looks like I’d popped that bad boy right out of my mouth with an apparently overly vigorous round of flossing.
There was no blood, and upon brushing, no pain. Just what felt like to my tongue as a big, ragged hole.
Swell.
I rang up Uncle Google, and searched for dentists in the area. There were more than a few, since Ubud is a tourist destination after all. Of the ones that were close and highly rated, the highest rated one was just a 15 minute walk away. Great! I’ll walk up and see what I can get done. The office is open 10-10 seven days a week, so the fact that it was going to be a Monday didn’t play as large as it might have otherwise. They also had a WhatsApp link for appointments. I did that too, figuring it wouldn’t hurt.
Morning arrives after a more restless than usual night. I cut my dawn run shorter than usual (10K), because, nerves. Still no pain, just nervous as to what the day will bring. I ate brekkie normally, and brushed, and chilled and waited for the time to head out.
I get about 2/3 of the distance to the office when I get a reply from them to my WhatsApp appointment request. No problem for a 10:00 appointment, but, as it turns out, the office I was heading to can’t handle the crown. Can I go to their other office? I do a quick scan of the map. Not far.
“Sure, I’ll be there as soon as I can get a Grab bike.” Fifteen minutes and $1.30 later, I walked (barefoot, since all shoes are left outside) into the office. It’s a nice place, with all the accoutrements one would expect in a 21st Century dental practice. The dentist looks at the crown, and confirms that what I saw that I thought might have been tooth was simply cement.
He cleaned it up, and did a test run on how well it would fit again. The result: it fits nicely! About 15 more minutes later, I was on my way out the door with my crown reattached. No pain, no muss, no fuss. I just couldn’t eat anything for a few hours to allow the cement to set.
Another $0.90 ride — this time on the back of an all-electric scooter — and about an hour total elapsed, and I’m back at my stay. Total cost, including transportation to and from: $35. The fact that I didn’t have to wait for days to (a) just get in to see the dentist, or (b) get a replacement crown fabricated, or (c) both? Priceless.