Sablay.org

Water in the Glass

Due to certain events that transpired this morning, 5 things will have to happen, whether I like it or not:

1. Cosplay Plans for the New Worlds Convention will have to be postponed until the next one.
2. Christmas Project for 2007 will have to be cancelled for this year.
3. I will be eating less.
4. I have to find ways to earn more money.
5. I have to get ready for large amounts of pain.

…

So, what happened?

I have a special case of impacted wisdom tooth coupled with TMJ¹.

I simply thought it was just a case of an impacted wisdom tooth. But no.Turns out from the x-ray that it’s growing horizontally and pushed all my lower set of teeth sideways, like dominoes.

Let’s compare my whole mouth to a house, with my teeth as walls. Since my walls are down, the roof has gone down as well. That’s why I can only open my mouth big enough to eat, but not big enough for dentist’s to operate on. Any wider, and my jaws will lock.

If I don’t get the cause of the whole disaster extracted, it will continue to push the walls down, and 1 of 2 things will happen:

1. My jaw will collapse and I will not be able to close my mouth anymore or;
2. My jaw will collapse and I will not be able to open my mouth at all.

So the wisdom tooth and the lockjaw go hand in hand. My jaws are misaligned because of the damn wisdom tooth, and I can’t be operated on easily because of the damn lock jaw.

Of course we have to have this fixed! As a person who loves to eat, who wants a collapsed jaw!!!

So we now have a battleplan:

1. Install bite splints or guards to reinforce the walls teeth to treat TMJ. This is to properly align my jaws and avoid any more grinding that will lead to collapse. This is also to re-train my mouth to open wider, or we’ll not get the root of the problem out. I have to wear it continuously for 6 months, even after my tooth is extracted. This is a serious, because under normal circumstances (as per my ‘research’² it should only be worn for 2-3 months. That’s how serious this is people.
2. Extract the impacted wisdom tooth as soon as possible. - The root of the problem. This will involve making me stay at home for 1-2 weeks, which entails working from home as well. I have to earn money right?
3. Extract the 3 other wisdom teeth.
4. After the 6-months with the bite splint, I’m going to need braces. This is to rehabilitate the walls the sideways teeth and straighten them out.

It’s a battle plan drawn out until the next year that started today. I’m wearing the bite splint now. The sooner I relieve the TMJ stress, the sooner I get the tooth extracted. And like any kind of surgery, this is going to cost me. A LOT.

It will cost me another arm and a leg, plus a part of my torso. (Hopefully just a part of it). So yeah, am strapped for cash in every sense of the word.

Gorrammit. (And I speak that literally, what with this bite splint in my mouth.)

So yeah, the 5 things up there will have to happen.

Since I’m strapped for cash, cosplay plans and the Christmas project will have to wait. And yes, find ways to earn more money.

I’m on a soft diet, so am bound to eat less. I can only eat enough great tasting soft foods. Why hallo there, congee and noodles!

And I must get ready to face the pain, both physical and financial.

There’s a good side to all of this mind you. I’m not here to just rant about the whole thing that has come my way.

For one, it was good thing that the first dentist wasn’t able to extract the wisdom tooth 3 weeks ago. Or else, she might have hit a nerve and boom! I’ll be like Twoface, with half of my face numb and unmoveable for life.

Second, my teeth will now be straightened! Yey!

Third, I’ll finally have that diet my mum wants me to have! (ergo, lose weight) Because I have no choice,

Lastly, we’re not pressed for time with the costume any more! So we can greatly improve it!!!

That’s about it I guess. My whole day and the rest of the year in a sort of a nutshell.

With that I leave you words from The Beloved:

Whether the glass is half-full or half-empty, the important part is there is water in the glass you can drink whenever you are thirsty

A wise man, he is.

1. TMJ or Temporomandibular Joint Syndrome- a misalignment of the joint connecting upper and lower jaw resulting in muscle and joint pain in the jaw area; lockjaw ↩
2. Use and Abuse of Bite Splints [link] ↩