The Dentist

PAtoNH

My Dentist is a great guy… he does good work. Unfortunately, I've needed a lot of it this week including a tooth extraction. A tooth extraction is little bit like wrestling, except you can only use your neck and the other guy has you on your back with a pair of pliers in your mouth. Tooth extraction probably hasn't changed much in the last 200 years… it's a full contact sport. Seriously, if the dentist could've gotten away with putting his knee on my chest for leverage without it being awkward he probably would have… by the end of the "procedure" I don't think I would have minded if he did, as long as it would have been over sooner. (BTW, note to younger guys on the forum: floss after every meal… yeah, I know you forget to but trust me on this).

The biggest PITA of it all is that I can't have a cigar OR a drink at a time when I would REALLY like a cigar AND a drink. Search Google Images on "dry socket" if you're the type who likes medical horror.

This started Monday and two days and a lot spinach soufflé later I'm kinda weary of it... with a little luck I'll be healed up enough by the weekend to get back to my vices, errr… hobbies. Luckily, the Kelly Deal brightened my day… #3 Baby!!! Woo hoo!!

WaltBasil

One of my biggest fears...

jsnake

It is not fun and +1,000,000 on flossing. I had all my wisdom teeth removed in -the military and heard all the dry socket horror stories. Never got them thank God.

I had a cavity filled and somehow a hole remained at the bottom of the tooth. The dentist looked at it weeks later after I kept getting food stuck in there and it caused pain. He thought it was like a burr and sanded it down. It was better but still didn't seem right. I learned to just eat on the other side. Fast forward to last year and I lose a filling on the side I eat on. Food gets stuck in other side so now I can't eat. Pain gets so bad I am ready to pull this tooth myself. I was in tears. Emergency visit to dentist and I went with the simple option. Remove and refill. He spent like 10 minutes digging out all of the food that had accumulated inside the tooth and down into my gums. He couldn't believe it. I walked out feeling like a new man and the pain relief was instant.

PAtoNH

snake… oh the horror… I feel your pain. I'm afraid that, just like nose hairs & dingleberries, dental extraction topics may be too taboo a topic for this forum. To all of you with 32 or more teeth… I Salute You!!

Rain

Before my first deployment, I had an Army Doc pull out every, single one of my teeth. They wouldn't even knock me out because the hospital was across the street and they did not want to have to wheel me back and forth. So they jammed a needle in my gums and made me sit there for two hours while they pulled em all out. It hurt...a lot. I remember the Doc saying "I know what you're going through." BS I thought...you still have your teeth! Needless to say, I ate a lot of smoothies and Spam my first few months in Iraq. Guess the bright side is there is nothing left for the dentist to pull

PAtoNH

Bring back Lord Ripon, indeed! I think the loss of teeth is a sooner or later issue for most… I paid $85 to have this tooth pulled so maybe you got a good deal?? So that makes you both my BOTL and my BOLT? (bro of lost teeth??)… I think a celebration is in order, lol!

Puff_Dougie

I had chronic dental pain for years. Combination of genetically weak teeth, poor habits, grinding in my sleep, and low-paying jobs with no dental plans. Used to go to the local University dental clinic because it was cheaper to let the students "practice" on you than to pay a real dentist. Had my first root canal in one of those students' chairs. It also happened to be his first root canal! He had trouble getting hold of the nerve to extract it and I dang near ripped the arms off of that chair.

I also had 'em all extracted a couple of years ago. It was either that, or spend tens of thousands of $$ to repair them, only to have them break apart again in a few years. It's amazing what they can do with implants nowadays. Took some getting used to, but it was the right decision and the best part is not having to sit in the dentist's torture chairs anymore.

PAtoNH

Puff! Another BOLT! I'm also a grinder… it's my Achilles' heel. The worse part is when I get bouts of TMJ… headaches, neck pain, ear aches, jaw pain. Cigars and a cocktail are better than any Motrin or Advil, that's for sure.