My upper right teeth were giving me some pain on Friday.  Hoping it would go away, I waited until today to see the dentist.  I speculated that a piece of my filling had broken off.  I ended up being partly correct.  There were hairline cracks in both fillings of my last two upper teeth.  Bacteria crept in over time and cause cavities under the fillings!  The cavities infected the root pulp and now I need two root canals!  What a bummer.

On the bright side, it’s going to be cheap, compared to dental care in the United States.  The root canal procedure will only cost me 50,000 per tooth.  Then I will have to get crowns to cover those teeth.  The highest grade gold tooth will be 350,000 won ($360 USD), while a white porcelain crown with gold lining (underneath) will be 450,000 won ($474 USD).  Of course, the all gold crown is stronger and will last longer, but it GOLD!  The dentist recommended I get all gold, to which I thought, “Who do you think I am?  Part of a rapper’s entourage?”  Then he added, “If you’re concerned with aesthetics, you have the porcelain crown option.”

I’m not sure what I’m going to choose yet.  I’ll get a gold crown for my last molar, but the one next to it?  White or gold?  Money isn’t the concern.  I want it to last long, but don’t want to blind anyone when the light reflects off my teeth.