Dentist of Doom
September 26, 2006

Me with 2 new screws in my head.

It's been over a year since I went to the dentist in Los Angeles.  Prior to coming to Korea, I had some dental work that wasn't quite finished.  I had a root canal and a temporary crown sort of thing put on it to protect it until I could get a normal crown.  Originally, I was supposed to be in Korea for only 5 months, so I thought it wouldn't be too big of a deal to wait.  Well, it's now been over a year since I've been in Korea and it was way past time to see a dentist.

"Root Canal"
I played a guy who had a severe fear of the dentist.  That wasn't too much of a stretch for me.

I went to see one yesterday.  It's the brother-in-law of one of my Korean students.  He's very kind and speaks enough English to communicate with me just fine.  That's very important to me because I'm EXTREMELY AFRAID of dentists.  Which once made it quite easy to play the role of a man who's afraid of the dentist in a short film I did called "Root Canal."

The office is very nice and modern.  Everyone that works there is very friendly as well.  Of course, a place this nice means you pay top dollar for the work!  He advised me on a number of options.  The best option for me was to have two implants and a crown on my one tooth that needed work.  I've had two teeth (a lower back right one & a lower back left one) missing since I can't even remember when.  Implants are extremely expensive here and even more so in USA.  I decided to have them done here because I have the money saved up from my teaching and the timing just seemed to work out perfectly.  The whole process takes 2 months so I'll stay here that much more, travel, teach, and finish my implant work.

Not my implants, but this is what they look like in an x-ray.

The process is actually pretty simple.  He shot me full of Novocain (I teared up of course - I'm such a BIG BABY!).  Drilled two holes into my gum and into my lower jawbone.  Then inserted two screws that will sit there for 2 months as my mouth and bone become acclimated to them.  After everything is ok, he'll put gold crowns on them as well as my original tooth that still needs work.

An implant.

I suffered mainly emotional trauma during the whole process.  The pain was relatively small considering the operation that was going on.  The effect of having a drill spin rapidly into your jawbone through your gums, is pretty mind numbing (GOD I'm hilarious!).  But a few days later, I feel zero pain.  My head feels a little strange from my new Frankenstein screws, but it's really no big deal.  If you've been considering implants, I'd say go for it.  At least with my few days of experience...they are ok!

What I learned today about Korea:  1)  If Mel Brooks ever remakes "Young Frankenstein," I could now play the Creature and help sing - "Putting on the Ritz."