mouth update

So, it's been a while since I told you guys what's been going on in my mouth. My last visit to my dentist for this year was the Friday before Thanksgiving. They took another set of measurements to note the change in height and thickness of my gum tissue and took a couple more pictures. One month after surgery, even with the swelling gone, there was a noticeable difference. Even I can tell the difference just by looking and comparing the right side to the left. And it will continue to improve. I have been instructed to return to brushing my teeth, using only gentle, upward strokes on the surgery side, to massage the tissue farther upward. At my three-month appointment in January they'll take final measurements and pictures before moving on to the next quadrant. We're going to do the lower left next and get the worth part of the process over with before the start of spring semester. Fatema assured me that it will have been long enough since the first surgery to allow for doing the lower again, which is a relief. Given the choice, I'd rather have the slightly easier upper surgeries later in the semester when I'll need to recover more quickly. Besides, doing the lower left in January means the swelling should be gone by the time COF orchestra rehearsals begin for spring. Since that is the side the violin rests on, this is a very important detail.

Of course, when I go back next it will be a whole new experience. The afternoon of my last appointment the new periodontal floor on the 14 floor of the building had its grand opening. It's actually the 13 floor, but the Tufts dental tower is one of those buildings that refuses to acknowledge that it has a 13 floor. I expect the clinic to be shiny and new still when I get there. I hope it's not too bright though. I have found, in my weekly visits to the clinic for cleanings and measurements that going to the dentist can actually be quite relaxing. At least, on this last visit I was in very real danger of falling asleep in the dental chair while Fatema and Dr. Chen bustled back and forth getting ready to take the measurements. I mean, it's a familiar place, my dentists are very sweet people who have always remembered to numb me when they do anything that might hurt, and they leave me there reclining in a chair that, while not as cosy as a bed, has just enough cushion to do the trick. It may also have had something to do with the general sense of exhaustion that had built up over the week, but I still say it's a sign of how good they've been to me. Or it could just be that I'm weird. Either way, I'm still very glad that I don't have to go back there again until the end of January. I'm almost eating like a normal person again--still doing the chewing on the left (except when I forget), but I've moved up to actually biting into my food instead of cutting up pizza with a knife and fork. Hooray for normalcy!

-Kim