On TV & Teeth

[neadods]

"They're baby-eating badasses. What more do you need to know?" I swear, Monroe is the only reason I watch Grimm.

In another topic, Wow, the horrors of having your teeth drilled have never changed. (I'm not replacing all the fillings, but she did do the quadrant that had the sensitive tooth in it. Apparently in the dentist's view, it's a whole quad or nothin'.) I had my ipod and novacaine out the wazoo - I asked for extra and got it - but even if you don't feel pain, there's pressure and crap pouring down the back of your throat and that *smell.* It's still in my sinuses.

However, the novacaine wore off fairly quickly - not too quickly, but my face didn't feel 5 feet wide for the rest of the day, and my teeth feel surprisingly okay, considering what happened to them.

Comments

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

That's ludicrous. I'd have been looking for a new dentist. I've never had one who insisted that I have to have things done that weren't part of the procedure I came in for -- although I've heard other people complain of this, so it may be an emerging paradigm. It's your money, so you should be in control of how it's spent!

I believe that they don't use actual novocaine any more, but various things related to it (such as lidocaine) which have shorter effective periods. My dentist can match the drug to the procedure well enough that I'm generally starting to get my mouth back by the time I get home.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

The attitude seems to be "While I'm in there and that side is numb..."

Whatever she used, it worked. No pain (panic, but no pain) and a quick recovery. The teeth are adjusting fairly quickly, but not yet completely.

[redpanda13.livejournal.com]

I don't know what my endodontist used, but it wore off fairly quickly. Another reason I loved his work: all I had to do was grunt and he'd apply a bit more painkiller. Once he had to use nitrous oxide, "laughing gas," and I was glad it worked as an anaesthetic but was disappointed to have no whoopee effect at all.

And I dearly loved finding out that, thanks to a genetic quirk, redheads need about 20% more painkiller to have the same effect.... The price we pay for being special. (My brother found red hair to be no asset at school-- "I don't know who else was there, but I know YOU were, so I'm punishing you!")

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... maybe I'll go talk to your endodontist! I'm only using this dentist because she's close to my office.

[redpanda13.livejournal.com]

If you need root canal work, I'd recommend him, if he's still in practice in south Laurel. That's his specialty. Endodontist = inside the tooth.

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

I gave up on Grimm in the end - not even the fantastic Monroe was enough to keep me watching.

*cringes at the dental news* I hate dentists.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

So do I, wherefore the not going for 15 years!

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

It's not quite that long since I've been, but it's getting on for ten years, I think.

[fyrdrakken]

Grimm I have not been watching. Though I might have seen part of an episode on my sister's birthday -- does it air on Friday nights?

I got a cavity filled last week -- and then had to go back Sunday because I brushed the new filling right out on Saturday night -- and then the first replacement filling came out when the dentist was doing the final polishing-and-poking, so she had to do it yet again (this time with a different filling material, so it held). An issue with the location making it very hard to keep saliva out and the filling dry for long enough to bond. The dentist only numbed that one spot when he did the drilling last week, and I decided not to bother with being numbed up when having the filling replaced Sunday and that worked out well enough -- no worse than a few twinges.

I definitely ran across the thing with a dentist wanting to do a whole quad at a time, years ago -- or rather, half the mouth, which is why she wanted me in on two separate visits for "deep cleaning" (she wanted to numb my mouth for the cleaning, and also take care of any cavities she found at the same time), to say nothing of wanting to put me through three separate visits for my wisdom tooth extraction. (In that she couldn't do the impacted one herself, but wanted to cut out the three she could reach -- on two separate visits, since she'd only numb half a patient's mouth at a time -- and then send me to an oral surgeon for the last one.) I was mainly there for a referral to an oral surgeon who could A) get the impacted tooth, B) take care of all four of them at the same time, and C) knock me out for the procedure, so I refused to let her do my wisdom teeth, and wound up later on cancelling the appointments for deep cleaning because she got on my nerves so badly and because I'd turned out to have a dental discount plan rather than proper dental insurance so I couldn't afford to come back after the wisdom tooth extraction.

So that's why when I went in to have the tooth that broke off before Xmas extracted in January, I wound up getting my first cleaning in about twenty years. Turned out my teeth were in very good shape considering -- the one bad one that had been ruined by neighboring on the impacted wisdom tooth and eventually broken away, and the one cavity that I came back to have dealt with last week -- and the office favorably impressed me with dealing with dental cowardice and not trying to extract the maximal amount of money from me over multiple visits. Going to be making a point of returning there in future (hopefully for regular cleanings) and recommended them to my mother besides for the crown she needs to have replaced.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I have to say... you just made me feel better about the work I had done!

[fyrdrakken]

Which part -- the cavity that had to be filled three times last week before it took, or the horrible dentist who wanted me to go in twice for cleanings and three more times for my wisdom teeth? (Oh, and the root canal she insisted had to be done on that tooth the impacted wisdom tooth had ruined, basically calling me an idiot when I said I'd rather have it pulled and saying that only a disreputable dentist would agree to remove a repairable tooth just because I preferred it. My ability to tolerate the amount of work a root canal would take and my ability to pay for it weren't deemed factors worth considering. Another reason I refused to set foot in her office again...)

[neadods.livejournal.com]

All of it! In comparison, my dentist has been an oasis of sanity.

If it makes you feel better, I once showed up at my opthamologist with glasses with a broken nosepiece, which were scratching my face. The receptionist refused to let me buy new frames ("We don't have them anymore"), refused to sell me new glasses ("This prescription is a year out of date. I can get you in for a new prescription next Tuesday." "I'm bleeding NOW!") and gave me the same "no reputable optometrist will do anything with your out of date prescription" when I demanded a copy.

Right around the corner, there were people who padded the snapped nosepiece and got me new glasses in three days without any crap. I never went back to the original office.

[fyrdrakken]

Years ago while I was living in London on a student work permit, I broke the frame of my glasses one morning while cleaning them. The good news was that I had contact lenses with me -- because the bad news was that of course all my old pairs of glasses that I could have resorted to for spares were back in the US. I went to an optician's near where I worked and showed them the problem, and fortunately they were willing to spare me the costs of eye exam and new lenses -- just a new set of frames, of a smaller circumference than the existing lenses so they could be ground down to fit. I was warned that they couldn't quite perfectly get the focus centered or some such (which was true and it was a relief when I was able to get a new pair some months down the road after returning to the US), but at least they were able to return my glasses to me within a few days in wearable condition for a price I could afford. (Though it wasn't fun going contacts-only for a few days -- I was used to taking them out late in the day when my eyes got tired, not wearing them straight through until bedtime. I may have actually slept in them a night or two during that period, which really wasn't fun.)