Had a pretty interesting day today at the office. Morning was pretty normal, drill and fill, check hygiene, extract a tooth etc. Nothing too out of the ordinary.
Pretty normal lunch. Trolled around on CP, ate an apple and a handful of wheat thins.
Then the afternoon hit.
I see inmates from the county jail here in town if they have a tooth ache or something, sheriff or deputy will call up and bring them up in shackles and the whole bit. It's not big deal, most of them are just happy to get out of pain and it's not a problem. So dude comes in, my assistant goes in to ask the normal "which tooth is bothering you, let me get an xray, blah blah". I was in the lab doing something so I wasn't really paying attention. She comes in and says "doc, you will need to come look at something" to which I responded "he need a tooth out, which tooth is hurting"?
"All of them". Huh, ok, weird response but lets go check it out. Sure enough, continued meth use pretty much causes things to not go so well intraorally, so he was pretty much decayed out and most teeth were broken off to the gumline (google meth mouth if you want to see it, i'm not messing with photos). Asked if I could extract all 26 teeth he had left in the 30 minute block we had on the schedule for him.
I laughed, said "nah, which one hurts the worst, we'll take that out". He pointed to one, I numbed it up, used an elevator to take it out, about 30 seconds worth of pressure and it was pretty lose. 2 teeth next to it are super mobile and infected (which starts draining as I get this one out, that smelt nice) so I told him he was getting 2 free extractions since he was already numb in that area and they were loose and I was right there, no harm no foul.
It's always fun when we see the inmates, the Sheriff comes up and sits in the room with them all serious, then when I come in the room we talk about hunting or why the Chiefs always break hearts or something.
He breaks down and starts crying thanking me, that he already felt better (if you saw the amount of infection I drained, you'd see why) and asked if he could make an appointment for when he got out. "Sure, how long you think you'll be in this predicament".
"I figure 4 or 5 years, you scheduling ahead that far yet"? Told him nah, just take care of himself and come see me when he gets out.
Next patient is an amish guy (we have a fairly big amish community near us), super nice guy, needs a crown. Asks if he can barter instead of pay, I ask what is in it for me, said he'd bring me a dozen eggs every week for 6 months (they have chicken barns or something) or I could have a quarter of one of the cows they're butchering. Sold, eggs and beef for a crown, sign me up.
Only problem with that is he scheduled an appointment for himself, but brought 4 other family members who all needed work done.
So we had a waiting room full of inmates and Amish this afternoon. Thought that might be a good name of a band or something. [Reply]
Originally Posted by O.city:
Well after the worst weekend of my life, I've finally turned the corner. Holy hell that was awful.
1 to 2 % of root canal retreats have whats called a "flare up" and it is just damn killer.
Had a root canal done on one of my bottom molars about 11 years ago, They sealed it up and put a crown on it and it was fine.
About 6 months ago, the same molar on the opposite side needed a root canal. When the doctor was doing that tooth, he "discovered" that the molar had 4 roots... cleaned them all up and sealed it up and sent me on my way. He said that it didn't show up in the XRays.
About 3 weeks ago, the tooth that they had done the root canal on years ago started flaring up... got pretty damn painful.
Long story short.... the tooth that they did 11 years ago, apparently, also had a 4th root that wasn't "taken care of"
Get to go in for another root canal on that tooth tomorrow. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Grim:
Had a root canal done on one of my bottom molars about 11 years ago, They sealed it up and put a crown on it and it was fine.
About 6 months ago, the same molar on the opposite side needed a root canal. When the doctor was doing that tooth, he "discovered" that the molar had 4 roots... cleaned them all up and sealed it up and sent me on my way. He said that it didn't show up in the XRays.
About 3 weeks ago, the tooth that they had done the root canal on years ago started flaring up... got pretty damn painful.
Long story short.... the tooth that they did 11 years ago, apparently, also had a 4th root that wasn't "taken care of"
Get to go in for another root canal on that tooth tomorrow.
Yep, been there. Its the main reason I don't do root canals anymore. I don't have a CT machine where I can know exactly how many canals there are.
Plus I'm slow at them so I just let the specialists handle it. [Reply]
I had the same dentists for 25 years since I was a teenager. He was an old school kind of guy. He was like the trusted mechanic who would say things like "you don't need to replace that part now it will go 10,000 more miles". I didn't know how basic he was until I moved to a new area and went to a new dentist.
The new dentist is like taking your car to the dealership. My mouth is goldmine to them. Their recommending Invisalign so I can have some chipped teeth fillings redone even though my last dentist did repair the same teeth without Invisalign. I'm not wearing a retainer to bed the rest of my life when my teeth are practically perfectly straight except one bottom tooth is slightly off. My last dentist fixed all my slightly chipped teeth (3 teeth) for $450 8 years ago and this new dentists wants $660 per tooth. My insurance will probably cover most but wow what a price difference.
I think I might go try another dentists in this area that won't try to upsell me on everything. Maybe, this new dentist office has a big school loan to repay lol.
O.city from reading your post you sound like my old dentists and will probably have high patient retention. Maybe, I'll drive the 6 hours just to see my old dentist. [Reply]
Investigate the number of years a dentist practices before retiring.
Originally Posted by Eureka:
I had the same dentists for 25 years since I was a teenager. He was an old school kind of guy. He was like the trusted mechanic who would say things like "you don't need to replace that part now it will go 10,000 more miles". I didn't know how basic he was until I moved to a new area and went to a new dentist.
The new dentist is like taking your car to the dealership. My mouth is goldmine to them. Their recommending Invisalign so I can have some chipped teeth fillings redone even though my last dentist did repair the same teeth without Invisalign. I'm not wearing a retainer to bed the rest of my life when my teeth are practically perfectly straight except one bottom tooth is slightly off. My last dentist fixed all my slightly chipped teeth (3 teeth) for $450 8 years ago and this new dentists wants $660 per tooth. My insurance will probably cover most but wow what a price difference.
I think I might go try another dentists in this area that won't try to upsell me on everything. Maybe, this new dentist office has a big school loan to repay lol.
O.city from reading your post you sound like my old dentists and will probably have high patient retention. Maybe, I'll drive the 6 hours just to see my old dentist.
Originally Posted by Eureka:
I had the same dentists for 25 years since I was a teenager. He was an old school kind of guy. He was like the trusted mechanic who would say things like "you don't need to replace that part now it will go 10,000 more miles". I didn't know how basic he was until I moved to a new area and went to a new dentist.
The new dentist is like taking your car to the dealership. My mouth is goldmine to them. Their recommending Invisalign so I can have some chipped teeth fillings redone even though my last dentist did repair the same teeth without Invisalign. I'm not wearing a retainer to bed the rest of my life when my teeth are practically perfectly straight except one bottom tooth is slightly off. My last dentist fixed all my slightly chipped teeth (3 teeth) for $450 8 years ago and this new dentists wants $660 per tooth. My insurance will probably cover most but wow what a price difference.
I think I might go try another dentists in this area that won't try to upsell me on everything. Maybe, this new dentist office has a big school loan to repay lol.
O.city from reading your post you sound like my old dentists and will probably have high patient retention. Maybe, I'll drive the 6 hours just to see my old dentist.
I'm not a "salesmen" like some dentists. IMO, it's bullshit to upsell and treat shit that doesn't need treating.
I'm just a small town type guy. If it ain't broke don't fix it. It's my job to tell you "hey, this tooth has a crack in it. It will probably be ok, it may not be long term so just keep it in your mind at some point we may have to do something" or something similar.
I don't do the whole "smile rejuvenation" thing unless a patient wants to and most of the time I try to talk them out of big overhaul procedures. [Reply]
O.City- I got a little bit of gingivitis I believe, just looking at some at-home solutions to add to the dental routine and I'm seeing salt water rinse or lemongrass water rinse... any input on what I can do from home to help?
Will schedule an appointment with my dentist promptly also- appreciate any advice. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Shoes:
O.City- I got a little bit of gingivitis I believe, just looking at some at-home solutions to add to the dental routine and I'm seeing salt water rinse or lemongrass water rinse... any input on what I can do from home to help?
Will schedule an appointment with my dentist promptly also- appreciate any advice.
Originally Posted by O.city:
Nah, just spend a little more time brushing.
What's going on symptomatically?
It's just one spot above my right front tooth where it is a little bit darker red than the rest of my gums. No pain or any other symptoms, bleeds a little during brushing at times. [Reply]
