I hate the mutha effing dentist. I go every six months like a sheep mostly because I like the feeling of fresh professionally cleaned teeth. That's all well and good until trouble shows up. I was having some intermittent but highly annoying pain whilst chewing that culminated in cracking a tooth. So I drug my ass in to a new mouth-fingers-fella after some research to make sure the closest one to my home wasn't known for bringing the pain or blatant quackery.
I also have that eternal scam known as dental insurance and I used their search tool to make sure I picked someone "in network". That little exercise might save me $100 total over the course of a year but its a little better than nothing. Modern, fancy, I was impressed with everything about the operation save the price. I am cheap by nature and in a current financial rough patch but what the hell...
It turns out that the nightly tooth grinding conducted by my subconscious is causing some structural issues. That combined with some older root canal troubles and some fillings that have expired (I did not know that molten metal seated inside a tooth had a shelf life. Live and learn is a thing) so it all adds up to yours truly with a massive infection causing the pain. I was given my diagnosis, shown my treatment plan along with the accompanying costs, and orders to report back tomorrow morning for a root canal with a side order of bone grafting. good times.
In the meantime I was written a prescription for an antibiotic the size of a dinner roll. This script came with a strong recommendation that it be taken with a probiotic because it blows through your system like a wrecking ball. If things would have been worse without the gut protector I don't want to know about it. The results from all of this medication can best be described as a slurry. I'll leave you with that.