Mitch Gets His Teeth Done
(Part I: the top row, mostly)

Figure 1:
The Nasty teeth just 2 hours before the appointment
Figure 2:
Nasty Teeth Closeup. NOTE: not for the faint of heart
Figure 3:
Me trying to smile while showing the recently-drilled teeth
Figure 4:
Showing the drill work a little better
Figure 5:
The clean, white smile, the morning after the appointment
Figure 6:
Flashing the cheesy grin. Mind you, the area behind my upper lip is swollen.
Figure 7:
Trying to show a closeup, note the swelling again, and the little yellow teeth.
Figure 8:
Giving that "Hey, Ladies, I'm Mr. America" grin. Cheeseball, yes. But, at least I look better
For the first appointment, I spent 5 long (but surprisingly painless) hours in the chair getting the top row of my teeth done.

As you can see in Figure 1 & 2, I wasn't a pretty sight, and over the years I've discovered many techniques for hiding my teeth when I smiled. It's funny how something as small as a block of decayed porcelain-like material in one's mouth can completely alter one's view on someone. Despite having a pretty high-paying job, being a near-expert in web design, and intelligent enough to hold conversations with all walks of life - people would see the teeth and immediately think "what a bum!". Unforunately, my options were pretty slim. The dentists I'd gone to were quoting me prices in the upward range of $20,000. Even with dental insurance from two different companies - the price would never go lower than $16,000. My not-so-great credit also insured that none of these dental credit companies that offer payment plans would ever give me the time of day. So, I've just lived with the pain and tried to hide the teeth.

Luck came along, finally, a few months back where I'd found "Esthetic Dentistry" located in the heart of downtown L.A. in the 7th + Fig shopping center. Arman Marzian (sp?) is the head dentist there, and his passion for dentistry coupled with his compassion for a guy like me has yielded a manageable payment plan for a price that I won't disclose - but it's lower than I had originally expected.

I hate dentists and doctors, normally. I don't trust them, they're usually very harsh and don't seem to give two shits about how I'm feeling. Dentists, in particular, never seem to realize that "I'm feeling sever pain when you drill" doesn't mean "so keep going - novocaine be damned". They'd usually pull that whole line about "what you're feeling is pressure, and I can't do anything about pressure, only pain". Arman didn't give me that line - and even the novocaine shots right into my gums about 12 times didn't hurt a bit as he had used a topical anesthetic beforehand. I should also mention that I was a bit hopped up on Valium - but even so, I didn't feel a thing the entire time I was in the chair. It was by far the greatest dental experience of my life. He rocks.

So.. here's what we did for this first appointment...

All but 2 teeth were drilled down to "stubs", in order to remove all the decay in my teeth and to make a litte notch for which my "new" teeth would fit on top of (see figure 3 & 4).

2 of the front teeth received temporary caps, as he (Arman) wasn't happy with the way his machine had crafted the permanents. The rest of my permanent caps turned out fine, but these two just weren't being friends, I guess.

Admittedly, the two least-decayed of my front row of teeth are the ones that had not been drilled down yet, and so they received no caps whatsoever. (look for the two yellow teeth on the top row in the pictures above, and you'll see).

I should be going in sometime in the next week to get this top row finished, at which point I'll update this page.