Dentist Woes!

[GHT]

I'm going to get four teeth pulled at once, and then two implants, all done on the same day. Better to get it done in one shot.

Rather you than me. It has been my boast that I have not had any dental treatment other than a check up and the former amalgam fillings replaced, in over fifty years. Three things happened to cause that. I quit smoking, stopped having sugar in hot drinks and our water supply had fluoride added to it. Then a month ago, my dentist explained that a wisdom tooth was causing the infection that resulted in one abscess after another. So, out it came. Hells bells, it was bloody awful, and I mean bloody, literally.

 

[Harp]

Cracked an incisor, split down the meridian. Applied a jackknife blade, removed.

 

[AmateisGal]

Cracked an incisor, split down the meridian. Applied a jackknife blade, removed.

That took guts!

 

[AmateisGal]

Wow, sounds like a tough job! Hope things will turn to the best for you! Keep us updated please.
Best wishes
Turnip

Thank you! Will do.

 

[Harp]

That took guts!

Naw, just laziness. I already had one doctor appointment today and another tomorrow.
Returning to the rat race March 1st, and finalizing medical leave. Catching Covid was a delightful
interruption of scheduled cataract surgery but now all is done and I must admit getting back in
the saddle is something I look forward to. Besides, I hate going to the dentist.

 

[AmateisGal]

Naw, just laziness. I already had one doctor appointment today and another tomorrow.
Returning to the rat race March 1st, and finalizing medical leave. Catching Covid was a delightful
interruption of scheduled cataract surgery but now all is done and I must admit getting back in
the saddle is something I look forward to. Besides, I hate going to the dentist.

But didn't it HURT? See, that's the thing. I gave birth without drugs; I lived with terrible pain with fibromyalgia until I finally got on a drug to help; I get excruciating migraines that almost send me to the ER. I can handle all of that pain. But pain in my mouth, in my teeth? NOPE, NOPE NOPE. I can't do it. I don't know why. Maybe I have extra sensitive teeth or something.

 

[Harp]

But didn't it HURT? See, that's the thing...

Yes, a bit. Closed wound, swig whiskey. I do get occasional migraines, use Excedrin when necessary.
Best over counter medication I've found. The VA had me on another prescription drug that was too strong.
But the Excedrin for Migraines works very well.

 

[Trenchfriend]

I had my first ever PTC this January. It was easy for me to handle without anesthesia. And they of course had to scale A LOT!

 

[Edward]

Had to have a tooth pulled twice. Once, about fifteen years ago, it was the only wisdom tooth that ever came through.... and despite twice daily brushing, it had come through and rotted without me know about it. It just slid right out for the dentist, consistency like Swiss cheese. A couple of years later, I had one that had to be pulled because it had somehow gotten split; they could fill it but not crown it for whatever reason due to the split, and no matter how good the filling, it would at irregular intervals feel like I had had a needle suddenly jabbed into it when I bit into anything. Jinkies, that tooth had a will to live - my dentist practically had her knee on my chest to lever it out. Not notable pain when I can round from the anaesthetic, though.

My worst dental problem is that most of my big molars are bad. As a kid I needed several shallow fillings. Our family dentist, at my mother's request (she's always been embarrassed by what she calls her "mouth full of silver" amalgam fillings), gave me a whole bunch of white fillings. Very new idea in those days - so new, that it wasn't known that the resin they used would shrink over time and let the teeth decay underneath where a brush can't reach.... As the years have gone by, the combination of that and my teeth being so close together I can't floss without significant pain, fillings have gotten bigger. I've had three or four root canals when they fall out. Currently, I have three badly broken molars where the fillings fell out and parts of the teeth broke off. Fortunately one had been root canalled already, and filled to check it would settle, with the long term plan of a crown. Another I had to have an emergency appointment in November to have the nerves removed in prep for a root canal and crown in due course. No pain, but food getting caught in them is inconvenient; been trying to get a regular dental appointment since July, but they keep getting cancelled because of the pandemic. Ho hum. Three new gold teeth soon, though, fingers crossed (I'm happy with gold; can't get white on the NHS, and it's three times the price private, though tbh as long as it's not a front tooth I'm happy with gold. I am hoping I need a gold incisor or canine at some point, though, I've always liked the look of a gold tooth.

As to the experience of a root canal - the worst it gets (aside from how painful the tooth can get to end up that way) is the actual anaesthetic needle; the root canal experience itself is no worse than a filling.

 

[scotrace]

I've been lucky to have good teeth, and went faithfully to the dentist every six months for 30 years-- and then lost all health insurance. It's been several years since I've seen a dentist, and have lost a filing and two teeth have broken. I'll tell you, the worst way to have a tooth out is for it to get a royal, swollen, painful draining infection and come out in pieces. Half of it is still there but it isn't screaming at me anymore.
There's still no way I can afford a dentist. Got forbid I develop a heart issue or something.

Everyone I've ever heard of having a root canal eventually lost the tooth anyway.

 

[Turnip]

...
There's still no way I can afford a dentist. Got forbid I develop a heart issue or something.

....

An important point. Once you show up in an ER with a heart-klabaster here one of the first things they’ll do is to pluck all the foul teeth you might have...

 

[LizzieMaine]

I had terrible teeth as a child, but moving to a town with flouridated drinking water when I was 25 made a tremendous difference. I still have a mouth full of forty-to-fifty year old fillings, though, and every time I go to the dentist they try to "upsell" me on the idea of having them all replaced with modern ones. After I tell them that I have no money and that I can barely pay for the rock-bottom care I get, they generally lay off that stuff.

Which is another dental woe -- the dental care as market-driven commodity paradigm we seem to be living under now. The days of the neighborhood dentist with the office one flight up between the Em-Bee Cleaners and the Christian Science Reading Room is fast giving way to the franchised high-pressure dental clinic where the docs operate on commission and you're as much a customer/sales prospect as you are a patient. Gawd Bless America.

 

[Harp]

Which is another dental woe -- the dental care as market-driven commodity paradigm we seem to be living under now. The days of the neighborhood dentist with the office one flight up between the Em-Bee Cleaners and the Christian Science Reading Room is fast giving way to the franchised high-pressure dental clinic where the docs operate on commission and you're as much a customer/sales prospect as you are a patient. Gawd Bless America.

My family dentist retired while I was in college, and his practice purchased by a young dentist whom I told
upon first visit intro that I was on the GI Bill and just interested in strictly needed work, or better, no work
done at all but routine annual exam. He started to pitch wisdom teeth removal, cleaning, etc etc.
First visit was the last visit.

 

[AmateisGal]

Had to have a tooth pulled twice. Once, about fifteen years ago, it was the only wisdom tooth that ever came through.... and despite twice daily brushing, it had come through and rotted without me know about it. It just slid right out for the dentist, consistency like Swiss cheese. A couple of years later, I had one that had to be pulled because it had somehow gotten split; they could fill it but not crown it for whatever reason due to the split, and no matter how good the filling, it would at irregular intervals feel like I had had a needle suddenly jabbed into it when I bit into anything. Jinkies, that tooth had a will to live - my dentist practically had her knee on my chest to lever it out. Not notable pain when I can round from the anaesthetic, though.

My worst dental problem is that most of my big molars are bad. As a kid I needed several shallow fillings. Our family dentist, at my mother's request (she's always been embarrassed by what she calls her "mouth full of silver" amalgam fillings), gave me a whole bunch of white fillings. Very new idea in those days - so new, that it wasn't known that the resin they used would shrink over time and let the teeth decay underneath where a brush can't reach.... As the years have gone by, the combination of that and my teeth being so close together I can't floss without significant pain, fillings have gotten bigger. I've had three or four root canals when they fall out. Currently, I have three badly broken molars where the fillings fell out and parts of the teeth broke off. Fortunately one had been root canalled already, and filled to check it would settle, with the long term plan of a crown. Another I had to have an emergency appointment in November to have the nerves removed in prep for a root canal and crown in due course. No pain, but food getting caught in them is inconvenient; been trying to get a regular dental appointment since July, but they keep getting cancelled because of the pandemic. Ho hum. Three new gold teeth soon, though, fingers crossed (I'm happy with gold; can't get white on the NHS, and it's three times the price private, though tbh as long as it's not a front tooth I'm happy with gold. I am hoping I need a gold incisor or canine at some point, though, I've always liked the look of a gold tooth.

As to the experience of a root canal - the worst it gets (aside from how painful the tooth can get to end up that way) is the actual anaesthetic needle; the root canal experience itself is no worse than a filling.

Wow, Edward, you've really been through a lot with your teeth! Ack. I'm so sorry.

Yes, two of the teeth being replaced had root canals done so I'm like, what was the point of THOSE?!? One had a crown which broke off and there is hardly anything left of the tooth, so that's why they're pulling it. Sigh.

I had one dentist want me to spent $6k to $10k on my teeth. I said hell no and went and got a second opinion.

 

[Trenchfriend]

In Germany, I think, three of five dental offices are unserious, these days.
But it's easy to recognize! Stay away from them, which are reckoning with 100+ EUR for a PTC from the first second on. Just telephone around and ask the price!

So I switched my smalltown's dental office in January. They were reckoning with 70-80 EUR for the PTC and kept their word! That's the calculation factor 1,8. The calculation factor 2,3 (100+ EUR) is the typical one, unserious offices are using!

My former dental doc here in smalltown was money-grubbing AND stupid at the same time. She didn't pay attention what she said and revealed herself already in 2017, when I met her first, after she had taken over my good old docs (1992-2016) office!! So I never trusted her. And I saw, that she does not work conscientious, because I had the comparison with my old doc. Bye Bye, stupid girl...

 

[Edward]

Wow, Edward, you've really been through a lot with your teeth! Ack. I'm so sorry.

Yes, two of the teeth being replaced had root canals done so I'm like, what was the point of THOSE?!? One had a crown which broke off and there is hardly anything left of the tooth, so that's why they're pulling it. Sigh.

I had one dentist want me to spent $6k to $10k on my teeth. I said hell no and went and got a second opinion.

Ow, that's a lot. The financial side can be a worse pain than the teeth themselves. Over here my NHS dentist (increasingly a rarity; most of them are going private) does have to charge, but fortunately it's a significant reduction - one of my crowns would be £600 private; on the NHS they come out around £200. It does mean I have to have a gold one instead of white, but tbh unless it were one of my two front teeth I kinda prefer the look of the gold anyhow... The big plus of a crown is that it hopefully means I won't have to have the tooth removed or go to dentures in the future. My parents are both in their seventies and have the odd crown here and there, but both still on their own teeth, so fingers crossed!

Hope your teeth get sorted as easy as possible - dental pain can be a bind.

 

[HudsonHawk]

I do not loathe the dentist, as I've not had the bad experiences. I'm 53 years old and have never had a cavity (knock on wood). I had my wisdom teeth out, which is when I discovered how great codeine is (does it take away the pain? Nope, but you don't care...stab you in the eye with a fork? Don't care...). My dad has terrible teeth and was on full dentures by the time he was 50, wondering why he hadn't done that 20 years earlier. My mom's are pretty good though, and I had a great-great aunt on her side who was once got a root canal when she was about 90. I asked why on earth she was going through that at her age, why not just pull the tooth, and she said believe it or not, she still had all of her original teeth. She didn't have a lot of long-term goals left in life, but dying with all her teeth was one. I guess I got that tooth gene.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Will definitely do that. I had my wisdom teeth taken out in college and it wasn't fun!

I was also in college when I had my wisdom teeth removed (come to think of it, I was in college when I had my appendix removed as well...I sorta broke down all at once, I guess), and had to go take a stratigraphy exam later that evening, while on the codeine. I still don't remember a word of that exam. I passed the class though, so I guess I got some of it correct.

 

[AmateisGal]

UPDATE!

The surgery was a success. Took out four teeth, and put in two implants. The implant process takes a few months as you have to put in the screw thingy first, and then wait until the bone grafts to it, and then get the abutment, and then the crown. Quite the ordeal.

ANYWAY. They put me in a sort of twilight IV sedation so I was kind of awake and kind of not, but didn't feel anything. The pain has been pretty manageable, which astonished me, and I've been eating soft foods. It's hard because I had extractions on both sides of my mouth, so I can't just eat on one side.

I've been in bed all day, watching a few classic movies, and will likely do the same tomorrow.

Three of the teeth had all had root canals done, and they *still* went bad. That is just frustrating. My mom has bad teeth, despite going to the dentist constantly, and flossing and doing everything right. Just the luck of the draw, I guess.

Anyway, I survived, and am now $5k poorer.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

Anyway, I survived, and am now $5k poorer.

Look on the bright side; the dentist can now upgrade his golf club membership.