On October 12, 2022, my last concert took place for a long period. At that moment, I had no idea what was going to happen, but I would like to share my journey so far with you. It was a special evening where I performed with my trio at the JIG foundation in Martinus brewery. It felt amazing to be able to let loose again after such a long time. Unfortunately, during the concert, an unpleasant problem occurred: a lump appeared in my palate, which became thicker as the evening progressed.
The next day, I decided to call the dentist to make an appointment. Ten days later, I was examined and told that there were various problems with my upper right jaw. My eye tooth, which was next to my front tooth, had to be pulled out because it could not be saved. In addition, the lump in my palate turned out to be a fistula that was located under the tooth. This tooth had already been treated with a root canal treatment in 2015, but dirt had caused the fistula.
A plan was drawn up to tackle these problems, and dates were set for the treatments. In December, my eye tooth was pulled out, but this was very difficult, and I had almost a whole month of after-effects and pain. In January, I called the number the dentist had given me and was told that I had to see an oral surgeon to save the tooth with the fistula. After a long wait of six weeks, I finally got an appointment at the hospital in Breda.
Once there, a new photo was taken of my entire head, and I was told that I actually had to see an endodontist. The jaw surgeon’s literal words were: “What are you doing here? You should be with an endodontist…” all without looking up from his screen. For form’s sake, he looked around with a mirror for a moment, and said, “Perhaps the endodontist can still save your tooth, you have a small fistula.”
I called the dentist and explained the story, and action was taken to refer me to a good endodontist in Breda. After another seven weeks of waiting, I finally had my first intake appointment. The endodontist indicated that the chances of recovery were between 85 and 90 percent after the proposed treatment, which would cost a whopping 680 euros.
On March 6, it was finally time for the treatment. After 40 minutes of drilling and looking through a microscope, it turned out that a root was damaged to such an extent that the treatment would not yield the desired result. This meant that the tooth still had to be pulled out, and since this was a large tooth, there would be little left to chew or eat properly. A bridge or even two implants were needed to restore everything to its former glory. This is an expensive joke that only seems possible for the wealthy, certainly not for a musician who has no savings in an old sock after 2 years of corona. That’s my story so far, happy Easter!
