Reason #28 to carry knitting with you

When you and the one you love need dental work, it's useful to have on hand while waiting for the anesthetic to take effect.

I had my semi-annual dental cleaning a couple of weeks ago. While the hygienist was looking at the x-rays of my upper back molars, she noticed that the one that had had a bunch of work on it, including a tri-root canal and root resection, was showing a fairly significant dip outside the crown line. Sure enough there was some decay there. The dentist took a look at it and said, "Your crown there isn't offering enough protection; you better get another one since the root resection has exposed more tooth than your present crown protects." So today I went in to have my 3 year old crown removed and a new one ordered.

If you haven't had a crown before, it's a two-visit procedure, painless and relatively easy to handle as far as dental procedures go. First they take a pressing of your current tooth to get the right formation to match your mouth. Then they shave down the affected tooth to a large enough nub for the crown to sit on. A pressing is taken of this for the crown, then another pressing is taken for the temporary crown. It's like having goo that turns into Silly Putty in your mouth, these pressings. Then a temporary crown is made and fitted, then put in your mouth with an adhesive that will hold it in place for the two weeks you wait for the permanent crown to be put on your tooth. They recommend a soft diet for that time so that you don't accidently crack or pull the crown off. In the next visit, the temporary crown is removed and the permanent crown is fitted. That's all.

I've made a habit of bringing my knitting with me because in that time you're waiting for the anesthetic to take hold or you have a form in your mouth or you're waiting for the temporary crown to be made. I've made socks, scarves, and hats while waiting in the chair these past couple of years while old fillings have been removed and new ones installed, crowns and root canals done, and periodontal work. I'm known for my knitting in that office. I took the BSJ with me and sure enough ran into a knitter, the dentist's assistant. We gabbed fiber while waiting for the dentist or waiting for the forms to set up or the anesthetic to take effect. I showed the pattern but not how the BSJ was going to come together. That's for her to find out!

I couldn't swing by KnitPurl, which is by the dentist's office, because I had to rush home and stuff a cat into a carrier to have her teeth looked at. Sammy (pictured above; that was my Blonde period) was showing signs she did not feel well at all and sure enough she had a nasty tooth in her mouth. So I arranged to go to the vet after my appointment at the dentist. "Can you be here at 3:30?" "No." "How about 4?" "I will try." It was after 3:30 when I got out of the dentist's office, so I called the vet ahead of time to let them know I was on my way. I've been with them a looooooong time, so they're very flexible with me.

Sammy was not happy about going to the vet, but I knew she would be much better once she was taken care of. After all, I could sympathize! Cranky teeth hurt! She's staying the night with them, my little love bug. The other two are looking at me like, "Where's the Samster?" Better she have a quiet night's sleep at the vet's than Buster picking on her. Having her spend the night at the vet also gave me the opportunity to stop at the store to pick up KoolAid and food dye for playing with yarn this weekend. It was too warm to leave an animal in the car.

Last night, I woke up a little before 3 am and couldn't go back to sleep. I was puzzling over how the BSJ is constructed. It took comparing the pictures shown in "The Opinionated Knitter" versus the directions in the Schoolhouse Press copy I have to make sense of the last of the instructions. I see the vision before me......what a fabulous pattern!