Ask Your Dentist

[Daisy Buchanan]

LMAO!!

I don't know about you but I love my job. And I am very preventative oriented. These stories just kill me sometimes.

I'm just totally laughing that we made that evolution comment at the EXACT same time!!
Yeah, these stories are ridiculous. People are always looking to blame someone else for their own doing. I mean come on, not going to the dentist for 10 years!! Gosh, that's disgusting!! It's sheer ignorance too if anyone feels sympathy for her having such high expenses now. If she didn't have the brains to go for cleanings regularly, do you really think that she had the brains to properly take care of her teeth?? Any person who needs a mouth full of crowns then complains about the cost is just silly. If they had taken care of their teeth from the get go, they wouldn't need to spend the money on the crowns. People have no idea. I am so frustrated!!
Ugh, I could tell stories of things that would gross people out beyond belief!! I'm sure you can too. I love the patients who come in, haven't been to a dentist in decades, they say "my teeth are brown, can you whiten them" you take a look, and tell them that once you do a quadrant scaling, if they have any teeth left under the piles of hardened crap that's on them, get control of the 10 mm pockets, them maybe we'll talk about whitening. They get all ticked off, they say that it's all a scam and there teeth just need to be whitened. Good luck buddy!! That wouldn't actually fall under the category of tooth whitening, but goop whitening. Please, will you whiten my dirty hunks of calculus!! Ugh!! Some people!!

 

[Real Swell Gal]

My doc that I work with is a colonel and he's getting ready to retire.
I want to get him a shirt that says "I love the smell of eugenol early in the morning".

The patients I love are the ones that swear they brush and floss everyday and thenn their gums bleed like a stuck pig as soon as you touch them with a probe. And they have that lovely tartar "bridge" on their lower ants.
ROFLMAO!
With the Security Forces kids we always get the Mountain Dew and ciggie smiles. They don't understand they might as well dump acid on their teeth.

Here is something you'll appreciate.
I made my doc a carrot cake for his birthday and forgot a knife.
Whatever is a dentist to do?

Cut it with dental floss of course!!

 

[MrBern]

The article also mentions that more families are using an annual vacation to take care of annual dental visits. The savings on the dental care offsets the vacay costs. Not everyone copes well w/ the anxiety & pain associated w/ a dental trip. Being on vacation seems to offset the negatives. I have also read about people going to SouthAmerica for dental work & plastic surgery.

To allay new customers’ fears, many dentists abroad, some of whom have trained in the United States and use the same equipment as American dentists, rely heavily on word of mouth from satisfied customers. Their Web sites include testimonials, and stateside references are provided.

OK read the article!! These people hadn't received dental care in over 10 years!!! Of course they need work done!! Brushing ones teeth at home is never enough to prevent cavities and other problems, only routine cleanings and dental care will prevent. These people weren't taken preventative measures. If they had gone to the dentist for a once a year cleaning, they wouldn't have had such high dental bills. It's not a problem with the system. It's a problem of sheer ignorance!! This hair dresser probably wouldn't go for 10 years without a hair cut, yet she didn't see a dentist for 10 years!! Then she says it's because of a lack of insurance. Well, it would've been much more economical for her to have invested in that insurance and gone for a 6 month or one year check up, or even more economical if she had paid out of pocket for cleanings and checkups once a year. You make it sound as if it's the dentist fault that she needed this large amount of dental work, and that it was gonna cost her hard working hands so much money. Nope, it's her own dumb fault for not going in for regular check ups. Her big bills are nobodies fault but her own!! Would've been cheaper for her to have paid for her own insurance. Gosh, if she hasn't been to the dentist in that long I wonder if she ever bothered to bring her children?? Some people!! Yet somehow it's the dentists fault that the bill is so how?? Common sense people!! You are the masters of your own destiny!!!
All I can say is, you get what you pay for!! Like I've said, I've grown up in a dental office. It seems that you hear one bad thing, one bad experience, one vaguely documented case, and you forget about all the good things.
Would you go to Mexico for heart surgery??
You are all giving dentists really bad names.
Also, I hear so many people complaining about the motives of doctors in general. Well, one day insurance premiums for doctors are gonna be so high, that there won't be enough to treat everyone. I'd like to hear you complain when you need to be treated for an incurable illness yet can't get an appointment. It's the same for dentists. Imagine the next time you get a toothache and you can't find someone to fix it for you??
Things cost money. I know from experience the amount of hard work that goes into being a dentist and running a private practice. It's no cake walk. So, look at the cold hard facts instead of a 1 in 1 billion article that's not even based on actually true evidence. Complain all you want about the cost of dental care, but if you took proper care of your teeth to begin with, you might not be paying that. It's so frustrating to hear people constantly jumping to conclusions about doctors, especially when they know very little of the situation..


Jayem, we are seeing a major influx of people born without buds of wisdom teeth. It's almost proof of evolution, IMO!! I mean, it's something that we have no use for, so it's as if our bodies are weeding them out. I wish I wasn't born with them!! Mine were so impacted into my jaw and twisted around one of my sinuses, so I had to go into the hospital to get them out. But, I honestly don't remember a thing except the really good feeling of the medicine going into my arm and crashing the blood brain barrier, causing me to feel nicer than I'd ever felt!! Apparently just before I passed out I grabbed the doctors butt and asked him if he worked out!! Very embarrassing considering he was a friend of my Dad's!! ooops
I'd ask for percocet over vicoden, they are stronger and work much better. But, that's just my opinion and some docs won't prescribe it because it's a higher schedule narcotic than vicoden. But, if you've never taken pain meds before vicoden will work just fine. I've been on pain management now for Crohn's for 7 years now, so I've got a bit of a tolerance for these things. Kind of stinks, for the last surgery I had they had a lot of trouble knocking me out, then when I woke up in pain they were giving me enough dilauded to knock out a horse, and I was still feeling pain. Dialuded is 100x stronger than morphine, just to give you an idea of the tolerance I've got now.
But anyway, point being, you won't feel a thing, and doctors do not want patients in pain, so they will give you adequate pain management for when you get home.
I had all 4 removed at once and went to work 2 days later, only had to take pain meds the first night. Just make sure that you follow the after care instructions, and take care in cleaning the area. You'll do just fine

 

[TraditionalFrog]

Wisdom Teeth.... ewwwww (think Lucy Ricardo)!

My mum had to have some of hers extracted. Not sure about my father.

Thankfully, I never developed wisdom teeth! Believe me, surprised a dentist I had as well.

Not sure about dental insurance on "white" fillings.... but my dentist only uses the white fillings based on safety concerns and the fact (according to the dentist) they wear better and last longer. My insurance has always paid up and never given me any problem.

Most fillings I had were the silver/mercury type, but most were put in when I was a child and teen. They were eroding or starting to and had to be redone. The dentist replaced them with the newer "white" ones. I actually miss the older vintage type metal fillings. Alas, I really had no choice unless I went to another dentist. Which for certain reasons I really didn't want to.

As an aside... I wonder why they call them wisdom teeth?

 

[jayem]

I haven't been to a dentist in 4 years. I would love to make an appointment, but you can blame no insurance on this one. I'm kind of moseying on in life by pure luck. Knock on wood I never chip a tooth or break a bone...

 

[scotrace]

Mee tooooooo *eeeeeeeeeeeeekkk*!

Waiting until one crosses thirty is a bad idea dot com. (wisdom teeth out)

Ghastly experience. Worse than having disintegrated discs removed from my spine!

I see my dentist every six months.* Maniacal flosser... my mum didn't see a dentist for 30+ years out of sheer unreasonable fear, and the accumulated poisons to her system contributed directly to her death at 68. Scrimp, borrow, steal if you have to, but keep up with the dental care.

* Read LizzieMaine's book for the great backstory to twice-yearly dentist visits.

 

[gluegungeisha]

Wisdom Teeth.... ewwwww (think Lucy Ricardo)!

My mum had to have some of hers extracted. Not sure about my father.

Thankfully, I never developed wisdom teeth! Believe me, surprised a dentist I had as well.

...

As an aside... I wonder why they call them wisdom teeth?

Oh, you are so lucky!

My mother never had hers out. They're somewhere in her ears right now.

However, I'm a different story...I endured 4 years of orthodontia (expander, braces, retainer) to fix the fact that I've got big teeth and a small jaw. If I let my wisdom teeth grow in, all that work would be ruined. I definitely didn't get braces for pure cosmetic purposes, either -- the first orthodontist I saw for a consultation was recommending jaw surgery! I panicked and ran straight to the best orthodontist in my city.

There really is nothing wise about wisdom teeth. One of the main causes of death for pleistocene man was the complications that arose when their wisdom teeth grew in.

 

[Twitch]

It is great to know there are some experienced people from the dental field to ask questions to!

I would think that if you went to one of those "credit dentists" and they told you it would take 10 days to get your dental work made you'd go with it. I've gotten a crown and scheduled appointments like 8 days apart for convenience and/or what they had open.

And don't forget that people like me who take blood thinners or even daily aspirin bleed like crazy from gums or even a scratch from the garden

 

[Feraud]

I haven't been to a dentist in 4 years. I would love to make an appointment, but you can blame no insurance on this one. I'm kind of moseying on in life by pure luck. Knock on wood I never chip a tooth or break a bone...

Maybe you can find one of those altruistic dentists to provide basic preventative dental maintenance..

 

[solstice]

i am so frightened of going to a dentist that reading this thread has almost totally freaked me out. I think I found a good one to go to though, and he evidently tests materials to use, like for fillings and other things, for compatibility with each patient.
He uses no mercury, and is a holistic dentist with many years of experience. To remove mercury is evidently toxic, and some special procedures are involved in order not to affect the patient and the dentist with the mercury. Part of that is a rubber dam, maybe, and I have a terrible gag reflex, so I am scared to go.
Is there something the patient can do to stop that dental gagging thing?

 

[Real Swell Gal]

I guess I'm still so shocked at all the things people actually believe. I'm not trying to start a huge debate here but I think people should actually do some research before jumping to conclusions.

1. Composite fillings ARE NOT stronger than amalgam. PERIOD.
They shrink and they do not take the punishment that amalgam can take.

2. It is NOT dangerous to remove old amalgam fillings. I do it everyday.
You do not need a rubber dam to remove amalgam however it is nicer because you don't have all that debris flying around. I am very spoiled by rubber dams because I don't have to worry about where my suction tip goes but they are mandatory in the military.
We do not mix amalgam with our hands in this day and age. When docs did that there was more risk that the mercury would not be measured as precisely.
Every amalgam capsule (called spills) are precisely measured and packaged in a little sealed capsule according to weight. That way you can mix as much or little as you need.Big filling,3 spill. Small filling,1 or 2 spill. An amalgamator is used to mix the amalgam in a soft putty that is packed into the tooth. Scrap is then stored in a certian type of container untill it can be recycled. In private practice a guy would come around about once a year and weigh it and take it away. At the base they have environmental people that come do it.
There are more people that are sensitive to the rubber dams and gloves than are sensitive to amalgam.
If I had a dentist that insisted on one filling over another, I would find another dentist.
The biggest danger of removing amalgam is eye safety imo. Your dentist should be making you wear safety glasses when he's working on you or when you are getting your teeth cleaned. It blows me away when people insist they don't need them. At the base they are mandatory.

As far as bleeding goes, if you are on blood thinners we would take that into consideration just like diabetes (causes other problems as well) or any other health concern because as a patient you would have added that to your medical history. Right?
We can tell when people have bad hygiene. You may not think we can but we can. We can also tell when people have hereditary issues rather than bad hygiene.

On to wizzies... They were called Wisdom Teeth because they normally come in at a time when teens were once considered adults. "The age of wisdom".
They are easier to take out when you are younger because the bones are still softer and growing. When you are older the teeth can actually fuse to the bone. The bone is harder and takes more of an effort to cut through.
I did six months in Oral Surgery. We use a special tooth the flake the bone away from impacted teeth called a molt(a 2/4 molt to be exact). If the molt doesn't do the job we use an air driven handpiece to basically drill the excess bone away and split the teeth. ALL of our patients are IV sedated for that procedure. Most of the time they don't remember a thing.

Cute story.. I once had this big bad Marine come in for extractions of his 3rd molars. He was being tough and we got him in the chair and started sedation.
I wasn't part of the team but working as a floater so when he started thrashing around I went over to restrain his hands and he grabbed my hand and would not let go. The doc tried to tell him to stop but I said it was okay and just talked to him during the procedure and let him squeeze my hand. I think the noise bothered him more than anything but when we were done he motioned for paper and pen. I gave him some and he wrote,"I'm sorry if I hurt your hand." I told him I was tougher than that and it was no sweat. Then he wrote "I wanna go bowling." I said, "You're going to bed."
When he came back for follow up he didn't remember anything.

In oral surgery we also did oragnothic surgeries. When people had problems with their jaw we would break it and plate it back together. Sometimes braces and expanders aren't enough. It was amazing to see the difference in people after they healed. They had an easier time chewing their food,fewer TMJ related headaches and sometimes it improves speech.

Contrary to what some people think we are NOT sadists. We do care about our patients and work to calm their fears about having dental work done.
We don't want people to be afraid because that doesn't help our bussiness or your health.
If you have a question, I'll be happy to answer if I can.

 

[solstice]

Real Swell Gal, I was not implying that hygenists or dentists were cruel or otherwise detestable, and I am more worried about my own failings, such as not asking all the appropriate questions or understanding all the answers while freaked out.
Then, there is the possible added risk of getting lead added after removing mercury. ha ha, wouldnt that just be some luck?
Can I see the source for materials if I ask?
My next problem is how to ask questions before arriving in the office. Dental offices do not seem to want to give any information over the telephone.

 

[Twitch]

I've had most of my older amalgms replaced over the last 10 years because they deteriorate to the point of cracking and needing replacement. 20 and even 30+ year old fillings don't last forever.

My dentist has suggested composites only for teeth where they are appropriate requiring less strength no doubt, not molars. I go with it. And the composites are all OK.

My dentist noticed and asked me right away if I was on thinners. He could tell. I'm sure some dentists don't care or maybe don't worry about it.

I wish I could share my relaxed feeling in my dentist's office with those who don't have it. I know it's not funny and very hard to overcome the various obstacles to be comfortable in the chair.

Avoiding the dentist isn't good either cause the longer you stay away the more they'll have to do, hence the more you'll be uncomfortable till you are all fixed up.

Dentists and doctors are no different than car mechanics- some are good and some are not. They have varying skills because they are humans. Don't hesitate to change if you are uncomfortable.

 

[Real Swell Gal]

Real Swell Gal, I was not implying that hygenists or dentists were cruel or otherwise detestable, and I am more worried about my own failings, such as not asking all the appropriate questions or understanding all the answers while freaked out.
Then, there is the possible added risk of getting lead added after removing mercury. ha ha, wouldnt that just be some luck?
Can I see the source for materials if I ask?
My next problem is how to ask questions before arriving in the office. Dental offices do not seem to want to give any information over the telephone.

If that's the case then find another dentist.
In the US a dentist MUST have an MSDS (material safety data sheet) book on file in his office. It tells you all about every chemical or material that he would use. I don't know about other countries.
As Daisy and I have said before you're dentist shouldn't have the time to send work out to countries where lead might be used. If he's asking you to wait weeks and weeks to get something delivered, RUN! And he should know where his stuff is being made.
I'm basically gonna call B/S on these stories about sending stuff to China.
Maybe a few dentists have done it but I'm willing to bet anything you want those are isolated cases.
Write your questions down and then write down his answers. That's what I do. I recently had surgery and I had to take notes so I would know what to tell my family.

And Twitch you are right not every doctor graduates at the top of his class.

Here is an ADA link on amalgam

http://www.ada.org/prof/resources/topics/amalgam.asp