i have not been to a dentist in probably 10 years

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 :-/

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.

Me too. I would actually fall asleep with them on and then in my sleep take them off and throw them clear across the room. My teeth totally shifted and I hate them because I swear I was Jaq's daughter's friend. I had 10 baby teeth pulled at 8 to make way for braces which I then had until I was 14. I deserve perfect teeth dammit! I just wonder what the hell I would have looked like if I hadn't had all that crap done.

I am also going to the dentist in a couple weeks and scared shitless. I already know I need to have one of my wisdom teeth pulled and am dreading what else they'll say I need done.

wisdom teeth weren't that big of a deal for me because i had them done at once, while i was under general anesthetic. i'm a big fan of being unconscious whenever possible.

I didn't go to the dentist as a teenager, and in my 20s (I'm 25) I've spent well over $6K fixing them.. with insurance these last three years. $2400 to remove my four grossly rotted wisdom teeth that took years to come out. I blame my Dad and his "we don't need dental care" attitude :(

GO TO THE DENTIST! SEND YOUR KIDS! etc

I went to the dentist yesterday. Three cavities, lucky me. I have teeth like marshmallows!

wisdom teeth weren't that big of a deal for me because i had them done at once, while i was under general anesthetic. i'm a big fan of being unconscious whenever possible.

See, I'm TERRIFIED of getting general anesthesia so that sounds awful to me. I've had one wisdom tooth pulled already (they all came in without incident) and that was a "Hey we're just going to fill that cavity today oh wait no we're not - it's too deep. How'd you like to get a wisdom tooth out with no advance warning or prep time?" type situation and ended with me in tears because I was so scared. The anticipation was worse than the actual extraction though.

I think I'm most afraid they're going to say I need root canal because everyone makes that sound so scary.

root canals aren't so much painful as they are tedious

i felt like i was sitting there forever. bored out of my skull as they bored into it.

Wisdom teeth was actually kind of fun with the drugs and all

i didn't mind getting my one wisdom tooth pulled. it took about thirty seconds.

I didn't get any drugs! My dentist is an asshole.

I was under completely. When i saw the shit going into my veins my eyes rolled back

i had four of them pulled, and they had to drill into the center of the lower to break them up for extraction. anesthetics don't work well for me; i woke from the general sobbing in pain.

omg that sounds awful.

oof, yea mine were broken up. I woke up and said "when do we start"

it was pretty terrible. what's worse is that i couldn't have any of the painkillers the next day for reasons of allergy, so i had to try and numb the pain with tylenol, which is about as effective as sugar-water

i had all four wisdom teeth out, and yeah, my bottom two had to be broken up before extraction. i was still a little bit awake when they started, it felt like the dentist was leaning on my lower jaw with a railroad spike with his full weight. then i went under. pretty freaky.

good luck ENBB!!

I can't really comprehend a dentist getting away with putting someone under for a clean up! That's weird.

I was having tooth pain until I went to the dentist, and then after they said that there was nothing wrong, it went. It was probably the guilt of not going for so long.

i woke up sobbing too! but it was after the surgery, at least.

I woke up from my laughing gas after having my wisdom teeth taken out, and said "you're so pretty!" to my Grandmother who was sitting across from me waiting for me to wake up. Awww.

Root canals don't hurt nearly as much as the cavity that necessitated my getting a root canal! Ugh.

my wisdom teeth are all fine and dandy

my friend's brother, an alcoholic/substance abuser, had to be put under for a cleaning after not going to the dentist for several decades.

i go to the dentist 3x/yr. i'm not gonna do the wisdom teeth thing unless absolutely necessary.

You're not making me feel better!! See, the wisdom tooth I have to get pulled is already broken so I'm pretty sure it's just going to shatter as soon as they go near it. ugh. I know I have to go but it sucks. Maybe I should get over my fear of being put under.

I wouldn't have done the wisdom tooth thing either but the one that has been pulled and the one that needs to be pulled both had cavities. The dentist said I have really soft cavity prone teeth. :-(

Linds my mom had a palate expander! In her late thirties! She had a very narrow jaw, though, and needed it to fit her teeth in (even though she had like 5 pulled). It hurt tons but she lost a fair bit of weight by not being able to eat for a day after every half-turn... o_O

Then she had braces for a while, then one of those clear trays. They told her since she waited until adulthood her teeth will never STAY in place without help, they'll always eventually try to shift back if she stops using the retainer.

waited until adulthood her teeth will never STAY in place without help, they'll always eventually try to shift back if she stops using the retainer.

I looked into getting invisalign or something like that because I'm so mad that my teeth shifted and was told the same thing.

Blessedly, Mr. Gladwell makes his point without reference to Oprah, that Great Connector in the Sky. Instead, he does a splendid job describing mere mortals such as Texas economist (and "Maven") Mark Alpert: avid reader of Consumer Reports , electronics wizard, evangelist and all-around know-it-all, a paragon of the "pathologically helpful." You know the type: hell at dinner parties; heaven when you're shopping for a car, or need emergency Yankees tickets. Walking data banks like Mr. Alpert–along with the Connectors, and the Salesmen–are crucial to the spread of social epidemic. Together they explain why the New York family in need of orthodontia will end up, sooner or later, in the office of Marc Lemchen, D.M.D., P.C., Park Avenue at 62nd Street (570-2333).

looool

ENBB, I had my wisdom teeth pulled under general anesthesia and had no problems at all. Sobbing (also laughing) after any kind of anesthetic is very common and generally not related to pain but as a reaction to the drugs. My younger sister is deathly afraid of going under, and had all 4 wisdom teeth pulled in the same session while wide awake - she prepared with some self-hypnosis and I think acupuncture.

i'm a big fan of being unconscious whenever possible.

yesssss. except that when i woke up, the anaesthetic make me puke, which is mildly unpleasant after having yr wisdom teeth pulled. other than that, it wasn't bad at all.

i was in high school and had to read 'canticle for leibowitz' during my recovery, which was kind of a downer.

i should get another retainer

i think teeth & jaw just shift around no matter what, right?
but yeah i'm pretty o_O abt going to the orthodontist as an adult
i remember this pink putty tray thing they put in to take impressions and it tasted like mint+plastic+cement but there was something sort of satisfying about the way it went schlock!fhup! when they pulled it out. obv they wld have to use that again. also the around-the-head xray.

if i actually had money i wld be all about this and skin lasers

and some other stuff

sometimes when you have pain and think you have cavities, it's actually just really sensitive teeth which may or may not be related to gum issues which may or may not be caused by having too much plaque which may or may not easily go away.