My wish list include parts of me that don't come off.

Dear Diary,

With respect to the portrait I posted last time. I used an online picture transformer that's here. I think it just so happens that the "Modigliani" filter happens to be very close to my own long face, long nose, and narrow chin.

Anyway.  The dentist oral surgeon and I talked about dental implants.  He showed me one of them.  These don't set off metal detectors, making them perfect for tiny small suicide mouth bombs.  They are non reactive titanium, same as hip replacements.

They sink that sucker right down
into the bone.

I have to wait 4-6 months for the jaw bone under pulled teeth to heal, and then they implant the post.  Then they wait a month or two to seat the crown.  This is actually good for me because it spreads out the whole cost thing.  Now, the top/crown (tooth) of the implant is interchangeable, and can be popped off and on, and so if a tooth nearby goes bad, it can be altered to form a bridge.  In other words, you don't have to replace each and every tooth with an implant, if several in a row are missing.

Having a tooth implant encourages jaw strength, because only direct bearing weight keeps bone dense.  I found out that after teeth have been pulled, the bone begins to atrophy.

For now I'll be getting two implants on top, which will be easy because those teeth have just been recently pulled, so there's still plenty of bone there.

 I'm interested in this implant thing on my lower jaw, though, even after having been told that a bone graft on my lower jaw would be necessary, given that those teeth were pulled a long time ago.  A tooth replacement to me is much more attractive than wearing partials.  I had been waiting for the technology to be perfected, and one dentist who doesn't sell them, smiled and said, "stop waiting."

They can make two crowns with a third
tooth attached as a permanant "bridge"

So I am. I will.  I've gone without teeth in my lower jaw for over 15 years, and I'm ready to move on.  I've avoided this, well, because it's crazy expensive, and I hate spending that much money on something that most people won't notice. 

Then again, I like to think I have another 30 years of chewing, at least, in front of me.  I'd like to be able to enjoy it.  It would be difficult to do long, long runs with bridges and partials in all the time.  If they stayed put, we wouldn't see the constant barrage of commercials for gummy substances designed to try to keep them in place.  Ultramarathoning is enough of a pain in the ass with contact lenses, much less teeth that move around.  And I fully intend to be one of those ladies in their 70s shuffling across finish lines while kids say, "your grandmother is so cool."

My body part wish list also includes laser corrective surgery for my nearsightedness.  I'm waiting until I'm 50 for that one, for various reasons. 

Oh, and having my toenails removed.

But that's another story.

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