million dollar smile

I am pretty sure that is how I am going to feel in about 2 months from now - having a million dollar smile.  Literally. :)  It's not  even close to an exaggeration as I am witnessing it right now.  I don't go to some fancy dentist, but it doesn't matter because this stuff is going to cost person a fortune wherever they go.

I've known for a few years now that eventually I'm going to need an implant for my front tooth which became very crooked after having kids from my bad gum disease.  This year I finally said I would do it.  And now I am wishing I said "not yet".  Not because I'm nervous about what it's going to look like (even though I'm terrified of having the witch smile for a couple months before it's permanent) but because every time I go see my dentist I find out how such and such will have to get done and the price tag just keeps going up and up.  Pretty much all of our extra money for this year will go to pay for this stupid smile of mine.  Yes, I am just a little bit bitter about it and it just feels so wrong to spend so much money for a nicer smile.

They are actually going to pull 2 teeth out that are right next to each other and replace them with an implant.  The big question is whether they can do it with just putting in one implant or two because that would save me about $2800.  I still don't know for sure because they're being very wishy-washy about it.  They say it's doable but they don't recommend it because it's not as strong as with 2 implants and what if something happens to that tooth that just hangs on the side and so on.  Another big issue is as I just found out that the 2 remaining teeth would look just ridiculous with the 2 fake teeth next to them so they're saying they need to do a half crown on those 2 so all 4 of them look nice and even.  And that's how the cost of this smile just keeps growing bigger and bigger.  It's pretty depressing to me but at the same time I feel like I have no choice about it.

So, in about a month I will go through the first part of the procedure to pull the teeth out and put the implant inside the bone.  It will take anywhere from 2-6 months after that to get to the final fake smile that will stay in my mouth forever.  I will try to take a lot of pictures in between (some may be VERY gross) so you can see what they did to me. :)

I guess everyone has something in their life, my "thing" just happens to be teeth, of all things.  See, if some awful sickness, car accident or disaster happens to a person it is very natural to hang on tight and do whatever it takes to get better or out of the situation.  But when it comes to a new smile, it just isn't the same and I can't help but feel like I am wasting this huge amount of money that only movie stars spend because they can.