Stepping into the process

So today I took what I view as my first step into the process. I just had a bridge removed, decay cleaned out, impressions taken for new temporaries, and the bridge replaced. It isn't anything that I haven't been through before, but this time it felt different. I had a lot of anxiety last night and today in anticipation of the appointment. My heart was racing whenever I thought about the appointment. It's just the thought of committing to this treatment for the next three years. It's a lot of time, energy, and money to invest.

Luckily, I was at school before the appointment, so I had another student put in some ear acupuncture points that are good for calming a person down. They are actually the same points used in drug and alcohol detox programs for acute withdrawal symptoms. The points have an almost immediate effect and I could feel myself able to breathe a little deeper and ground myself. I left the needles in about 10 minutes and then had the student remove the needles and place "ear seeds" over the same points in the ears for continued stimulation of those points.

I made it through the appointment just fine. The prosthodontist asked about the mini-bandaids in my ear, so I explained that under the mini-bandaids there were small seeds, like radish seeds, that were calming me down. She looked slightly amused.

Each time I go to an appointment, I gain a little more clarity. I start to understand better what the next step will be and why I'm doing this. My prosthodontist, Dr. Barewal, is excellent. She is great about taking time to answer all of my questions and she thinks in a linear way, so she can explain how we will get from point A to B, then B to C, etc. My next steps will be to get the new temporaries put on in about a month and get a CT scan of my upper and lower jaw. The CT scan is to show us the thickness of the bone, for the surgeon to consider implant possibility for my two front teeth as well as to see how the bilateral sagittal split osteotomy will go.

I got my overall treatment plan estimate from the prosthodontist's office at today's appointment. $50,000. Not quite as bad as I had expected. Orthodontics and surgery are not included in that estimate.

I think from here my anxiety will be less. It's just initiating the long and intimidating process that got to me. I waver now between dread and excitement.