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]
And no way, I’ve done my last root canal of my career. Those get referred out ain’t nobody got time for that
Damn. My 2nd molars (the ones that are left) are full of fillings from when I was a kid. I have bruxism so of course those teeth take a lot of pressure even though I wear a mouth guard. On the left side, I had one crack so the fillings came loose. Had it capped and then the one directly above it did the same thing. Now the right side is doing it. I'm assuming the one on the bottom will go first and once it's capped, it will crush the one above it. So I'll have four gold teeth. [Reply]
Originally Posted by htismaqe:
Damn. My 2nd molars (the ones that are left) are full of fillings from when I was a kid. I have bruxism so of course those teeth take a lot of pressure even though I wear a mouth guard. On the left side, I had one crack so the fillings came loose. Had it capped and then the one directly above it did the same thing. Now the right side is doing it. I'm assuming the one on the bottom will go first and once it's capped, it will crush the one above it. So I'll have four gold teeth.
Yeah, see it all the time. Good on doing the gold, it’s a great material for crowns. [Reply]
Originally Posted by O.city:
Oh yeah, works great. I do a fair amount of it, but I'm pretty picky about what I do it on.
It's too late for me as I've had my more traditional style for nearly 2 years now but, I'm curious. What if the....oooh, what do they call those....canines?... what if those were sunken down...or some of them anyway? My teeth were not the worse case but definitely more than a simple straightening. I went to the best and probably most experienced orthodontist in town. But I often wonder if it would have been easier to go the Invisalign route. Not to mention being a middle-aged adult with braces takes some getting used to. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Lzen:
It's too late for me as I've had my more traditional style for nearly 2 years now but, I'm curious. What if the....oooh, what do they call those....canines?... what if those were sunken down...or some of them anyway? My teeth were not the worse case but definitely more than a simple straightening. I went to the best and probably most experienced orthodontist in town. But I often wonder if it would have been easier to go the Invisalign route. Not to mention being a middle-aged adult with braces takes some getting used to.
Not everybody can do Invisalign from what I understand. For one, if you have crowded teeth, it's possible you don't have enough jaw space to spread them out. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Lzen:
It's too late for me as I've had my more traditional style for nearly 2 years now but, I'm curious. What if the....oooh, what do they call those....canines?... what if those were sunken down...or some of them anyway? My teeth were not the worse case but definitely more than a simple straightening. I went to the best and probably most experienced orthodontist in town. But I often wonder if it would have been easier to go the Invisalign route. Not to mention being a middle-aged adult with braces takes some getting used to.
I can imagine. I did traditional when I was a kid then had to have it redone because I didn’t wear retainers. Did Invisalign that time and it took 3 years [Reply]
Originally Posted by htismaqe:
Not everybody can do Invisalign from what I understand. For one, if you have crowded teeth, it's possible you don't have enough jaw space to spread them out.
They’ve improved a lot, you can do just about anything but it’s not always the best way to go. Like I said I’m pretty picky on what I do, some things just aren’t meant for Invisalign [Reply]
I got my teeth cleaned yesterday. They had a new hygienist and her conversation with me was awkward and forced. They need to teach conversation in hygiene school. [Reply]
Originally Posted by O.city:
They’ve improved a lot, you can do just about anything but it’s not always the best way to go. Like I said I’m pretty picky on what I do, some things just aren’t meant for Invisalign
I looked into them about 10 years ago and my dentist said I didn't have enough space. He'd have to surgically "extend" my jaw to make room for my teeth to have proper spacing. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Rain Man:
I got my teeth cleaned yesterday. They had a new hygienist and her conversation with me was awkward and forced. They need to teach conversation in hygiene school.
Originally Posted by Rain Man:
I got my teeth cleaned yesterday. They had a new hygienist and her conversation with me was awkward and forced. They need to teach conversation in hygiene school.
I've never understood the direct questions while their hands are in my mouth. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Bearcat:
I've never understood the direct questions while their hands are in my mouth.
Plus, she would continue talking when her hands weren't in my mouth. Come on, lady. That's my turn. Her conversational choreography was completely out of whack. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Rain Man:
It's best to leave it in your imagination.
Plus, she would continue talking when her hands weren't in my mouth. Come on, lady. That's my turn. Her conversational choreography was completely out of whack.