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]
Got another inmate coming in this afternoon, should be a fun time. I'll update later.
Sometimes this shit makes me pretty beat down. I made a full set of dentures for an 18 year a few years back, was his graduation present from his parents. Heartbreaking. Kid had never touched a toothbrush. Parents had the mentality of "my grandparents had bad teeth and dentures, I had bad teeth and dentures, he will have bad teeth and dentures". Sure enough, that's what happened.
Pro tip. That's not how it works. It's not genetic, unless you have an actual genetic deficiency (which is pretty rare). No you didn't get the bad teeth from your parents, you got the piss poor hygiene and you drink soda all day every day.
I had an instructor in dental school that was a retired Navy dentist. Really cool interesting guy. He always told patients, dentistry isn't expensive, neglect is. That's the damn truth.
I hear all the time "nah doc, it doesn't hurt, I'll fix it when it does". Ok, well it could be fixed with a filling right now, when it hurts it's either a root canal and crown or it's cold steel and sunshine (extraction). [Reply]
Originally Posted by pugsnotdrugs19:
So in more of a temporary fashion? Like wine, etc.
I usually try to brush right after having it. Idk if that helps or not.
It does.
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. [Reply]
Originally Posted by -King-:
How often do you floss O.City? How many people still think they can get away with lying about how much they floss?
Every night brah.
My hygienist grills people about their habits all the time, I don't anymore. I have a big window in my office, I've extracted teeth and watched people walk out the door, stand in front of my window and light a cigarette after I just said "don't smoke, it increases risk of dry socket".
They always say "oh yeah, I brush and floss daily". So your gums bleed when I touch them because....? Or that shit that looks like bread on your teeth just got there in the last 30 minutes? Ok. Cool.
People are gonna do what they want. They don't listen. I just tell them their options and they can choose what they wanna do.
"I care as much about your teeth as you do". [Reply]
also i am terrible about flossing - i do it, just very sporadically, i do brush 2x regularly and mouthwash - and just went to the dentist this morning, wasn't bad but i always have some plaque they have to scrape off, usually takes 20 minutes or so
how much do they hate me?
i assume not so much since they see people with total nuclear fallout mouths [Reply]
Originally Posted by Hammock Parties:
also i am terrible about flossing - i do it, just very sporadically, i do brush 2x regularly and mouthwash - and just went to the dentist this morning, wasn't bad but i always have some plaque they have to scrape off, usually takes 20 minutes or so
how much do they hate me?
i assume not so much since they see people with total nuclear fallout mouths
That's pretty normal. Hell, I always have some calculus build up on the back of my lower front teeth. It happens, not much you can do in some spots. I have a permanent retainer after having braces and it's a real bitch to clean around. [Reply]