Wednesday, July 9, 2008-Charlottesville, VA

I decided that it was time to have the nodule in the roof of my mouth looked at again. When we were in the Outer Banks, I stopped at an urgent care clinic. The physician's assistant did not know what it was and prescribed a general purpose antibiotic to be taken for a week, The prescription ran out last Monday with no noticeable effect.

Seeing a dentist presented a problem, since we reserved our campsite for three nights. We would not have time to finish the Presidents Pass tour, drive to Shenandoah National Park, and find a dentist without having an appointment.  Since the campground reservations were filling up for the weekend, we decided to renew our site through Friday night. Since we have no cell phone service here at the campground, we drove into town and called a local dentist. Luckily, we were able to make an appointment for 10:15 AM. That would never happen at home. We drove to a Panera's for some coffee and newspaper time and hung out until the dentist's appointment.

This dentist is not in our provider program, but they took the insurance information. They called and CIGNA agreed to honor the charges. I saw a young woman dentist. She had x-rays taken and took pictures with a digital probe. I could see everything on a television screen above the dental chair. I was relieved when she said it was an abscessed tooth. I'm not looking forward to having it fixed, but I imagined it could be worse. Earlier, the physician's assistant at the Outer Banks said it was too for away from my teeth to be an abscess. The dentist opened the abscess, drained and washed it with a salt rinse. She could not deaden that part of my mouth, so it was somewhat sore. She prescribed another antibiotic and pain medication. I can finish our vacation, but she told  me to  make an appointment now for when I return home. She thinks a root canal is in my future. We returned to the camper to relax for the day.