This morning I was driven by Peter to the dental clinic. I met Tanya, who I had spoken with and emailed many times in the last two months, and she was very nice. I waited in the waiting room for Dr. Lagos. When he walked in to say hello and shake my hand, I liked him immediately. His face was kind, and I was way less nervous from then on. In the chair, he looked in my mouth, took pictures for the computer, and then I asked him a bunch of questions I had prepared in my notebook. He said that a problematic crown, tooth #3, was preventing my left teeth from being able to close. He would extract that, since it was infected (and made of porcelain, the aluminium of which my BioComp test said I was quite reactive to), and place a temporary partial. He showed me a model partial. It was less scary than I had thought. I guess the only scary part about it is that you have to take it out at night and all of a sudden you’re a toothless person. But this beats having an endless source of infection in your mouth doing god knows what in the rest of your body. At least in my book.
He confirmed that I would need three extractions, cavitations and temporary partials. In 3-6 months I could return to get permanent partials. This means a return to Mexico in February. Somehow I will scrounge up the money. As for treating the infections after the teeth are pulled, he will use ozonated water to sterilize.
Now for the procedure. Another doctor came in, very nice, he was the anesthesiologist. He put a needle in one of my multitude of big veins in my left arm, then started a Vitamin C drip (25,000 mg each day). I asked why Vitamin C takes away the novocaine effect, and he said that was true for oral C only as it needs to pass through the digestive tract. He then started the anesthesia. I was told I’d feel relaxed - that many people even fall asleep. I found that hard to believe. But turns out I love anesthesia and I felt very nice and relaxed and dozey for the next 4.5 hours. My eyes were closed for almost all of it, and I think I drifted in and out, occasionally noticing what Dr. Lagos was doing. I really didn’t feel anything in my mouth. Just dryness from being open and suctioned for so long.
After a while (I was a bit clueless as to how much time had elapsed), the anesthesia guy took the needle out of my arm. I restrained myself from asking him to keep it in. I croakily told the doctors that I liked anesthesia. They chuckled. Dr. Lagos told me that he had cut off the porcelain crown on #30, removed old composite fillings on #30 and #32, added new resins to these two teeth, placed a temporary crown on #30 (Protemp III), and taken impressions of my right side. #30 will need a permanent crown (Diamond crown) in 6 months.
Dissimilar metals in the mouth, like gold and mercury for example, cause electric current/galvanic action, which causes the metals to corrode even more. The highest galvanic current reading in my teeth was from #30. Next was #32. Even though my fillings were ‘the good kind’ – i.e. mercury-free and white – they still had metal in them. And the Huggins Protocol dictates that the teeth with higher readings get worked on first.
At the end of our appointment, Dr. Lagos taped a magnet to my right cheek to help with inflammation– a really nice look –and I was good to go. The acupressure woman came and she did her thing on me for about twenty minutes. Then I was picked up to return to the B&B.
Tomorrow we will redo all the remaining fillings, cut the bridge off, and place a temporary crown on #19, which will serve as one of the anchors for the partial that will be in 20 and 21. I hope you have a vivid picture of my oral cavity in your head right now.
I feel absolutely fine! Granted, no extractions have happened yet. That will be saved for my third and last dental work appointment. Reason: Get the burring and drilling and cleaning up part over with first so that there are no open holes for stuff to fly into. But so far, this dentist is living up to his fantastic reputation. I may have a piece of magnet taped to my cheek and a plastic vial taped to my arm (for tomorrow’s Vitamin C and anethesia, so they don’t have to needle me all three days), but I have new biocompatible fillings, a new clean crown, and less toxic metal in my mouth. With no pain.