i have not been to a dentist in probably 10 years

I am so disappointed that I only have the two requisite canines instead of three now. I hope that I can specify that my dental implant is a third canine again. I would not look like myself without it.

When are the tip of my nose and eyelids coming back online?

I love this question.

They'll implant a fake tooth that looks like the real one it is replacing.

The tooth it is replacing is my milk tooth canine. However, my adult canine came in where my baby eye tooth was. So they would have to give me another canine. (Or yet more crazy orthodontical surgery and hijinx to move them about which I already endured when I was a child and my adult canine came down in the wrong place, pushing everything out of alignment. Which I really refuse to go through again.)

one of my teeth, evidently in solidarity with WCC, broke off at the gumline while I was chewing gum the other day. having lots of fun getting that situation sorted

Chewing gum? oW! I thought granary bread was fierce enough. Sticky situation. Hope you can get that sorted.

On a related note, when I was about 13 the dentist discovered that one of my canines was actually the milk tooth. They did an x-ray and found that the adult tooth had never descended and for some reason was lying sideways in my gum. After about six months of wearing braces I had surgery where they pulled out the milk tooth, sliced open my gum and essentially rammed the adult tooth into the hole. They said the tooth was actually dead, but was kind of fused to the bone and should last for 5-10 years. It looked normal at first, but gradually got higher and higher compared to all the teeth around it. After 24 years it was still there but my dentist said it needed removing and I had to go to hospital in April to get this done. I now just have a gap where the tooth was. The solution they recommended would cost about £3,000, but I think I'll just do nothing and keep the gap - I put up with a weird looking tooth for so long, I think I can cope with the space.

Ha! I always thought that having a persistent milk tooth was some weird rare thing, but here are 3 people on the thread with adult milk teeth.

i used to have FOUR eye teeth, the adult ones growing from high up the gum over the top of the milk teeth, giving me shark-style layers. then i had the overlapping ones removed. so i guess both of my eye teeth are milk teeth?

I did have five Wisdom teeth, which my dentist reckoned he'd never seen before.

I also had that 'long away from the dent, tooth shatt" thing, it was a Heston Services pie that did it.

I dunno, I remember being back at the dentists, having the fingers in't gob and all that, and thought to myself "Is this really so bad?" and decided no.

So, not phobic, not exactly regarding it as a pleasure, it now rates as 'more desirable than my yearly review'.

Oh, and more recently, I got a gold replacement for the shatttooth. Gril.

If I could get a gold tooth out of this, I would die of happiness. But that would probably cost a bomb, right?

Last time I went to the dentist he gave me a filling with no anaesthetic at all! Apart from a few chair-gripping moments it wasn't too bad, the pain was only temporary. Probably for a bigger filling they'd make more effort, or then again maybe not what with budgets being slashed and all.

We enrolled in a 'dental plan' just so we could get the kids NHS cover (!)

The tooth (actually a filling) was about £120 on top of the 'plan' price..

still pretty cheap from everything i've heard
i mean, dentists here (canada) usually charge over $200 for a cleaning (incl standard xrays) alone

i got my teeth cleaned last week after 2 years of not going to the dentist (no insurance, then just was being lazy abt making an appointment) and everything is good + my teeth are so clean and stain-free! my dentist gave me a deal and i promised to go to the dentist for a cleaning once a year, done and done.

I went today! My dentists love my teeth.

Ha! I always thought that having a persistent milk tooth was some weird rare thing, but here are 3 people on the thread with adult milk teeth.

Tell me about it - it's been quite a relief. Finding NB&S's story particularly reassuring. When I was about the same age (13/14) the dentist said that I should have my remaining milk tooth out, because the tooth above it wasn't coming down. They said they'd attach a chain to it, and gradually pull it down.

I didn't want to have a little chain in my mouth, so I didn't go back to the dentist for 20 years.

Fortunately, when I went to the dentist, there was nothing wrong with my teeth and no more talk of mini chains being put in my mouth. I was bricking it beforehand - going up and down the street in a cold sweat. My milk tooth is still there of course, and from time to time it becomes a little loose, and start getting worried, but then it seems to firm up again. Staying away from granary bread.

any other holders out out there who do not go to the dentist?

Yes I have not been in probably 10 years or more. I know I should go but I am afraid to, plus I don't have a dentist and am not sure how to find one. I'm nervous about finding one I will be comfortable with. I might just give in and go to my parents' dentist that I used to go to even though I never especially liked him. At least he has my file. I don't want to be lectured by him or his dental hygienist, who has lectured me before. I also had a bad experience with him while having my wisdom teeth removed.
Last night I had a terrible dream that my teeth were cracking and in it I thought, Yes, I really should have gone back to the dentist sooner.
I have always been afraid to go to the dentist (as well as the doctor). I did go regularly as a child and for some time after.

Ahhh, the dentist. I got my wisdoms removed and one of them messed up the side of my outermost tooth. The hygenist was poking it and it hurt real bad. I said "ouch" and she said "do you know why this is hurting you?", and I said "yeah because you're poking it!" then kicked her tray over and walked out of the office

did that happen in reality?

frogbs

I last visited the dentist in 2001. I had my wisdoms removed and was scheduled to do some other work, but then I moved and never got around to following up with that.

harsh dentist - they wouldnt let you move? at all?

Neither have I because I know when I get my super large inheritance (pool and pizza for everyone whee!!!) I am getting my teeth done along with the rest of my glamorous lifestyle!!

I know that day is coming.

Every ten years I skip going for a couple years, a mistake that inevitably results in a deep cleaning thus a deep fucking with my bank account.

Me too but I need new veneers put on my teeth and wanted them fixed anyway. It's just that the last time I went to the dentist I got scare stories. I mean, I take care of my teeth but I don't need the abuse.

Dentists and their hygienists tend to take themselves rather seriously.

Like, I had a chipped tooth that I got in high school, because healthy people are physically active and do gymnastics and lift weights.

And he saw my chipped tooth and implied that I was "abused" and you know how condescending that can be.

I broke a molar in Feb and the filling disintegrated two months later; I'm going to have a "three-quarters cap" fitted because it sounds like another filling would just break again. So I have two appointments booked, one to measure it and one to fit it, and I thought "measuring, that should be NBD, right?" but I've just looked it up and actually measuring sounds more horrible than fitting as apparently they drill your tooth down to a stub and then give you a temporary cap for the next fortnight which probably won't even fit right.

It needs done I guess, but the measuring appt is on Friday afternoon, the dentist is shut all weekend so no emergency adjustments, and I have a birthday day out booked on the Monday and I do not want anything to ruin or force me to cancel that :(

Anyone have a cap or a crown fitted before? Am I worrying about nothing or should I postpone?

(PS as per thread title I went ten-ish years without visiting a dentist and my first dental visit after that went fine, but now my teeth seem a bit fucked and I'm scared they'll all fall out before I'm 40, so - hey kids! see your dentist! I have a ridiculously sweet tooth and love sugary drinks tho so all my own fault I guess)

^^^ I didn't go to a dentist between the ages of 18 and 28 and my teeth are fucked up as well - although in a different way. Not realising you have impacted wisdom teeth and the damage they do to the teeth in front = huge fillings and huge bills.

I had to have that done last year aps. If the tooth has been root-treated, as sounds likely, then it's easy - drilling down can't hurt because there's no feeling there. I don't think I even had anaesthetic.

The temporary cap isn't a cap, it's a sort of thin cement that smoothes over the stump and gradually disintegrates over the fortnight until the cap has been made. When it comes to fitting, I can't remember how the cement came off but the cap just gets glued over the stump. Again, I don't think any anaesthetic.

The finished job is indistinguishable from an actual tooth. It feels a little bit weaker, and slightly weird if I'm knackered (presume this reflects something to do with sinuses rather than anything else), but otherwise does the job perfectly well.

In short, it's remarkably painless and you should go ahead imo.

xp should be ok, i have a crown on a molar where i had had a root canal; it was prob ~6 yrs ago but i dont recall the drilling down & fitting being bad really

yea what IK said. my crown has actually come un-cemented twice in the 6 yrs but that is painless too and they jam it back in for free

My total bill from my 4+ years of no dentist came to $610, w/scaling plus two fillings.

― kingkongvsgodzilla, Tuesday, March 10, 2009 12:22 PM (5 years ago) [IP: 144.171.206.112: Washington, United States] Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Didn't learn my lesson as I waited through the whole first Obama administration to go again. Hundreds of dollars of work in the last year. No surprise.

Part of my weird problem was that whenever the receptionists would ask me when to schedule my next appointment for, I wouldn't do it because I didn't know where I would be or what I'd be doing in 6 months. It didn't occur to me that I could reschedule closer to the date of the appointment if that date didn't work for me!

Hmm, I haven't had a root canal... yet. But thanks for the reassurance on the cap itself.

I am also not learning my lesson as I forgot to buy anything to eat for lunch and am going to eat Easter eggs instead of an actual meal.

By "yet" I mean I haven't had a root canal, though one of the links I looked at said they might x-ray you before measuring and give you a root canal there and then if there's decay underneath. Which, urgh.

FFS my temporary cement cap came off the day after surgery on a bank holiday weekend. It doesn't hurt; let's hope it can stay that way until Tuesday at least.

Sigh.

i just got one, on a front tooth, following a small chip in the exterior. i made the mistake of looking over in the mirror, after they finished "preparing" my real tooth for the cap. i felt like i was trapped in a horror movie. now the cap looks fine. the dentist said that the temporary cement they used might just stay permanently, since there's very little "play" in the tooth. i hope that's right. it doesn't hurt when the cap is off, but it's ultra-sensitive and feels lousy, to say nothing of how it looks.

The temporary cap isn't a cap, it's a sort of thin cement that smoothes over the stump and gradually disintegrates
FFS my temporary cement cap came off the day after surgery on a bank holiday weekend

OK, how is anyone meant to eat with this stuff in? The dentist said "don't eat anything too hard" but I lost 80% of it on some mashed potato on Saturday night and the remaining 20% on a cheese sandwich just now, despite trying not to chew on that side. Going back to the dentist tonight to see what he says but I'm not getting the real cap until next Friday and the prospect of trying to feed myself for 9 days without dislodging whatever replacement I get is currently a bit daunting

or maybe he'll say "since it doesn't hurt very much it's fine and you've wasted my time"; most of the back enamel of my tooth is missing but I'm not really clear whether the stuff I can feel with my tongue is tooth-core (everyone's favourite genre) or the dentist's cement.

so many appointments for one tooth! and I am 99% convinced several others are fucked too, so I look forward to repeating the cycle again and again

hope yours is going OK, Daniel!

it's going okay, but i have the same issue you do. i won't put a lot of pressure on the cap, for fear of it falling out (which my dentist warned me could happen, especially with the temporary cement saying in as a hoped-for permanent solution). so that makes eating certain foods, like sandwiches, a real challenge.

how's it going for you, a few hours since this post? i would hate it to have to deal with an exposed "nub" for a day, but maybe it's easier with a back-tooth.

ahem, he put some more putty on but told me I was basically worrying about nothing (though he put it much more nicely than that) because although the outer wall and lid had come off there is apparently a pretty sound core of filling material still there. I'm only having a 3/4 cap, only half the back and one side are missing, so I guess I underestimated what was left behind the half-back

so, now I am suitably ashamed for panicking. I am not really dealing well with the whole tooth breakage, ever-rotting body, reminder of mortality thing tbh, more than any actual physical issues

I hope your fears are similarly unjustified... and that I can make it until next Friday without further incident, psychological or actual. When's your real cap to be fitted?

don't be ashamed, really. i was so horrified and sad about the cap that i can barely describe it, and for the same reasons you mentioned.

my real cap is in. the cement they initially used was supposed to be temporary, in case the "funny feeling" i had in the tooth meant i needed a root canal ("no reason to drill through a new, permanently-cemented cap, if that's the case," is the way my dentist described it). when i went back, she said there was "no play" in the cap or tooth, so she said let's just leave it as-is, and that the temporary cement sometimes works forever. the "funny feeling" has gone away, but i'm constantly aware i've got a cap where my front tooth used to be.

Time for more fillings :( though at least the broken-and-capped tooth mentioned above seems to be doing fine (famous last words, etc).

Anyone have any thoughts on the silver mercury amalgam vs white composite fillings? The thought of mercury in my mouth is a little unnerving (they're right at the back so how it looks doesn't really matter) but it'll be nearly £200 cheaper and I'm probably worrying about nothing. Right? Right??

I wish I had sprung for the white ones. Every once in a while I open my mouth in the mirror and am horrified. I mean it seems silly to pay that much for such a tiny vanity, but if someone told me now "you can pay like $2 a month to not ever have that terrible "oh god my whole mouth is a PIT OF ROTTEN DECAY oh wait" feeling I'd take it.

I have not, however, died, nor gone mad.

Latest bit of fall out from my years of dental inattention was a root canal two weeks ago. Went back in yesterday to have av temporary crown put on. I didn't Google it beforehand so I didn't realize that in order to fit the crown over your damaged tooth, they have to file the tooth down to a nub. So that's a bummer.

In the continuing saga of "spacecadet starts seeing dentists again after many years", just saw a hygienist for the first time since, oh, 1997ish. Way more intense than I remembered, surprised various teeth didn't pop out or snap. Whole mouth feels weird now.

I was of course told to floss more often (I hate flossing, I am really manually un-dextrous and malcoordinated and find the whole thing awkward and anxiety-inducing); also, upsold on an electric toothbrush, though I had been meaning to buy one anyway.

not been in 8 years :(

looking forward to all of mine falling out so i can just do it all by post