Dentist Experiences

[Bungleau]

Two experiences, one nasty and the other funny.

In the nasty one, my mom's dentist when I was growing up was the reason I didn't go to a dentist for over ten years. He was working on me for something or another (filling, probably), and I was crying because it hurt. He stepped back and literally said, "What are you crying for? That doesn't hurt!" Made me feel like an idiot and a baby (at age eleven or twelve, IIRC). When I finally got back to seeing a dentist, I explained my situation and fears of pain in my mouth, and my dentist has worked wonders with me since then. In fact, got a checkup in a couple of weeks...

The funny one is that I had all four wisdom teeth removed at the same time. The guy who removed them? Doctor Fear.... Offered me the chance of local or general anasthetic. I told him to knock me out, and I went from "ten... nine... eight... " to "what's this cotton you're pulling out of my mouth?" Best decision I ever made regarding dentistry.

[Aelia Jusa]

I'm not afraid of the dentist but I have had some nto so nice things done. I've had a total of 8 teeth out, four because my mouth is way too small for all my teeth so I had some out and had retainers. And my two bottom wisdom teeth and the two next to the wisdom teeth on the top (I would have had the wisdom teeth out on the top but they were too far up and it would have been dangerous to get them out). I also had the wisdom teeth out because my mouth is too small, they were coming through and wrecking my nicely straightened teeth. I think the worst thing about my dentist is for some reason he is really bad at doing needles - they hurt so much. Another dentist I've been to it didn't hurt at all getting the needle. Getting my wisdom teeth out was scary though, they weren't impacted so I had them out under local anasthetic, which wasn't too pleasant as I could hear all his commentary - 'this one's a toughy isn't it! Let's get the drill!' . And I had one side out at one time, then two weeks later the other side. So I knew exactly what to expect - scary. The worst thing about that was the swelling though! I looked like a chipmunk. Which would have been fine but I had to go get an ultrasound two days after I had one side done - going out with one cheek puffed out isn't a good look

The thing I hate the most though is impressions! Ugh!

[Horatio]

Originally posted by Nevaeh: Thanks Kaltia showed me here.

Don't worry, I won't hold it against you [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Epona]

Are you sure you want to hear all these tales of woe Wendy?

My story: I had to have a filling and had an injection. The dentist accidentally hit the main nerve in my jaw with the needle and injected into the nerve. It hurt like HELL and I was numb from the mid torso and elbow on the right hand side of my body right to the top of my head for nearly 2 days afterwards.

An exes story: He went to the dentist for fairly minor root canal surgery. The dentist was supposed to cut the gum open, do a little work, 2 stitches to sew him back up, no worries. What happened was that the dentist slipped with the scalpel and cut through the soft palate into the sinus cavity. There was blood everywhere - going down his throat nearly choking him, pouring out of his nose, blood on the floor, on him, on the dentist. It required 8 stitches to sew up the gash, he couldn't eat for a week due to the risk of food causing infection in the sinuses, couldn't swallow, sniff, or blow his nose, and he was in immense pain for days afterwards. I saw him 5 days after the 'surgery' and he looked like he'd gone 5 rounds with Mike Tyson.

[ 05-22-2003, 05:33 PM: Message edited by: Epona ]

[Sir Goulum]

Well, I just got 4 teeth pulled yesterday...nothing too bad about that. I actually can't think of anything bad happening to me at the dentist, other than nothing to watch on their TV's [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Talthyr Malkaviel]

Coincedence, today I had a large tooth right at the back pulled out.
That wasn't so bad, the dentist's main concern was that they had to do 2 sets of the normal double injection at the base of the gums near the tooth and somewhere else, and after that a series of smaller ones all the way around the tooth.
Even after all this, I could still feel in the supposedly numbed area to some extent, not as much as the non numb side, but still a great deal.

As I said though, that didn't hurt really.

However, considering that I'm fairly large and it took many injections to get me close to a good stage to do dentistry on, that ties in with my horror account.

They gave me one set of the two small injections, only two. I could still feel a damn lot, my mouth just felt tingly in that region, and they started drilling pretty much straightaway, and in a fair few places.

Ow.

[Ladyzekke]

Wow thanks to yall who replied. Makes me feel a bit better knowing I'm not alone! [img]smile.gif[/img]

As for my recent dental experience, well, I need to start at the beginning I think. (warning - boring details ahead).:

7 years ago, while at the dentist, I decided to ask my dentist if he could fix this one front tooth. It had been chipped when I was 13, and patched a few times, a few different ways, for years. But the patches seemed to stain, and because of so many done the tooth also looked kinda fat. I hated it basically LOL. So he told me he could put a porcelain crown on it, real nice, white, realistic looking, etc. BUT. If I opted for white it may not match my other teeth. Well I started thinking. I also had two teeth, both second over from the "two fronts", that were crooked. One turned in slightly, the other turned out a lot. Hated them LOL. Healthy teeth though, especially the one that turn outwards, cause it kinda stayed away from the other teeth I reckon LOL. So I asked the dentist, if I do all six front teeth, could you also fix the crooked part? He said yes. So I did it. Didn't know though they drill your teeth to nubs first, then put on the crowns attached to the nubs/roots. Was OK with the tooth that was all patched up, but I must say it was kinda sad knowing he was drilling perfectly healthy teeth to nubs, but hey, I asked for it! Well he gets to this one tooth while drilling down, and tells me he accidentally nicked the nerve while drilling, and is afraid it may give me pain later, so he wants to do a root canal (remove the nerve). Well of course at this point, mouth open, nubs and shards LOL, I tell him yes go ahead, cause crap knows I don't want to feel pain later either, and he already nicked it so no use complaining. It was a four hour procedure, and when he was done he fitted me with these temporary crowns, and they were frikken yellowy too! LOL, maybe he was out of the white ones, or maybe he wanted my permanent crowns to look that much better after being yellow for two weeks LOL. Who knows, all I know is I kept my mouth closed mostly during those two weeks LOL. Anyways, in the end I got my white porcelain ones in and all was great, this was 7 years ago. Only thing is I noticed I couldn't get floss through this one crack between the teeth, seemed there was porcelain in the crack. I didn't worry about it though, you couldn't see it except for up close.

Well. Since then on and off I have tried to floss through that crack LOL. And I remember Tuesday at work I ate a salad and decided to floss at my desk. Then. Wednesday morning, I wake up, go to the bathroom mirror, and my tooth is so loose, pushing so far out, it is going to fall out any minute. Well I haven't been to my dentist in two years, and he is not really very close anymore since we moved, so I decide to go to another dentist, one only a mile or so away. I'm thinking he can just glue or solder it back on LOL. Nope. He says there is nothing for him to glue onto properly, nothing of the tooth left to anchor on. He seemed very surprised it had hung on for 7 years. So of course now I'm thinking about that bit of porcelain in the crack, I bet that I finally flossed through it, and it was basically what was holding up the tooth. I bet the dentist drilled the tooth down to where he wanted it, but then nicked the nerve. doh! Had no choice though but root canal it, which meant MORE drilling of the tooth. So he compensated for it by probably adding extra stuff to keep my tooth up.

So anyways, this new dentist told me I could (a) have him use a pin and put the tooth back in, but it would probably start slipping in a few DAYS, for $412.00.... Well I told him that was a bit much for just a few days! Then he told me well, since the tooth fits so well, you could use PolyGrip to keep in until you decide what you want to do to get a permanent crown solution. Then he actually popped my tooth back in with Polygrip, and it is sticking. So yeah, better than paying $412.00 for some contraption that may start falling down and making it hard to eat.

His permanent solution were two things, one a bridge, and one an implant. Both cost huge amounts! And I kept asking him what would be best, a bridge or an implant, and he never replied anything but "its up to you." [img]tongue.gif[/img] dunno.. Seems the bridge is the less painful maybe, as the Implant is basically them drilling a screw into your jawbone. Then you have to wait SIX weeks for your jawbone to heal, then you go back and they mold a crown and literally screw it on. Ack, drilling into the jawbone, that wasn't what I ordered when I was looking at the Menu!

So I don't know what to do at this point. I think I've decided to go back to the dentist who did the work 7 years ago, even if it is a longer drive to get to his office. Maybe he will be able to fix it the way he did before and I won't have to do the Bridge or Implant. Either way, until then, I'm literally using my crown tooth as a denture LOL. Those commercials they show for PolyGrip and such are bogus too LOL, no frikken WAY I could bite into an apple!

I'm trying though to not let this get to me. I'm trying to find humor in it. I can't help myself, sometimes when friends visit I take my tooth out and grin all redneck like LOL, usually I work my neck too for emphasis LOL. Hey, it's laugh or cry LOL. [img]tongue.gif[/img] [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 05-22-2003, 08:51 PM: Message edited by: ladyzekke ]

[Bungleau]

I'm with you, Talkyr...

I've got three crowns, and the first one set the stage for the rest.

Dentist gave me a shot of something, let it take effect, then started working. A minute or two later, he was surprised when I felt something. Pulled out, gave me another shot, wait, repeat. Third shot was of a different kind of anasthesia, as was the fourth. By the time we got to the sixth (no kidding!), I told him to just go ahead and do it, and I'd just grit my way through it.

The procedure since then is simple: I arrive 30 minutes early and get two shots, one each of two different kinds of anasthesia. Wait thirty minutes, and then he goes to work. Haven't felt anything since... gotta love a dentist who pays attention to you.

[D W Washburn]

I suddenly want to go t the dentist

[Sir Goulum]

Originally posted by D W Washburn: I suddenly want to go t the dentist

Don't we all! [img]tongue.gif[/img]