So like freshman year I got in a bad accident wrestling, I was wearing a mouth guard and had braces (which probably saved me from having dentures top and bottom for the rest of my life) so the damage was minimal. Basically my two front teeth on my top got completely knocked out but were still attached to the braces, and my entire bottom jaw row of teeth collapsed inword, braces holding them inline and in my gums. Jaw was fractured though.
Funny enough the braces keeping the teeth in the gumline saved those teeth from any damage. The teeth that had their nerves severed (top) were a shot in the dark on whether or not my body would accept them. Most trauma cases aren't optimistic, but they rushed me to the ER and put them back in. Probably the most grooling 5 hours of my life. They didn't put me under, there was no actual doctor just some random guy who was about to leave the hospital but had a lot of experience in the field (can't remember his title, he wasn't a "DOCTOR" though) so someone grabbed him and rushed him into my room. 5-6 guys all just staring at me in awe, my face looked terrible, blood everywhere, teeth hanging out with wires all over the place. 5 hours of removing all my braces, collecting the teeth, moving my bottom jaw row of teeth back in place, then putting my braces back on. Fucking brutal. Parents whaling in the background.
I went home the next day and had severe bruising all over my mouth. The guy who did the procedure said it was unlikely that I'd keep any of the teeth that came out, but to see my ortho and my dentist and get some advice on how to approach the situation. They wanted to keep my braces on and have that 'adventure' finished before doing anything though so they could properly access the damage.
Me with braces, 4 months after the incident, still wrestling at 106's when this was taken, that's why I was skinny af.
About a year after the incident I got my braces off. Went to an endodontist and got four root canals, the drive home was brutal for me, something was definitely wrong. The procedure went fine but the pain was tremendous to the point that I was beating my head the whole drive home.
Insurance ended up covering a portion of the cost of the crown (not the veneer) because they were justified for "structural support", still rang up about $1,700 to get it all done. Parents wanted me to pay for it because they felt it was all cosmetics and, well, that part sucked. So for a poor high schooler with a single (at the time) shitty job, this was costing me pretty much every dime I had to my name
Approx a year after the incident, wrestling at 125's.
Well about 1 month after I got my crown and veneer I went in for a routine check up and my doctor was probing around and felt a little "bump" under my gumline. Turns out the teeth that actually came out were being rejected by my body. They said in most trauma incidents the body immediately rejects the teeth. So if that was the case for me they wouldn't have gone through the trouble of putting a veneer and a crown over these teeth to make them look good. Tons of doctor visits, just, dissolving into my mouth. All that money, from what I knew, was now just dissolving into my fucking mouth.
The technical term is resorption (see:
http://www.mcardledmd.com/what-is-resorption-.html). All the work I've done up to this point, doctor appts every other week for months and months is all just dissolving into my mouth.
At that specific doctor visit when he felt that "bump" ,which was essentially a spot where my actual tooth was dissolving, he left the room immediately, came back and took an x-ray, then left again and came about in about 20 minutes. When he told me the news, this was roughly a year after the incident and I was so happy in the moments before this visit about how lucky I was with my teeth, I just started crying. I drove myself to all of my appts and I was just so alone, sad, confused about what to do/say... Just bawling now. I was out of money, knew I would need a shitton of more procedures to make my mouth presentable again. And I NEEDED to get something done in my mouth or all that would be left would be these fucking stumps of a tooth dissolving. The crown and veneers would slowly lose their grip and fall out, exposing the old tooth stumps.
Well, I came to terms with my bad luck, but I have my HOPEFULLY last procedure in about two weeks from today. I'm getting the teeth removed and then for the next two-three years I'll have to have a "flapper" which is basically a denture but only for a few teeth. I won't be able to get the titanium screws put in for quite a few years because my facial plate can still possibly shift/change/grow, which sucks. Aesthetically my face will look fine but I'll have to take it out to eat which will be a little embarrassing.
To be completely honest, I'm horrified to get the teeth removed I just want to cry. Right now my teeth are fine, the resorption is very slow so I still have my veneer and crown in. I'm horrified that it'll be really obvious that I have a missing tooth and that this flapper will look like shit. And I'll have to have it for the next 2-3 years... After all the work/money I've gone through, to be looking at going through it again is really scary and daunting.
e:
I a word