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 RunKC:
O, can you whiten a dead tooth? Asking bc I don’t want to get a ****ing cap if I don’t have to
Have you had endo (root canal) done on said tooth?
Saw your edit. If it's intrinsic like that, it's tough to do without a crown or veneer. You can do the internal bleaching and get good results but it can take a bit. [Reply]
Originally Posted by RunKC:
O, can you whiten a dead tooth with normal hydrogen peroxide whitening? Asking bc I don’t want to get a ****ing cap if I don’t have to.
Edit: tooth was whitened already with a route canal/bleach, but there’s a thin line at the top that’s bothering me bc it’s not whitened.
I noticed i had tartar build up on the backside of my lower front teeth the other day so i picked it all out with a paper clip cuz im a bad ass mofo like that.
...Actually i just dont like going to the dentist...or doctor. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Detoxing:
I noticed i had tartar build up on the backside of my lower front teeth the other day so i picked it all out with a paper clip cuz im a bad ass mofo like that.
...Actually i just dont like going to the dentist...or doctor.
Dear Mr. O.city, I read on a website that there is some thought that flossing may not be as beneficial as people think. Your thoughts?
Is the correlation between flossing and good dental health a direct one, or because daily flossers are more likely to take better care of their teeth in general?
Originally Posted by Eleazar:
Dear Mr. O.city, I read on a website that there is some thought that flossing may not be as beneficial as people think. Your thoughts?
Is the correlation between flossing and good dental health a direct one, or because daily flossers are more likely to take better care of their teeth in general?
I'll listen off the air.
Eh, it's more about removing interproximal (between teeth) buildup and impacted debris (food) than anything. I haven't read on it recently, there was some stuff about it a few years ago (maybe what you're referencing) but I won't comment on it either way.
Brushing is the gold standard, but what I would say is the majority of decay occurs between teeth directly below the contact point where they meet. That can't be cleaned with a brush.
LIke you've said, most people that floss regularly are pretty habitual with their oral hygiene so that may correlate. Like most things in life, it's not one thing or another.
Diet, hygiene, type of bacteria intraorally etc is different for everyone. Some patients have a lot of trouble with periodontal disease but no issues with decay, some have decay but fine gum tissue, some both. [Reply]
It takes a while and a lot to really stain it that bad, but they'll stain. Don't do whitening if you aren't gonna cut back on any habits that cause stain.
People all the time "I wanna whiten my teeth, but I won't stop drinking 5 cups of coffee per day". Well ok then.
