While on an out of town trip, I chipped a tooth.
More specifically, a veneer on one of my front teeth broke in half. One half stayed in place, the other not so much. I wasn’t even doing anything particularly horrid at the time – using my teeth to start a tear in a plastic bag.
And of course this all happens while out of town.
I emailed my dentist’s office while still away, and scheduled a quick look-see appointment for the day after I returned.
After laughing at how it happened my dentist (whom I’ve been with for at least 20 years now) tilted me back, poked and prodded and proceeded to fix it. It took all of maybe 20 minutes to build up, fashion, cement, grind and trim a new tooth over the base that remained. I was in the chair for maybe 20 minutes, and even then it felt like most of the time was spent finding an appropriate shade to match the color of the adjacent teeth. (He had some fancy number, I think of it as “latte light”.)
Granted, it’s a temporary fix, but “temporary” was, as he put it, up to me. It should do quite well for weeks … long enough that I can schedule its permanent replacement for some time after the hectic schedule I have in place for the next month and a half.
I’m not just grateful for the quick fix, or that “temporary” has such a long life expectancy. By the time they were my age my parents both had full dentures, so I’m more grateful for the dental technology and the dentists I’ve had over the years allowing my teeth to remain under good repair. All expectations are that they’ll remain there for the rest of my life.
Even if I haven’t been flossing every day. 🙂