root canals aren't so much painful as they are tedious
― omar little, Thursday, 24 April 2008 19:19 (sixteen years ago) link
i felt like i was sitting there forever. bored out of my skull as they bored into it.
― omar little, Thursday, 24 April 2008 19:20 (sixteen years ago) link
Wisdom teeth was actually kind of fun with the drugs and all
― Catsupppppppppppppp dude 茄蕃, Thursday, 24 April 2008 19:21 (sixteen years ago) link
i didn't mind getting my one wisdom tooth pulled. it took about thirty seconds.
― omar little, Thursday, 24 April 2008 19:22 (sixteen years ago) link
I didn't get any drugs! My dentist is an asshole.
― ENBB, Thursday, 24 April 2008 19:23 (sixteen years ago) link
I was under completely. When i saw the shit going into my veins my eyes rolled back
― Catsupppppppppppppp dude 茄蕃, Thursday, 24 April 2008 19:23 (sixteen years ago) link
i had four of them pulled, and they had to drill into the center of the lower to break them up for extraction. anesthetics don't work well for me; i woke from the general sobbing in pain.
― remy bean, Thursday, 24 April 2008 19:23 (sixteen years ago) link
omg that sounds awful.
― ENBB, Thursday, 24 April 2008 19:25 (sixteen years ago) link
oof, yea mine were broken up. I woke up and said "when do we start"
― Catsupppppppppppppp dude 茄蕃, Thursday, 24 April 2008 19:27 (sixteen years ago) link
it was pretty terrible. what's worse is that i couldn't have any of the painkillers the next day for reasons of allergy, so i had to try and numb the pain with tylenol, which is about as effective as sugar-water
― remy bean, Thursday, 24 April 2008 19:29 (sixteen years ago) link
i had all four wisdom teeth out, and yeah, my bottom two had to be broken up before extraction. i was still a little bit awake when they started, it felt like the dentist was leaning on my lower jaw with a railroad spike with his full weight. then i went under. pretty freaky.
good luck ENBB!!
― gff, Thursday, 24 April 2008 19:31 (sixteen years ago) link
I can't really comprehend a dentist getting away with putting someone under for a clean up! That's weird.
I was having tooth pain until I went to the dentist, and then after they said that there was nothing wrong, it went. It was probably the guilt of not going for so long.
― jel --, Thursday, 24 April 2008 19:32 (sixteen years ago) link
i woke up sobbing too! but it was after the surgery, at least.
― bell_labs, Thursday, 24 April 2008 19:33 (sixteen years ago) link
I woke up from my laughing gas after having my wisdom teeth taken out, and said "you're so pretty!" to my Grandmother who was sitting across from me waiting for me to wake up. Awww.
Root canals don't hurt nearly as much as the cavity that necessitated my getting a root canal! Ugh.
― Finefinemusic, Thursday, 24 April 2008 19:33 (sixteen years ago) link
my wisdom teeth are all fine and dandy
― El Tomboto, Thursday, 24 April 2008 19:33 (sixteen years ago) link
my friend's brother, an alcoholic/substance abuser, had to be put under for a cleaning after not going to the dentist for several decades.
― lauren, Thursday, 24 April 2008 19:36 (sixteen years ago) link
i go to the dentist 3x/yr. i'm not gonna do the wisdom teeth thing unless absolutely necessary.
― gabbneb, Thursday, 24 April 2008 19:38 (sixteen years ago) link
You're not making me feel better!! See, the wisdom tooth I have to get pulled is already broken so I'm pretty sure it's just going to shatter as soon as they go near it. ugh. I know I have to go but it sucks. Maybe I should get over my fear of being put under.
― ENBB, Thursday, 24 April 2008 19:38 (sixteen years ago) link
I wouldn't have done the wisdom tooth thing either but the one that has been pulled and the one that needs to be pulled both had cavities. The dentist said I have really soft cavity prone teeth. :-(
― ENBB, Thursday, 24 April 2008 19:39 (sixteen years ago) link
Linds my mom had a palate expander! In her late thirties! She had a very narrow jaw, though, and needed it to fit her teeth in (even though she had like 5 pulled). It hurt tons but she lost a fair bit of weight by not being able to eat for a day after every half-turn... o_O
Then she had braces for a while, then one of those clear trays. They told her since she waited until adulthood her teeth will never STAY in place without help, they'll always eventually try to shift back if she stops using the retainer.
― Laurel, Thursday, 24 April 2008 19:40 (sixteen years ago) link
waited until adulthood her teeth will never STAY in place without help, they'll always eventually try to shift back if she stops using the retainer.
I looked into getting invisalign or something like that because I'm so mad that my teeth shifted and was told the same thing.
― ENBB, Thursday, 24 April 2008 19:42 (sixteen years ago) link
Blessedly, Mr. Gladwell makes his point without reference to Oprah, that Great Connector in the Sky. Instead, he does a splendid job describing mere mortals such as Texas economist (and "Maven") Mark Alpert: avid reader of Consumer Reports , electronics wizard, evangelist and all-around know-it-all, a paragon of the "pathologically helpful." You know the type: hell at dinner parties; heaven when you're shopping for a car, or need emergency Yankees tickets. Walking data banks like Mr. Alpert–along with the Connectors, and the Salesmen–are crucial to the spread of social epidemic. Together they explain why the New York family in need of orthodontia will end up, sooner or later, in the office of Marc Lemchen, D.M.D., P.C., Park Avenue at 62nd Street (570-2333).
looool
― gabbneb, Thursday, 24 April 2008 19:44 (sixteen years ago) link
ENBB, I had my wisdom teeth pulled under general anesthesia and had no problems at all. Sobbing (also laughing) after any kind of anesthetic is very common and generally not related to pain but as a reaction to the drugs. My younger sister is deathly afraid of going under, and had all 4 wisdom teeth pulled in the same session while wide awake - she prepared with some self-hypnosis and I think acupuncture.
― Jaq, Thursday, 24 April 2008 19:51 (sixteen years ago) link
i'm a big fan of being unconscious whenever possible.
yesssss. except that when i woke up, the anaesthetic make me puke, which is mildly unpleasant after having yr wisdom teeth pulled. other than that, it wasn't bad at all.
i was in high school and had to read 'canticle for leibowitz' during my recovery, which was kind of a downer.
― mookieproof, Thursday, 24 April 2008 20:30 (sixteen years ago) link
i should get another retainer
― rrrobyn, Thursday, 24 April 2008 20:37 (sixteen years ago) link
i think teeth & jaw just shift around no matter what, right? but yeah i'm pretty o_O abt going to the orthodontist as an adult i remember this pink putty tray thing they put in to take impressions and it tasted like mint+plastic+cement but there was something sort of satisfying about the way it went schlock!fhup! when they pulled it out. obv they wld have to use that again. also the around-the-head xray.
― rrrobyn, Thursday, 24 April 2008 20:45 (sixteen years ago) link
if i actually had money i wld be all about this and skin lasers
― rrrobyn, Thursday, 24 April 2008 20:46 (sixteen years ago) link
and some other stuff
― rrrobyn, Thursday, 24 April 2008 20:47 (sixteen years ago) link
sometimes when you have pain and think you have cavities, it's actually just really sensitive teeth which may or may not be related to gum issues which may or may not be caused by having too much plaque which may or may not easily go away.
― dan selzer, Thursday, 24 April 2008 20:47 (sixteen years ago) link
boob job? xpost
― bell_labs, Thursday, 24 April 2008 20:48 (sixteen years ago) link
yeah anyways i'd try the lasers too. and ass implants, obvs.
― bell_labs, Thursday, 24 April 2008 20:51 (sixteen years ago) link
how about boobs in your teeth that would be fun
― Mr. Que, Thursday, 24 April 2008 20:51 (sixteen years ago) link
i wanna get diamonds implanted in my nips
― bell_labs, Thursday, 24 April 2008 20:52 (sixteen years ago) link
my boobs should get jobs!
― rrrobyn, Thursday, 24 April 2008 20:55 (sixteen years ago) link
to pay for my orthodontics
― rrrobyn, Thursday, 24 April 2008 20:57 (sixteen years ago) link
i don't know what kind of applicable skills and abilities they have tho. i mean their resume is all "1989 - 2008 - sitting there, wearing shirts, getting in the way, sometimes being awesome, yknow whatever"
― rrrobyn, Thursday, 24 April 2008 20:59 (sixteen years ago) link
I had all four wisdom teeth pulled over the summer, and my mom went with me so that she could drive me home. The doctor showed us the calculation: $175 per tooth without sedation, $800 with (or maybe it was a package deal--I can't remember, and my mom and I looked at each other and decided to go forgo the savings. It was fine, really, the worst part was hearing the loud crack!s. The dentist also advised against sedation--he said it wasn't really necessary.
― Virginia Plain, Friday, 25 April 2008 02:45 (sixteen years ago) link
i went to the dentist today. i nearly fainted when he showed me the fee schedule of what my procedures (which i still haven't had done) would cost. i'm thinking i'll just wait until that dream job with the dental plan comes through. dear democrat presidential candidates: you better be serious about universal health care.
the more dentists i see, the more convinced i am that they're all snake-oil salesmen.
― get bent, Friday, 25 April 2008 03:17 (sixteen years ago) link
I think you're right.
When I finally went to one about 18 months ago, he said I had a hairline fracture of my right rearmost molar, should be crowned, etc., only cost $600 if you want to go ahead and do it, blah blah. It's never given me a minute of trouble so I said no thanks. Oh and three cavities mysteriously turned into four when the filling started.
― Rock Hardy, Friday, 25 April 2008 03:25 (sixteen years ago) link
has anyone used care credit (or whatever it's called)? seems like a ripoff even if you go for the "no interest" option -- it's still around 22% APR, and if you want the extended payment option the interest is 11% on top of that. on the plus side, it comes in handy if the dentist wants all the money upfront and you don't actually HAVE the money.
― get bent, Friday, 25 April 2008 03:26 (sixteen years ago) link
Oh wow. I thought I had contributed to every teeth thread ever.
I didn't go to the dentist for, like, 14 years. Basically as soon as they took the braces off and I went to college I just never went to a dentist, probably from a residual resentment of my creepy twin brother orthodontists.
When I went, about five years ago (because a tooth just broke into a zillion pieces while I was eating)I eneded up having four cavities (and fillings) and three root canals.
My wisdom teeth never came in and never became impacted, so I guess I lucked out. I didn't get (wasn't offered) general anaesthetia for the root canals - just the basic huge needle filled with numbiness shot into four or five gum areas. Oh and a crown for the shattered tooth. I had it all done in a three or four month time period - so, I was at the dentists or the oral surgeons, once a week for many weeks. it wasn't that bad! maybe I felt empowered by having it all done at once - like, I've been avoiding this for so many years, and now I'm really taking care of business!
I also had the palette widener, which actually has made my teeth more fucked up (and i will repeat - creepy twin brother orthodontists). My dentist(s) are always trying to get me to go to an orthodontist and get braces again. I went, once, a few years ago, and the guy suggested breaking my jaw and re-setting it to get my teeth aligned. Uh...no. I mean, what the fuck - it's the twenty first century! Break my jaw?! (Also, if something that drastic has to happen I would prefer going down after some gigantic brawl.)
So, not sure if any of this is helpful, but I didn't suffer all that much through the months of weekly fillings and/or root canals.
― aimurchie, Friday, 25 April 2008 13:25 (sixteen years ago) link
oh man i had kind of major emotional spaz yesterday b/c of profound realization of jaw misalignment issues which have become more pronounced in the past year but also come and go and have something to do with neuromuscular issue of some sort (involves some tmj pain and even intermittent numbness/drooping/crookedness of one side of face. fun! dumb.) so anyway i called a recommended orthodontist and they were like, well, since you're not a still-growing teenager and this is a jaw issue and not a teeth issue, then here's the number of the maxillofacial surgeon we work with. aaah! so i looked into it more and am going to try to avoid the major surgery on jaw route thanks... b/c it wld seem the misalignment actually gets better when i do yoga every day and exercise. which seems weird to me but hey. am going to see what accupuncture & chiropractic stuff do b/c wtf. also i am using my left hand on the mouse! it is weird that is all
― rrrobyn, Tuesday, 29 April 2008 20:51 (sixteen years ago) link
rrrobyn i feel you on all of that. tmj may be causing a bunch of problems for me, but nobody can really say for sure if it's tmj cause they don't KNOW very much about it and i would NOT trust any of them doing surgery on my jaw or my spine or whatever it is that's fucked up.
― bell_labs, Tuesday, 29 April 2008 20:56 (sixteen years ago) link
myosfacial pain is making me a really unpleasant person to be around these days.
― bell_labs, Tuesday, 29 April 2008 20:57 (sixteen years ago) link
Wow, that's really saying something! My chronic foot pain just makes me look like a whiny whimp for not wanting to walk places. :D
― Laurel, Tuesday, 29 April 2008 21:02 (sixteen years ago) link
aw man :( yeah i'm getting on it now b/c it's only going to get worse and also i've got a job with a decent insurance plan. and omg i had like 6 years of high-quality orthodontic treatment via braces and appliances etc when i was a teenager - my jaw should be perfect! so yeah wtf will re-align self in whatever ways possible xpost pain blows - i am all about doing anything to not have it. like dudes i am off the beer and the wheat and the sugar even.
― rrrobyn, Tuesday, 29 April 2008 21:08 (sixteen years ago) link
see, beer is one of those things that i think helps more than it hurts :D
i am getting an MRI in like, one hour. if they can't figure out how to fix me after this i will be all over the alternative medicines.
― bell_labs, Tuesday, 29 April 2008 21:11 (sixteen years ago) link
my dentist appointment is in less than one hour. terrifying.
― bell_labs, Thursday, 15 May 2008 14:36 (sixteen years ago) link
A cleaning or check-up or what? I can imagine you being terrified at a head-lice search.
― wanko ergo sum, Thursday, 15 May 2008 14:40 (sixteen years ago) link
cleaning & check up but i haven't been in 4-5 years. but i don't know what you are implying about my hygeine w/ the lice thing.
― bell_labs, Thursday, 15 May 2008 14:42 (sixteen years ago) link