Took a really bad beat on the basketball court this Thursday. It was a pretty rough game, where everyone was fouling, etc... Late in the game somebody through a lob pass to the guy I was guarding, we both went up for it and I took the hardest elbow I've ever felt to the mouth. Right away I thought my tooth was knocked out, but actually the front tooth was pushed way back, and it was gushing blood.
I got home at about 10:30 and called my dentist office to see what Friday hours were...of course they were out on Friday. The recording left an emergency #, which I called figuring it was an answering service. It was actually the dentist's phone #. He told me to push the tooth back into place if possible, and to see him first thing Friday AM. I pushed it as close as I could back into place, but couldn't get it just right. (It was quite painful, and traumatic moving your own tooth around) It was still slightly interfering with my lower teeth, but I had to deal with it.
The next morning the dentist x-rayed it, moved it a bit more, and ground down one of my lower teeth so I could close my jaw (he didn't want to grind on the tooth that had just got hit). His prognosis was that he thinks the tooth will be saved, but won't know for sure for a couple of weeks. He said the roots were not fractured, but it would likely require a root canal (fun). I am also on a soft diet for 2 weeks, which REALLY sucks. I have already lost 2 pounds. I guess if there is a silver lining I wanted to lose about 10-15 pounds, so this should make it easier.
Needless to say, I am done with basketball for the rest of this season (ends in April), and will likely wear a mouthpiece when I play again.
