i have not been to a dentist in probably 10 years

All four of my wisdom teeth have impacted...it wld cost $1200 to get them removed. I am kind of nervous abt spending this; I can fit it in my budget but it will hurt my 'oh shit my dog ate a tractor' emergency savings. Will my mouth be like 'eh, don't worry bout taking out those 4 weird choppers, we've grpwn used to them," or will it be like, "When will you please fucking mutiny these supposedly wise teeth, we are getting twisted into uselessness." ???

impacted meaning 'grown out,' I am 98% sure I am using it correctly but wanted to clarify in case I hadn't

I've got decent medical insurance, but the dental plan kinda blows. I always feel like I've been gipped every time I get a standard cleaning, so I end up going maybe once every couple of years. I'm a 2/3 times a day brusher and fairly regular floss-a. I'm probably tempting fate, but goddam I really hate going to the dentist.

i haven't been to the dentist since i was 15, and i only have one filling. i'm thinking i should get a check-up before i leave the country but i'm too scared about what might be secretly wrong with my teeth.

Do it before you have to pay for it w/insurance! You will seriously, seriously not regret it and it's probably nowhere near as bad as you think (went to the dentist for the first time in seven years to find "look ma, no cavities!").

Oops, I mean before you move to U.S., the country where you will get no decent insurance, if any at all.

I don't think impacted means anything until they start getting cavities or somehow going wrong on you? I think the reason dentists take out most people's wisdom teeth is that a) sometimes they're pressuring other teeth, b) they're harder to reach behind and tend to get cavities, and c) dentistry is a business. But if you have nice hard resistant enamel to begin with, maybe you'll NEVER get cavities in them! Just brush, mouth wash, whatever, be good to yr teefs.

If, sometime in yr adult life with a job & insurance, they show signs of problems and have to come out while your body still heals pretty well/quickly, then fine. I suppose one wouldn't want to be like sixty-something and then have to have major oral surgery with older-person healing times. But that's a long ways off.

That seems sensible & accurate. It's what I suspected, that it wasn't a danger will robinson thing & could be tended to when I have a Real Job.

i'm kinda scared my wisdoms are finally coming through. i'm getting a really aching jaw, but i always getting an acutely tense jaw when i'm stressed, so i'm not sure if it's just that. and i've been clenching my teeth practically non-stop lately.

dentists really scare the shit out of me :/

I have to have a tooth removed, she put two injections in me last night and one was in the roof of my mouth - absolute fucking agony.

Ugh I had this happen when I had my wisdoms out. I'm not that afraid of needles, but when even your dentist says "I'm sorry but this is really going to hurt" you know its gonna be bad. Holy crap.

this is really enabling my capacity for procrastination when it comes to health check-ups

Have you ever had a tooth rot from the inside, the nerve shriveling up and dying while still encased in yr tooth, from raging infection? If you have, it looks much, much less tempting to putt off dentist visits. Any root canal, in fact, any TWO OR MORE root canals, are worth avoiding nerve death.

I actually fell ASLEEP during my last root canal, and I've been deathly afraid of needles for about twenty years. I promise you it can be done.

Please spare yourself and go in. You don't want to have a slight twinge on a Friday afternoon that you shrug off, but which by the midnight hours of Saturday has turned into a monster that rules your head until the inflammation swells your eye(s) shut and makes your face feel on fire, so that you can stagger around Brooklyn looking for a hospital at sunrise because there is no fucking way you can stay in the house any longer.

It was my pre-bike days and I had no internet at home, and no money for a car service or similar, not that I was even thinking that clearly, and I left the house without really knowing where the nearest hospital WAS, and had to ask a policeman for directions and walk and walk. Then I was in the ER for four or five hours begging for antibiotics before anyone would even see me. I apologize for the drama, but srsly really please don't do this. Go to the dentist.

Not you, Abbs -- but people who HAVE insurance and avoid the dr because it's scary and there are needles and sometimes mildly bad news involved. Because even once I HAD a Real Job I still tried to avoid the dentist but it ends badly, it always ends badly.

i don't have insurance (practically no one does in NZ). so i'm looking at pretty hefty financial damages if i need any work done. i think that's scaring me more than the needles and pain.

also: thanks laurel. i know you're right and i need to suck it up and just make an appointment.

You will seriously be very fucking grateful and if you have it done (say if you have to have wisdom teeth pulled or root canals) maybe up to $35, at least $250 just for a cleaning & x-ray. Do it there, plz, you will be so glad. ONe, two days of your least favorite for overwhelming security & relief...half the reason I was afraid to go is I was afraid things wld be beyond help. But I was pleasantly surprised they weren't!

oops I meant $3k not $35...maybe with the exchange rates it wld be cheaper here. Also, maybe there's a discount clinic in yr area?

i think it's maybe cheaper here. my best friend is getting her wisdoms pulled this week, and it's costing $2000 (NZD), but half of that is the cost of a general anaesthetic, because hers have to be cut out from deep in her gums.

In dental terminology an "impacted" tooth refers to a tooth that has failed to emerge fully into its expected position. This failure to erupt properly might occur because there is not enough room in the person's jaw to accommodate the tooth, or because the angulation of the tooth is improper.

So Abbott, your teeth are the opposite of impacted.

exchange rates would fuck me - NZ$1 buys US$0.72

Aw thx mh! I knew something was wrong there. What is the proper word?

Erupted, I think.

that is it. hhoray!

i just made a dentist appointment after 4 years of putting it off.

i am so afraid.

It'll probably be fine, I didn't go for a decade, and I only had to have one filling replaced. Though, it that falls out, I have to get a crown which is ££££!

i wonder how hstencil's teeth are

i still haven't been (since the "scary things yr hairdresser sed" thread) and mine are "fine"

i didn't go for four years between appointments. between filling five cavities and a cleaning, i've had to go six times since january

so, yknow, there's that

i didn't go for ten years and when i finally did go it was not all that bad. but i have "good teeth" whatever that means. ALSO: the first dentist i went to wanted to put me under to clean my teeth, so i found another dentist who didn't want to do that kind of dumb shit

can you tell when you have cavities? do they hurt? i've never had a cavity or root canal or any of that stuff but i'm convinced i'll have 12 of them this time.

if youve never had a cavity, and you cant feel anything now that definitely feels like a cavity (extreme sensitivity to cold, air, food, etc), and its only been four years, i bet you will have a maximum of two cavities, and probably none.

something cool about having small teeth is that its easy to floss them!

i definitely have a chipped toof but it doesn't hurt.

my teeth are sort of horrible anyway (impacted wisdom teeth due to small jaw, sensitivity), but i've been taking much better care of them this year

I stand by my "go for the gas" advice.

relax! if you've never had a cavity and aren't experiencing pain, then it's highly unlikely that after four years of inattention you'll need a root canal.

also, i am SO AFRAID of the dentist but managed to go after about 10 years of putting it off and nothing terrible happened. i had to get my old fillings replaced, which wasn't fun, but it was totally tolerable.

ok, you're making me feel better! i just keep reading horrible stories of people needing $15k worth of dental work and getting really paranoid.

there is probably a lot of cosmetic stuff that is wrong with my teeth, they are very crooked. i had braces, but it was when i was in 2nd grade and half of my adult teeth hadn't even grown in yet...which seems kind of counter-intuitive. but hey i know nothing about orthidonture!

but i am not too worried about that. it's not like i ever smile or anything!

but hey i know nothing about orthidonture!

it's orthodontia

whatever it is, no child of mine is ever getting a pallette expander because that was just unnecessarily cruel.

funny you should mention that

my teeth are all hillbilly snaggly/crooked cause my mom didn't think I needed braces. "it's just cosmetic and you're a boy" anyway my son is undergoing the orthodontal experience now and holy shit I can't believe how complicated it is, before he gets the braces he has to wear all kinds of gear and spacers and retainers and last week they put something in his mouth that wasn't fitted right and he was in agony for few days. and the cost! when we first met w/the orthodonist he couldn't say the amount out loud, he wrote it down on a piece of paper and slipped it across the table (presumably smelling salts were on hand) like a funeral director.

maybe my mom was on to something.

see i had that stuff done and i still have hillbilly teeth! and my jaw is fucked up, possibly from that stuff. i don't understand why they don't wait until the kids at least have their adult teeth in to fix them? i'm sure there is some logic, but it seems questionable to me.

like my palette probably would have expanded itself when i grew up, without the torture device?

Been about 4-5 years, and I finally got round to getting the details of a dentist to make an appointment next week.

Things is I stopped bcz, in my every 6 months check up it used to always be 'fine' (also my former dentist went to the private sector). I know I should have gone about two years ago when I had this slight persisting ache. The slightness meant I kept putting it off, and when it finally subsided after a period I forgot all about it.

I'm terrified really. I really don't make this appointment...

when i underwent the orthodontia, basically anything that required my active intervention just didn't happen -- i wouldn't wear the headgear or the retainer or whatever. i still turned out relatively human-looking.

waiting for the tmj to kick in, tho

When my daughter was 8 or 9, she had a friend whose parents went overboard on the orthodontia - that poor kid seemed to have had every tooth in her mouth pulled, then when the new ones came in they immediately got wrapped in metal and clamped into place. I couldn't imagine subjecting my kid to that much painful intervention, so she has one bicuspid that is out of line. Which she hates and occasionally blames me for not slapping her in braces, but if she really wants it dealt with she can pay for it herself now.

ok, you're making me feel better! i just keep reading horrible stories of people needing $15k worth of dental work and getting really paranoid.

-- bell_labs, Thursday, April 24, 2008 1:27 PM (39 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

ive had cavities and have some tooth pain :-/