I'm smiling

So I went to the dentist yesterday and got the good news-my teeth are not going to fall out. Whew, what a relief! Actually, the news is pretty encouraging. I have not done anything wrong; this issue is in no way my fault. It's one of those oddball things over which I have no control. Back when I was a little girl with little baby teeth the dentist informed me that I was missing a permanent tooth bud. Fortunately for me it was on the bottom where it's absence would not be obvious. Where most people have four teeth between their eye teeth, I only have three. This means that the little piece of tissue connecting the lower lip and the gums is pulling on the gum directly below my tooth. This is what is pulling my gum away. Good to know!
The fix involves going to a periodontist and having him clip this little bit of tissue so there is no longer any pull on the gum. I said, "Okay, sign me up. Lets get it done yesterday!" Well, no such luck. The earliest appointment they could get for me was April 29th. I went home a little pissed.
I got to thinking about it and called the dentist today. I told him that I appreciated the fact that this was not a major deal but that it did hurt and I did want to take care of it and I really wasn't comfortable waiting another six weeks just for an evaluation. His response was to call the other periodontist in town and see if there was an earlier appointment. He called me back within five minutes (bless him!) to say that they had an opening in two weeks. Hooray! Not only that, he said he was going to explain the situation to them so that they would go ahead and clip that tissue at the time of my evaluation. He said after that healed I could go back to see if it would be necessary to graft some tissue in the area where I've lost so much of my gum. I'm super excited that in two weeks there will be no more gum loss! And then I can get a teeny skin graft and be good as new. I cannot explain how much better I feel just having an answer and a solution in place. It makes me smile.