Broken Teeth

January 2012 didn't end too well for me. Around end of that month, I had met with an accident. Took about 3 months for the wounds to heal and another month or so for the scars to "disappear". Given majority of the damage was to the face, including a few chipped teeth, the accident wasn't a minor one. So what really happened?

My sis & I were going to our cousin's engagement. I don't remember why, but we were going on different vehicles. I was driving a scooter, Bajaj Chetak.

Yeah, old-fashioned vehicle. But it has some merits over any other vehicle I know, ever. For example, absolutely low on maintenance. I give it for service less than once a year! Also, if I take it out after 6 months of dormancy, it still roars into action within a few seconds. My other bike, Bajaj Pulsar, struggles if idle for even a week!

Getting back to our journey, I was going at a good speed, probably 50kmph. I was focused looking far ahead, at my sister since she was going too fast & was probably 1 km away already.

However, just a short distance ahead of me, an old man on a scooter with a kid pillion rider was slowly coming near the divider gap from other side of the road to cut cross the road. I slowed down a bit, but not much really, as is the usual reaction to such scenarios on Indian roads. The general interpretation of slowing down is to indicate to the other person that "yeah, I acknowledge you are trying to cross. If you go fast, please do. Otherwise wait for me to pass". I suppose the old man thought that I'd not slow down, but totally stop for him, and he cut across very slowly and was straight ahead of me by the time I was just a few feet from him! Such a stupid idiot he was, & so unfortunate I was.

I wasn't going slow enough & the road was slippery! Since I didn't want to bang into him, I swerved sideways to the left a little and braked hard. The vehicle, probably going at 30kmph, skidded & in less than a couple of seconds later the inertia dragged me on the ground & left me badly injured.

I could feel the pain instantly, in the teeth, face, knees, hands,... Almost everything on the right side of the body started aching. I don't know whether the old man felt remorseful at all looking at what happened to me. I didn't see him. Probably he fled the scene. But I was in no mood to fight. Only thing I was happy about was that it wasn't fatal. I could stand up on my feet. I was worried about the next worse thing, fractures.

Called up my sis & informed her about the incident. Meanwhile, a Good Samaritan nearby offered some drinking water to wash the wounds, especially lips & teeth. The scooter was a bit damaged (dented, bent, scratched, etc.) but could still run! Started it up and drove home slowly, escorted by my sis. This time she stayed within a few  meters.

At home, put some learning from "First-Aid training" into practice by cleaning the wounds. Then went to a nearby hospital to get TT injection & a proper dressing. Next, back to our main agenda of going to the engagement. It wasn't pleasant at all. Later realized that I shouldn't have gone there since my wounds caused grief for most of the people. Not just that, experienced some stabbing pain in the teeth while having lunch. Probably due to my high-pain-tolerance, it didn't really show.  However, the bigger problem now was how damaged were the teeth!

I know of some people's experiences where they'd lost teeth & had to replace them completely. I didn't know whether that would be necessary in my case. I didn't want to get my broken teeth pulled out & replaced with artificial ones!

Irrespective, a visit to the dentist was a must to decide the fate of the broken teeth. So while coming back from the engagement went to a dentist close to our home. It was a lady doctor. She seemed friendly enough. But later realized there was a devil in her heart.

She first took an X-Ray of the teeth. Examined the report & deduced that a root canal operation must be performed so that the neighboring teeth don't get infected too and eventually die. The procedure involves pulling out the 2 broken tooth which are presumed "dead" and replace with 2 artificial ones. Luckily, the artificial teeth aren't immediately available since they are made to order. Otherwise she might have put me in the operating theater & performed the procedure then and there. Also if I had opted for the operation, she'd take the measurements, specifications, etc. and get the teeth prepared in a day. The projected bill amount was at least Rs. 20,000.

She might have convinced me if she had told that one of the tooth that only got chipped by a millimeter didn't need to be pulled out. I didn't understand why such a minor damage to that tooth warrant such destructive action. Realized, she wants to make money of my misery. Such a crook she turned out to be. Decided to go to our regular dentist after taking an appointment.

He was lot more reasonable. After assuring me that the teeth might not have died, applied a hard glue (in my words, "fevikwik", since it was over within a minute!) on the sharp edges of broken teeth. The teeth would be in observation for a few days. If they show signs of death by turning black, then root canal would be the way. If not dead, we may then look at some options that could be discussed later.

Pain in the teeth reduced gradually over next few days as they recovered from the shock. Most importantly they didn't die. Such a relief! However, the glue wasn't permanent and came off. Now the teeth were as sharp as a razor. So had to go to the dentist again to save my gums from tearing.

After examining, the dentist gave me 3 options: 1. Replace the broken teeth completely with artificial ones (effectively, a root canal) 2. Keep the teeth, but put on caps for them, but that'd mean a little bit of grinding of the already traumatized teeth 3. Try sticking the glue again, hoping it'll stick longer this time. I was suggested option #2. I wondered why all these options. Realized that the assumption was I should have proper looking teeth.

Ah, I didn't mind how my teeth look! I'm happy with broken teeth too. I just didn't want to tinker with something that was doing fine now. The dentist didn't mind either. Just ground the sharp edges of the broken teeth off & it was done. So there I've ended up with broken, but natural, teeth.