All I Want for Christmas... is a new Crowned Tooth!?!

A surprise crown

If you're like me (Rob) whenever I go to the dentist, something that you think is very minor becomes something major.
Such was the case yesterday.
    About three weeks ago, a tiny little "chip" came off a tooth, and it didn't hurt (and still didn't today) or bother me, but food kept getting caught in between that and a tooth next to it. So, I went to the dentist!
   After an xray or two, my dentist (who is great and painless, and someone I've been going to for 14 years) told me that it was part of a filling that chipped out. Then came the rest of the story. "It's a pretty large filling," she said. I told her "they're all large fillings - so what does that mean?"

Rob in the chair with a 'Crown molding"

  The answer was fill it and see if it would hold, or bite the bullet and get a crown on the tooth (because there's so much filling, it could be fragile). So, because I really, really don't want to deal with it again, I opted to be "crowned." The procedure wasn't too bad - it took about 2 hours. The only thing that hurt was my TMJ (which conveniently is on the side of my mouth the tooth is located on).
   I walked out with a temporary crown, and realized that my christmas present to myself is a costly tooth crown.
Thaaaaat's great.