Alas, I didn’t get a dental implant today. That will happen down the road several months hence.

After pulling the rest of the #8 tooth that broke off, the dentist discovered that I don’t have enough jawbone right now to hold an implant, so today he did a bone graft to prepare the area for an eventual implant. What he did today has to settle and heal for three or four months. As soon as that happens, the implant can be placed and then I’ll have to wait an additional three to four months while that heals and gets solid. THEN we can talk about getting a dental crown.

I can’t wear my flipper (fake tooth denture) for at least two weeks while my gum heals from where the tooth came out. So I’ll be masking during the next EVER NEW podcast unless I can talk myself into appearing like a cast member from Li’l Abner.

I’m sore tonight where the tooth came out. The doctor had to jab me a bunch of times to numb the area sufficiently, and the holes from those pokes are the sorest areas. I should be fine taking acetaminophen, though. He gave me a prescription for a narcotic, but I told him I’m not going to fill it unless I’m in a serious world of hurt. So far, so good.

He also gave me a prescription for a mouthwash to help keep the surgical site as clean as possible. He said I don’t have to start using it until tomorrow, so I decided to wait until  tomorrow to get it, because it was late by the time I got back from Seattle and I didn’t feel like going to Safeway to have it filled.  Besides, if I wait until tomorrow I will know if I need to fill the other prescription, too. Hopefully, I won’t.  (He didn’t think I would, but he wanted me to have a prescription on the off chance that I do feel more pain than acetaminophen can handle.)

Update 4/28/2022: ZERO pain or discomfort today. Yay!