A Crowning Achievement

[kevin_standlee]

As I mentioned in a previous entry, my dentist recommended removing and replacing two crowns. The cost per crown is $1800. My insurance only covers $1000/year. So today I took a half-day off from work to drive to Reno and have the first crown removed. We'll do the second one on January 2, when my dental benefits reset. They will then send the casts off to the lab to be done, and when they come back, they will install the new crowns. Until then, I have a temporary crown on the first tooth.

This will actually be the third crown on that tooth, because it was crowned once, and then the crown had to be removed to do a root canal on that tooth and a second crown installed. That's the only root canal I've had.

The removal procedure wasn't too bad; nowhere near as bad as the original root canal. I now have the removed gold crown here with me. I expect to take this and the other crown and see if there's any money to be made by selling them for the gold value.

I was grateful to discover that there is on-street parking near my dentist's office, because maneuvering the Rolling Stone into the spaces in their parking lot is tricky, whereas on-street parking is relatively easy.

After paying the $800 that's my share of the first treatment (thank goodness for my healthcare savings account!), I thought I had enough time to get the oil changed in the RV. It has been almost four years since I changed the oil in the Rolling Stone, and while for much of that time I didn't operate it — there was a year where it moved less than one mile — I did think I should get the oil changed. I had a 3 PM chiropractic appointment in Fernley, but I had several hours, and I've rarely been at Jiffy Lube more than an hour, so I headed over there.

It took them nearly three hours to get the word done. There were only three vehicles ahead of me, but one of them must have been immensely complicated. Once they had the RV on the block, it did not take that long, even though I also agreed to have the rear differential fluid changed. It looked awful: dark and sludge-like rather than the relatively light, clear oil that it normally should be.

I called the chiropractor when it became clear that I wasn't going to make the 3 PM appointment and they told to come at 4 PM. I though that would be fine, but as I didn't get out of Jiffy Lube in Sparks until after 3 PM, I though I was screwed. Fortunately, there wasn't a lot of traffic working my way from the shop to I-80, and the afternoon crunch hadn't happened yet. Once I got clear of Sparks I put the pedal to the metal, which is something I really do not like doing with the fuel-hungry 460 engine, but I did not have any choice.

Luck seems to have been with me: I made it with five minutes to spare, and the chiropractor's office was running slightly late anyway, so all was well.

So as I said, this is the first of two crown renewals. For most of the next month or more, I'll be living with temporary crowns in the upper right and later lower right portions of my mouth.

Comments

[solarbird]

Yeah, I've been not getting our car's oil changed for a while either, but we put less than 1500 miles a year on it, so... I'm waiting for the car's status display to tell me it's time but that time might not be 'til 2030 or something.

But I should probably do it before then. It probably helps that it's synthetic? I honestly don't even know.

[msconduct]

My mechanic always used to tell me that it was a good idea to get the oil changed every year as oil becomes less viscous over time whether you use it or not and therefore less effective at lubricating the engine. This is compounded when you don't use the vehicle much as you're not regularly burning the moisture out of the engine. I figure this is a reasonably cost-effective way to extend the life of my cars, which I tend to keep well into their teens.

[lindadee]

I've never had a root canal, but I have 7 or 8 crowns on my molars (I haven't counted them recently). I went with ceramic rather than gold because (a) they look more natural and (b) I've heard horror stories about the Nazis pulling gold crowns off the dead during WW II. Knock wood, none of the crowns have had to be replaced.

[kevin_standlee]

If I had to have any of the teeth forward of the molars capped, I would have done them in ceramic. I wouldn't want gold on the forward teeth, but on the back, I prefer them, as they wear better.

I reckon that it was going the past several years without regular dental checks and cleaning that caused sufficient gum recession that let some decay get in around the bottom of the crowns.