Off to the dentist . . .

This morning I am off to the dentist. Apparently, whenever anyone has even one knee replacement you need to have dental clearance saying that your mouth is free of any infection or disease. Since I have a long history of caps, cavities, fillings, gum surgery, jaw surgery, and implants, this is no small feat. In anticipation of this, I saw my favorite dentist, I mean periodontists and implant specialist, to get checked out. Not surprisingly  I had some gum problems around my latest implant (I have 8 implants and have had about 6 or 7 surgeries).  That was 10 days ago--12 needles and 6 stitches--and today I go back to get the stitches out.

Dr. Pouya Hatam is one of the most gentle and kind doctors I have ever met. She is Middle Eastern, beautiful (in that Oh so exotic way), and patient (her most important virtue). She will sit and listen to my nervous jabbering, my effort to stall the drill. She will stop when she sees that I have had enough and patiently wait while I regroup. She makes every effort to do the least invasive surgery (is that an oxymoron?) and I value her expertise and opinion more than any other.


She told me last visit that (as long as she could clear up the latest problem) she would clear me for surgery. I needed to be on antibiotics for 10 days and then Periostat for (most likely) the rest of my life. Whenever I see a dentist, I need to take an antibiotic one hour before and a day after. Gabe does this, as well. Apparently, there is a concern about a mouth infection infecting the new knee if bacteria breaks off and goes into the bloodstream. I think I'd prefer to think of the happy little tooth pictured above floating around in my mouth and remain the eternal optimist (see yesterday's blog!)

Final note--I wish today's blog post was funny but it just isn't. There is nothing funny about going to the dentist. So I decided to look for something to lighten it up and found this . . . .