Mike Has MS
Friday, August 25, 2006
Doctor Doctor
Yesterday morning, I was at work and noticed that I had a loose tooth. That tooth has a crown on it, so I was a bit concerned. I called the dentist, and they said it sounded like the crown was loose and that I should come in for them to recement it back on. By the time I got there, it was no longer loose, but out. The crown wasn’t loose. The post that had been cemented into the tooth as part of a root canal is what had come loose. This isn’t good. There isn’t really much of the original tooth left. He was able to cement it back into place, but he said that I need to be very gentle on the tooth and that I really only have a few months left on it.
All six of my top front teeth are crowns, partially because I have bad teeth (genetically) and partially because of an accident I had as a kid. He gave me the option of doing a bridge or an implant. Because the surrounding teeth aren’t in very good shape either, the bridge becomes less attractive. That means my best solution is an implant. Those aren’t cheap. The first up-front expense is the implant itself, somewhere around $2000. After that has healed for four to six months, it’ll be another $400 with the crown. This ain’t going to be cheap. We may be able to get my health insurance to pick up part of the implant surgery costs, though. Oh, tooth number ten, you’re expensive. The other option, provided the “temporary” solution survives through the end of the year is to beef up my flexible spending account and to use that to pay for the tooth. The other question I need to ask is how much of this my dental insurance will cover. The doc seems to think they won’t cover any of it, but their website says they’ll cover 80%. If I only have to pay $400 of this, I can handle it.
And lately, my neck has been hurting. It’s not been getting better, either. This morning, I saw a chriropractic office near Maverick Square on my way to work. I wrote down the number. This morning, I called. I hadn’t been to a chiropractor in several months, and the one I’d been seeing here in Boston just wasn’t making me feel better. My chiropractor in Pittsburgh (Dr. Ian Wagner) was incredible. The guy I was seeing in Providence wasn’t bad. But the guy in the back bay just didn’t impress me at all. I’d been doing physical therapy and that wasn’t helping either. So today, I started chiropractic care here in East Boston. I like this guy, and he’s close to my T stop. After that appointment, my neck immediately felt better. My back is feeling a little better, too.
On top of that, I have an e-mail into my primary care doctor to see where he is on our quest to find me a new neurologist. He’s being picky, and I’m okay with that. I want a good neurologist that isn’t part of his health system and is good with MS. He’s pulling a few strings to find a good one for me. I’ll be patient.