Bad Dentistry - Part 4

The Night of June 6

A bunch of us were sitting around the fire pit on my patio, protected from the rain by a covered pergola. It was a Thursday night. We—LMT staff members, Andy and I—were enjoying our visitors from the Chicago LAB DAY setup team. Without warning, my laughter was replaced with a yelp; what started as a low-grade ache suddenly turned into a searing pain in my mouth.

I knew in that instant that #14 was saying it's time for that root canal procedure.

But we still had another day of scheduled activities with our visitors, so ibuprofen and I coexisted until Monday morning when I made a beeline to the endodontist, a friend I trust implicitly. He attached the rubber dam and tackled part one of the pulpectomy.

I was really surprised he drilled right through the crown. He was really surprised the crown itself wasn't fully polished and was such a "lump."

"What were you thinking?" he asked, wondering...