I had a long overdue dental appointment today, which was scheduled not because it was long overdue, but because I had a sore on my gum in the floor of my mouth down my my lower right molar on the gum underneath where my wisdom tooth used to be. It didn’t hurt that bad, as you all know I am pretty good with physical pain, but what actually forced me to go is that I am the world’s biggest hypochondriac when it comes to the unknown.
Basically, I can and am walking around with bone spurs in both shoulders and it doesn’t really bother me, but I cough twice and I convince myself I emphysema or lung cancer and so on. So, of course, I was convinced I had oral cancer, gum disease, herpes, HPV, scurvy, and everything else gum related I could find on WebMD.
Turns out it was none of those things. In 1991, while I was stationed in Fulda, I had my wisdom teeth extracted, and it was done with all the precision and care one might expect to receive from an Army dentist in a small barracks in a foreign land. Apparently, they left a shard of my tooth attached to a jaw, which is known as a “bone spicule,” and it took 26 years for it to work its way to the surface.
My doctor, whom I love (Jann Barber- Caring for People Not Just Teeth!) futzed around with that sharp hook-shaped device for a while and bled me, all the while apologizing and then jamming me again with it, told me what it was, and as we were scheduling an appointment to get a cavity filled and have that removed, I reached in, confident it was not cancer, gum disease, herpes, HPV, or scurvy and just a stupid piece of painful bone in my gum, and dug around for a while with my fingernail and pulled it out, saving us both some time and me some money. “Well, I’ve never had anyone do THAT before,” she stated. She’s pretty cool.
So I am pleased to report that I will not be dying of cancer, gum disease, herpes, HPV, scurvy, at least any time soon, and I have to report back to Dr. Jann in a few weeks to have a crown replaced (btw- Dr. Sasseen- that crown you put in in 1987 when I went through the windshield and bit a molar in half finally went bad, and Dr. Jann says she was impressed with your handiwork) and a cavity filled. I also went ahead and scheduled another cleaning in six months and now that I am an adult (WITH A HOUSE! And a GF!) I am going to start going to the dentist regularly like I should.
Unless I get scared and convince myself I have cancer, gum disease, herpes, HPV, scurvy, and then I will cancel my appointments and stay at home paralyzed with fear thinking I am going to die. Because that is how I roll.
schrodingers_cat
I once ran away from a dentist’s chair. I must have been 15 or so. My mom was so embarrassed.
Schlemazel
Ex-bil had a wisdom tooth removed by two dental techs in the Army. They were reading the manual on how to do it while they worked. Long story short, the shattered the tooth & spent the better part of an afternoon picking tooth fragments out of his socket. SO nice to know my Army cares so well for its members
zhena gogolia
Okay, I can tell this is going to be a thread I don’t want to read.
But I have a similar story — little bump in my nose that turned out to be an anatomical anomaly.
Gin & Tonic
Maybe it’s different in other branches, but one of the best dentists I have ever known (and a personal friend) received his training courtesy of the US Navy, for which he had to repay them in the customary manner. The guy has golden hands.
JPL
Glad you survived.
John, I know you don’t always check you email, but greennotgreen has lost the fight with cancer. Her sister is suppose to notify you, when the time to join stuck has come.
Woodrowfan
@JPL: oh. I am so sorry
….
dr. luba
@schrodingers_cat: I bit my dentist. In my defense, I was seven, and she didn’t believe in local anesthesia…….or any anesthesia, at that.
TenguPhule
Quite an interesting life you’ve lived there, John.
/I assume the scurvy is because you hate citrus fruits?
Gin & Tonic
@zhena gogolia: I almost always know exactly when something is serious or not, and sometimes have to convince the medical people. Like on my recent ER visit – I said “I have a broken arm” and the PA interviewing me asked, apparently in all seriousness “how do you know it’s broken?” Um, I know, OK? Trust me on this one.
glory b
I’ve puled one of those out before, although mine must have been closer to the surface because it didn’t take a lifetime to work its way up.
I could feel it with my finger and move it around. It didn’t actually hurt, and I grabbed it with a pair of hemostats (my Mom was a nurse) and pulled it out. It didn’t even bleed that much.
And fuck BS, he was on the Chris Hayes show just now. The topic was the senate trip to the white house (Bernie didn’t go).
They moved on to the republicans and their wish list. BS gives an aside saying, “It shows you how awful the democratic party is that they (repubs) win with this agenda.”
I’ll also note that Chris Hayes, Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell have not mentioned BS’s gaffes of the last week.
I think he wants to rule or ruin (quoting Lincoln about the South).
J R in WV
I just went to the dentist today, after dropping an older pu truck off at a garage a few blocks away. I got a cleaning, and a negative exam, as in nothing wrong.
Now there’s a bump on my gum I’m wondering about. hmmmm??
ETA: I also had my wisdom teeth out in a military facility. The Navy appears to be more professional than some military outfits, they did a pretty good job. I did have some pieces float to the top, but it wasn’t an issue, all happened within the next 6 or 8 months.
glory b
@JPL: Oh no. So sorry.
TenguPhule
@Gin & Tonic:
“The part where its bent the wrong way should be the first clue.”
daize
@JPL: So sorry to hear this. Thinking of friends and family. Thank you for letting us know.
glory b
@J R in WV: Mine was from a wisdom tooth too. Pattern?
Lapassionara
@JPL: sigh!
Quinerly
@JPL:
Oh, so sorry.
Baud
@glory b:
Kos himself seems fed up.
satby
@Baud: I think Wilmer and Mrs. Wilmer are deep cover Russian agents. And Putin is getting his money’s worth.
Felonius Monk
On the topic of Cole:
It’s nice to watch your kids grow up.
Omnes Omnibus
My army dentist was pretty good. He cleaned my teeth every six months and otherwise left me alone. I still have all four wisdom teeth.
Baud
@satby: They did honeymoon there.
Mike in NC
Had a lot of dental work done while in college, including wisdom teeth extracted and four rear molar cavities filled with silver. This was over 30 years ago. Current dentist keeps saying the silver fillings could break up at any time, so I should pay him about $800 each to replace them with crowns. No dental insurance, so that ain’t gonna happen.
debbie
@dr. luba:
Ha! I was 13 when I bit mine. My mom was both embarassed and pissed.
ArchTeryx
@Mike in NC: And then the crowns break, and suddenly that $800 balloons to $4500 for a dental implant, or you start losing teeth.
Keep the fillings as absolutely long as you can, even if the silver has to be replaced with amalgam.
eclare
@Mike in NC: I still have a few silver fillings that were put in about 35 years ago, ain’t broke, not fixing. The fillings will let me know when something needs to be done.
David Spikes
In my 20’s had my wisdom teeth removed. At that time they were experimenting with shattered them with a mini-jackhammer and pulling out the pieces. Procedure went fine, healed fast, it was good. Except for the pieces of tooth that would work to the surface and pop out. Not really painful, more interesting than anything else.
Sab
@debbie: I was fifteen when I bit mine. I didn’t want novocaine because I always chew up my mouth while it’s numb. After I bit him he said henceforth I could chew up my mouth and he wouldn’t care. I sort of agreed with him.
satby
I had tons of shards work through the gums when I had my wisdom teeth pulled. I used tweezers to pull them out. I guess I had really tough teeth, because I still have never had a cavity. Except the one between my ears.
rikyrah
Cole -you are so funny.
JPL
@Quinerly: She posted a few days back that the last treatment didn’t work and has not posted since. Her last comment was that her sister would notify us. She has been fighting the good fight but that doesn’t always work, and yes the her positive comments will be sorely missed.
p.a.
My dentist sent me to the oral surgeon for my wisdom teeth removal (one each lower, no uppers) with this advice, “He’ll try to talk you into doing both at once. Say no, and use the word ‘fuck’ if he keeps trying.”
Got percoset. Took one and decided: fuck this, I’m not wasting this high while I’m in pain. Toughed it out with aspirin.
Sab
My most fun dental work was my junior year abroad in the north of England where the dentist replaced a filling with foot-pumped (not electric) drill, kind of like the foot pumped treadle sewing machine I used in 8th grade home economics class. The dental drill was slow, but at least it didn’t whine much. I loved my treadle sewing machine.
p.a.
@JPL: so sorry.
Olivia
@dr. luba: When I was 6 my dentist told my dad that I bit him and I got beat. He lied. If I had bit him, he would have been missing at least one finger. I hated that man. We lived in a small town and my mom made me go to the appointments alone. I used to not show up for the appointments a lot. He never used novocaine on me but many years later I found out he billed my mom for it. Fucking asshole.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
The only other time I ever ran into the word “spicule” was in reading Ice Station Zebra, which is both a helluva book and movie.
Alistair Maclean seemed to use that word every couple of paragraphs (as in “ice spicules”) to describe the arctic weather conditions. I gather it’s the kind of snowstorm that hurts as it’s blowing in your face. As I grew up in a snowy place, I’m well familiar with those conditions.
So for your bone spicules: a sympathetic “ouch”.
Roger Moore
@Omnes Omnibus:
Every time I hear people’s wisdom tooth horror stories, I am incredibly glad that mine came in without no more trouble than a few gum infections. I even have some space behind my wisdom teeth, though not enough for a fourth set of molars. I like to say that my dentist told me I have a big mouth.
Jeffro
@glory b: I think he feels like he just missed grabbing the brass ring… and of course it’s everyone else’s fault , especially those members of the party he never joined
schrodingers_cat
@Roger Moore: I have a big head. My husband kitteh got me blue tooth headphones for my birthday and they scrunch my ears, now he has to exchange them.
Sab
That will be interesting to discuss with my dentist on my next visit. I had no idea they get bit so much. Almost like being a veterinarian. Of course it’s hard to discuss anything with him while his hands are in my mouth. He doesn’t realize that as he chatters away with non-rhetorical questions.
schrodingers_cat
@Omnes Omnibus: Me2.
gene108
@Olivia:
How the hell can you have dental procedures done, other than teeth cleaning, without Novocain?
Dentist should’ve been sued for malpractice.
He really does sound like a sadistic asshole.
gbbalto
Had all 4 wisdom teeth pulled at once. They were all growing in the wrong direction. They pumped me full of Demerol – I was happy, smiling, they could have pulled all my teeth then and I would have kept smiling.
schrodingers_cat
@Sab: And here I thought I was bad for running away from the dentist’s chair. At least I have never bitten my dentist AFAIK.
efgoldman
My MOS when I went into the Army reserve in 1968 was dental assistant. Not because I was interested, competent or experienced, but because it was the opening they had in the general hospital unit.
I spent most of the six years as a clerk.
Tokyokie
Cole needs to befriend Roberto Benigni and get him to go to the dentist in his place.
efgoldman
@Gin & Tonic:
“It’s not supposed to bend in so many places, dickhead!”
Ceci n est pas mon nym
My most recent dental work was in Denmark last year, when an old filling fell out. They were hesitant about the necessity for novocaine till I told them I’d never had any fillings done without it (what, is getting dental work without anesthetic part of that whole Scandinavian stoicism thing?). Whatever they used lasted from morning, well into the afternoon and evening.
Took them a while to figure out what price to charge a non-citizen but they finally came up with something. Was around 2000 kroner as I recall (about $300) and definitely wasn’t covered by my US insurance, but I have no complaints. In fact I preferred the new filling as it seems to fit my teeth better. I can floss that tooth now, where before I couldn’t.
Gin & Tonic
OMG, this is high-larious. IIRC, our buddy Seb Gorka, PhD[sic] had a Twitter profile that identified him as “Sebastian Gorka, PhD”. There’s been a solid story floating around today calling that credential seriously into question. His Twitter profile now is “Sebastian Gorka DrG.” I have no idea what “DrG” is intended to mean.
Sab
@schrodingers_cat: I only bit him the one time and I did feel bad about it.
My elderly dog tried to bite the vet every chance she got and I am am quite sure she had no regrets.
TenguPhule
@gbbalto: And after it wore off?
Gin & Tonic
@efgoldman: I was nicer.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@efgoldman:
Heh. Had my hair done at sea on a Navy ship by the ship’s barber once. He was very excited to work on actual longish hair. It was about as expert a job as you’d expect from some kid who’d never done much of anything but shave heads.
(I was a contractor, we were working very long hours with no downtime, and my hair was already shaggy and overdue for a cut when I got out there. So even I was tired of it when it got time for the sea trials of our system and we were already 2 weeks past when I’d planned on going back home)
StringOnAStick
I found out today that my one root canaled tooth is showing resorption of the root, which may mean it is a goner and an implant is indicated. I guess I will see what the endodontist has to say. I’m a dental hygienist so I know I took proper care of it and all the rest of them, sometimes that’s just the way it goes.
I’ve only been bitten once, by a teen who fell asleep and her jaw snapped shut. That hurt!
gbbalto
@TenguPhule: Somewhat less pleasant – a lot less pleasant – but fortunately no complications.
Sab
@Sab: My English filling is still there. Went in in 1975 or 1976.
CaseyL
@JPL: Oh, no. I’m really sorry to hear that. Greennotgreen was another gardener who loved to share tales of their sweet growing things.
efgoldman
@Jeffro:
Three million votes is not “just missed.”
He’s had his day almost in the sun. He’ll be, what, 78 next cycle? Even if he wants to run again, he’ll be a footnote.
As for Stein and West: for people with a ton of education, the stupid runs very, very strong with them.
Chyron HR
@efgoldman:
Yeah, but if you take away the black votes he won in a landslide.
Sab
@StringOnAStick: We are a weird pack of jackals. I can’l think of anywhere on the Internet with such an eclectic mix of professions. I do seasonal tax prep and otherwise eldercare.
Steeplejack
@schrodingers_cat:
Happy birthday! (Was it today?)
Gin & Tonic
@Steeplejack: Today was the 31st anniversary of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster.
efgoldman
@gene108:
My mom sent me to her long time dentist in downtown Boston when I was a teenager.
His practice started before WW2, and he still had his original equipment. Belt-drive drill. His favorite sentence was “you don’t need Novocain – this won’t take long.
Libarbarian
@Baud:
I disagree. The debate is over tactics, not principles. Turning tactical disagreements into heresies rarely works out well for anybody. Sadly, those who do that rarely listen.
satby
@JPL: and she said she might only have days. Her family was coming through for her, and I hope she feels the virtual love from us.
Sab
@efgoldman: Not in Boston but me too. Until I bit him,
efgoldman
@Gin & Tonic:
Dr G is the pathologist/medical examiner on a cable TV show that nobody watches
Quinerly
@JPL:
I saw her post…I think Sunday. The one about her birds, the sister, the possible Go Fund Me, and then a post about misunderstanding the doctor and only having a few days. Had thought about her this AM and was wondering. Thank you for updating us.
efgoldman
@Chyron HR:
Wimmins, too, but their issues don’t matter either.
Has Perez dropped him from the tour yet?
JPL
@satby: I do also and hopefully she can feel those virtual hugs.
Chyron HR
@Libarbarian:
This is your friendly reminder that you people let America die because of Clinton’s speaking fees.
Sab
@Quinerly:I always loved her comments. I had no idea she was a “her”. Not that it matters much.
Gravenstone
@Mike in NC: Fucker must make bank on crowns. Because there is no reason to replace fillings with a crown, absent significant secondary decay under the amalgams.
Mike in NC
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: I was so naive when I first reported aboard ship I didn’t know whether or not I was supposed to pay for a haircut. The barber (AKA ship’s serviceman) got a good chuckle out of that. As always, you do get what you pay for.
Steeplejack
@Gin & Tonic:
Wha? Connection with schrodingers_cat’s birthday?
opiejeanne
@gene108: My first childhood dentist never gave me novocaine because I was afraid of the big needle. My mother finally realized that the guy was really hurting me (I was 8 or 9 so this had been going on for at least 3 years). She thought I was just a whiner.
The next dentist talked me through the terror of that needle by explaining how the meds worked and where he was going to inject it and why. I was not happy about the needle but understanding the process helped me not be afraid, if that makes sense. He drew me a picture of a lower jaw and the nerve right at the back of the jaw.
zhena gogolia
@JPL:
Oh, that is so terrible.
Gravenstone
@gbbalto: Had all four pulled due to similar misalignment. Not sure what they used but I only made to 97 on the count back from 100. Everyone at work was amazed I only missed the one day. And that only because the procedure fell in the middle of my “night” as a third shifter. No swelling and minimum pain. Although I did learn that codeine and I don’t get along.
Gin & Tonic
@Steeplejack: I guess physics is the common thread.
Steeplejack
About ten years ago, after my jaw was broken and my jaws were wired shut for two months, when it came time to take off the wires the oral surgeon gave me 24 shots of novocaine—all the way around from molar to molar, top and bottom—and then basically climbed in my lap and removed the wires like a cowhand taking down fencing.
Even at the time I remember thinking what a sap I had been to carry around these little wire snips for two months, which I was told I needed in case I choked on something and needed to undo the wires. Also belatedly realized that there had been virtually no chance of my choking on anything, because I was on a liquid diet. Try eating anything with your teeth basically clenched. Bonus: try sneezing with your teeth clenched. That was the worst.
Libarbarian
@Chyron HR:
You people?
I’m not a lefty puritan. I just am tired of the trend of assigning sinister ulterior motives to people on the basis of mere assertion.
Person A: I’m willing to support a prolife candidate for a local office who agrees with 80% of my ideals and who I think can win rather than someone else who agrees with me on 90% but I think will lose because of local conditions and electorate and other practical reasons.
Person B: You obviously are threatened by the idea of losing your privilege asshole!
WTF?
schrodingers_cat
@Steeplejack: Thanks! It was last week.
Steeplejack
@schrodingers_cat:
I remember you saying “late April” at some point.
schrodingers_cat
@Steeplejack: It was after the 15th, so not the first half of April.
glory b
@Chyron HR: That’s what we’re araid of.
I heard many of his supporters echo Jeff Weaver and BS explaining that the Black vote didn’t matter. They had all kinds of ways to “remedy” that, more caucuses, open primaries, rearranging the order of the states’ primaries, everything but trying to appeal to the voters of color who weren’t moved to vote for him.
Still haven’t heard it. Like Trump, he never admits he was wrong, he miscalculated or made a mistake.
Gin & Tonic
@Steeplejack: Next week I get to have the pins holding my radius and ulna together removed. My understanding is the surgeon basically grabs the exposed end with a pair of pliers and yanks. He said “it’s quick, you’ll hardly know.” Pain medication was not mentioned.
They are called “pins” but are basically just stainless-steel wire, about the thickness of the stuff large paper clips are made of.
Lizzy L
Re teeth: Most of my fillings are 55-60 years old. Every once in a while one of them needs to be replaced. I still have one wisdom tooth. I only had three to begin with, and two of them came in sideways; I had them pulled about 30 years ago. These days I get my teeth cleaned 3 times a year, and I try to remember that as teeth age they break more easily. No more gnawing on steak bones for me. Less sugar. More brushing.
FlyingToaster
@Libarbarian: The problem is that Bernie (and more often his bros) are calling candidates “progressive” who are anything but. The only thing his chosen candidates are progressive about is agreeing with Bernie’s “economics is everything — especially us white guys” one note. It’s like Jim Webb without the Appalachian charm.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@schrodingers_cat: Happy belated birthday!
efgoldman
@Gravenstone:
Somebody at the professional conferences has been teaching upselling as a business practice. mrs efg’s dentist pushes that shit like crazy.
Steeplejack
@schrodingers_cat:
I wasn’t disagreeing with you!
Steeplejack
@Gin & Tonic:
Doctors are remarkably pain-tolerant. LOL.
schrodingers_cat
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: Thanks much!
schrodingers_cat
@Steeplejack: I am flattered that you remember! How is your kitteh?
glory b
@FlyingToaster: Case in point, Islamophobic, Trump meeting, war hawk, JEFF SESSIONS SUPPORTING Tulsi Gabbard, who BS seems to back only because she trashed DWS. That, apparently, is enough to be a good progressive in BS world.
Steeplejack
@Gin & Tonic:
I’ve still got one of those short paper-clip wires in my jaw, at the point where there was a simple break. Also a more complicated gizmo at the hinge, where there was a compound break. Good times.
Always gets a comment from the dental tech at X-ray time.
Steeplejack
@schrodingers_cat:
She is fine. Right now doing a deep cleaning at her workstation beside the computer.
schrodingers_cat
@Steeplejack: Herself or the workstation?
Chet Murthy
AAAAAAAnd we have a contender to replace “mopping without pants”.
Steeplejack
@Gin & Tonic:
P.S. Good luck with your recovery. Even after ten years I still have some effects from the broken jaw. Do not half-ass it on the physical therapy.
Steeplejack
@schrodingers_cat:
Herself. Likes to walk on the keyboard and occasionally plink off a key cap when she does a claw stretch.
Brendan in NC
@Schlemazel: Your Navy brethren are just as bad. Close friend tells of having the dentist straddle him in the chair, removing wisdom teeth with a chisel and mallet-in the 1980’s…
schrodingers_cat
@Steeplejack: Tell me about it. I have replaced two laptop keyboards because some keys got destroyed by kitteh crampons.
Chet Murthy
@Mike in NC: I read from time-to-time about this bacterial paint they can put on teeth, that causes ’em to get all strong-and-shit. Only downside is, the teeth go black. Gotta say, I -really- hope
(1) it hits the market quick, so that ….
(2) a LOTTA people will get it and …
(3) I can observe whether the promises are for real, mang …
(4) and if they are, man, I’m COMPLETELY down for this
Don’t have a particular dental issues ATM, but geez, I wouldn’t care if my teeth were day-glo pink, as long as they’re healthy.
efgoldman
@Steeplejack:
I could tell when daughter’s cat walked across the keyboard because of course cats can’t spell worth a damn.
Lately daughter mostly uses her laptop. Guybrush is not a lap cat, so he stays off.
Ruckus
@Gin & Tonic:
One of the best dentists that ever worked on me was only a dental tech in boot camp. One of the worst real dentists I’ve ever had working on me was also in boot camp. He doesn’t want to run across me even today. I believe I’d have to repay him for his handy work. The commander of the dental school did remark that he would take care of this gentleman. I bet he didn’t do enough that I’d be satisfied. Second worst was the sadistic bastard that my mom took me to when I was a kid. I don’t think he thought much about fixing teeth, but he did love inflicting pain on kids. I’ve since found a number of excellent dentists and realized that not all of them are sadistic bastards.
Ruckus
@JPL:
I saw, I think it was you, mention her being in the either and wondered what had happened. It is a harsh mistress this cancer thing. A friend who passed away on the table during open heart surgery this year, his wife is fighting what sounds like a losing battle.
So, as I haven’t said it yet today, FUCK Fucking Cancer.
Gin & Tonic
@Steeplejack: Yeah, I know about the PT. In the last 30 years I’ve broken three of the body’s six long bones.
efgoldman
@Gin & Tonic:
Yer doing SUMTHING rong!
Ruckus
@Gin & Tonic:
Had a broken thumb once. Went to the doc he took pictures and put it up on the light board. Asked me what I saw. A broken thumb. How do you know? There isn’t a straight line on the human body and my thumb is not supposed to bend at that location. He laughed while putting on the cast.
joel hanes
@dr. luba:
she didn’t believe in local anesthesia
Neither did my childhood dentist, and my molars were terribly prone to decay, and I was ever and anon getting another large filling, once or twice a year, from ages six to twelve.
I didn’t know there was an alternative to pain.
It taught me a lot about what can be endured when it must be,
and that lesson has served me well over the years.
BTW, that dentist was suberb at reconstruction and prostheses — he did my post-Army work, again without anaesthetic.
He was a family friend, and wise and gentle man.
I think that anaesthesia was riskier sixty or seventy years ago, when he was starting his practice, and he had resolved that it was better for every little kid in his care to suffer some pain than for even one of those little kids to suffer injury at his hands.
Mnemosyne
@Libarbarian:
When he was in the legislature, the mayoral candidate in question co-sponsored a bill to force women who wanted abortions to undergo a vaginal ultrasound.
If you think a disagreement about a woman’s bodily integrity and opposing unnecessary medical procedures done for the sole purpose of punishing a woman who wants an abortion is a disagreement about tactics, I think I see where the problem is.
Ruckus
@Brendan in NC:
Wonder if it’s the same asshole that did that to me. All 4 in one day. Told him I’d come back and get them done one at a time at my duty station, as I had one week left in boot camp. He ordered me. I found out from the dental school commander that medical officers can not do that. Unless you are unconscious you can refuse any medical treatment.
joel hanes
@Lizzy L:
as teeth age they break more easily
The Crest ProCare toothpastes and purple mouthwash really do strengthen teeth.
Mnemosyne
So, dental stories:
I was a huge dental phobic for years, partly because my dentist was my uncle, so I couldn’t complain when things hurt, and partly because I had a terrible orthodontist and that shit hurt like hell.
When I was uninsured, I got a filling done at UCLA Dental School and I was so freaked out that they gave me laughing gas before they gave me the novocaine. I didn’t think the gas was working, except that they jabbed the needle into my gum and I was thinking, Huh, that kind of hurts. Interesting.
I now have a great dentist who I trust because he’s generous with the novocaine and will stop anytime I raise my hand, even if I just need a break. I’ve had to have four root canals, but my endodontist is also great and I never feel a thing until the next day.
Still have all my wisdom teeth and they don’t seem to be moving at all. I did get evaluated and the oral surgeon looked at one and said, “I don’t want to touch that one with a ten-foot pole.” It’s very close to one of the facial nerves and he was afraid of something going wrong during surgery.
Beautifulplummage
@opiejeanne: My experience was the complete opposite: I can still hear him saying ( with a smile) ” mean Dr Newman is going to pinch your cheek now” when he started with the novacain. And I didn’t even know a needle was involved until years later. Plus we got coupons for ice cream cones from the shop nearby.
By my teenage years I kinda looked forward to visits with gas, sunglasses, and my choice of tape in the walkman with earphones (always the early Neil Diamond).
opiejeanne
@Beautifulplummage: You’re a bit younger than I am. This all happened in the 1950s and the new dentist did that cheek pinch stuff which helped a lot. When he had to hit that nerve right your jaws are hinged, though, there was no distraction available, but knowing what he was going to do made it better.
I’m so thankful for the current more gentle dentistry we have available now. Imagine, numbing the spot where the needle will go was unheard of until I was an adult in the 70s. That first really good dentist I had as an adult gave me laughing gas the first time but I didn’t need it after that.
rikyrah
@JPL:
Thanks for telling us ??
Beautifulplummage
@opiejeanne: Correct, My visits started in the mid 60s. I cringe at the experiences that you & others have described. I had my wisdom teeth removed in my late teens but I’ve never had bits of tooth work their way out, either. Uff da!
Cathie from Canada
For years it was my habit to make a dental appointment, come up with some excuse to cancel it the week before, then make another appointment and go to that one because I was too embarrassed to cancel again.
I finally realized I was doing this and so I said to myself: oh just grow up and go to the damned appointment the first time!
joel hanes
@opiejeanne:
that nerve right your jaws are hinged
the trigeminal nerve
Mnemosyne
@opiejeanne:
My current dentist (who is a very funny Russian) once showed me what it was like being in dental school and watching one of your nervous classmates heading towards your mouth with shaking hands … ?
Ruckus
@Mnemosyne:
Related the story from boot camp the other day, shorter, got to the hospital and the corpsman was brand new, as in had never stuck anything but an orange. After several tries and not one even close to a vein I made him go get someone to show him one more time. Asshole wouldn’t show him but did at least help him do it properly. BTW had a fever of 105 and the only reason I couldn’t vomit on him was I hadn’t eaten in 24 hrs.
bystander
As I mentioned earlier, within 24 hours of arriving in Rome I realized I was in deep dental pain. So bad I couldn’t eat, which is not what you want in Rome. The people from whom we are renting were kind enough to fix me up with an emergency dentist. An old root canal had become abscessed, so the dentist basically had to clean out the old canals and replace them with new material and something to kill the infection.
She and her assistant performed the canal in a manner evidently based on a skit from Your Show of Shows with Sid Caesar and Howard Morse. But they extrapolated the skit into a 6 hour routine with far more comical Italian arguing, screaming, bumbling, than Caesar ever could have come up with. At one point the dentists was gesticulating at the nurse with a hypodermic in her hand directly above my face.
Comedy gold, and I left 1,000 euros lighter.
SWMBO
My daughter had her four front teeth rot when she was a baby. Took her to one pediatric dentist, who took her into the back and I heard her screaming for 45 minutes. The door was locked and they wouldn’t open it or respond to my calling. After that exam, she didn’t want to go to the dentist. Ever. But her teeth were still rotted (slept with a bottle of juice. Who knew that was the wrong thing to do. Everybody I knew growing up did that) and we made an appointment with another dentist. HIS teeth were rotted and horrible. Nope. Not going back to that one either. I called the county medical association and asked if they could recommend a dentist that could work on a 3 year old that had been traumatized by two previous dentists. They gave me Dr. B’s name. He had trained at a school for the handicapped where the kids were uncontrollable and could not be given anesthesia (except for general). When I took her in the first time for a consult, he got one limb, I got another, the receptionist got one and the hygienist got another. She had wrapped her arms and legs around the bottom of the chairs in the waiting room (long metal attached legs holding the chairs up and together). We went in and he was magic. He sat her on the examining chair and said I just want to talk to you. He gave her a mirror and asked her to point and show him where it bothered her. She was wary but she talked with him for a while. When we came back for the second visit to actually fix the teeth, he told her everything he was going to do and told her she could watch in the mirror if she wanted to. He told her what he was doing and why. While he was working on her teeth, he told her the story of his life. He grew up in NY, has a sister, lived in Bed-Sty until it turned into a not so nice neighborhood, etc. He got done and she said you hurt me but you didn’t scare me. It took about 3 visits and then she was going in by herself.
When it came time for W to go in, the dentist knew him from the previous visits. He knew he was autistic and non-verbal. He did the teeth cleaning (instead of the hygienist). They put W in the chair, stuck a bite block in his mouth, covered his face with stickers and gave him a mirror. He started to scream and then saw the stickers. The hygienist’s job was to put the stickers back on. The dentist covered his face and chest with stickers and when the sticky wore off the stickers on W’s face, he was going to scream and leave the chair. They took the mirror and he started pulling the stickers off the dentist’s face and chest. The hygienist’s job was to put them back. By the time all the stickers lost their sticky, he had finished cleaning W’s teeth and the kid didn’t really register that it had happened.
Both my kids went to him until they were 18 and loved him. Both kids had to have braces and we went to the orthodontist he recommended and he was really good too.
A good dentist can make all the difference in the world in a kid’s viewpoint on whether to go to the dentist as an adult.
F
TIL that I am as old as Cole’s dental work.
steverinoCT
I was in submarines: just a corpsman aboard who wasn’t certified for anything more than absolute emergency dental work, so in basic sub school everyone got their wisdom teeth pulled to eliminate one potential problem. Two of mine were not an issue, so they left them; the other two were, *wiggle, wiggle* *yank* and they came out. I said, “That’s it?” Yep. Not complaining.
On the other hand, the only time I cried at a dentist was when Brunhilda the Dental Technician was giving me a vigorous cleaning. “It wouldn’t hurt so much if you had been flossing,” were her comforting words. Reminds me of a cartoon I saw: the dentist is explaining, “That’s not pain you feel, merely the pressure of my drill upon your nerve.”
Singing Truth to Power
@Gin & Tonic: I had pins removed after foot surgery – lovely stainless pins with a ball on the end sticking out the ends of my big toes. That’s exactly what the surgeon did – a little twist, and a pull. I was shocked that there was no pain at all. Apparently flesh doesn’t grow onto stainless.