So I’m having a lot of tooth problems lately, which been on my mind. SO it wasn’t a huge surprise when I woke up from a dream about going to the dentist. But in my dream I got pissed at my dentist and decided to just do it myself . I ordered a set of implements from Amazon, and took care of it.
It got me to thinking, Could someone do that? Can anybody buy the pokey and scrapy things, or do you need a medical license to get them? Could you even buy your own drill? obviously the anesthetic is prescription, but maybe if someone has ninja/Vulcan pain suppression skills. And is it practicing medicine without a license if you do it to yourself?
I am not really considering it of course, but what are the actual laws?
Looking around the web, I couldn’t think of any dental equipment that I couldn’t just order somewhere, other than anesthesia or X-ray sources (I found digital X-ray sensors and dental X-ray film)
So I’m going to venture a guess and say no, dental tools are not prescription. Using them on others without being a dentist, however, is most certainly going to be against the law (I hope)
When my husband was in high school, he happened across a yard sale being held by a retired dentist, who had some of his old tools out on a table. My husband, thinking they would be useful in his hobby of tinkering with electronics, offered to buy them (they were cheap, about a buck apiece), and the man refused, apparently thinking the young whippersnapper was planning to practice some amateur dentistry on his friends (profit!), but my husband explained his intentions, and ended up getting half a dozen items. We still use them for various purposes, and when I met him, I found one little thing made a great embroidery tool.
Last time I was at the dentist, I joked that I had a Dremel and some picks at home and could have saved money and done the work myself. He didn’t think that was very funny. I know I have many of the same drill bits for my Dremel that the dentist had laid out in his little tool set. Nothing worse that looking around and thinking “Oh cool, I have that same tungsten carbide bit… Oh crap, I used it once to round off a half inch piece of steel… this isn’t going to be fun.”
There are laws against practicing medicine without a license; do those extend to dentistry? (I’m thinking of the doctor in The Hangover dismissing Ed Helms as just a dentist).
I asked my dental hygienist if she did her own teeth, and she said that she and another hygienist traded work. Apparently even if you know how, it’s very difficult to do your own teeth properly.
No, but they do have a makeup gun. And dogs that shoot bees from their mouth when they bark!
I have plenty of dental picks, scrapers, & stuff. They always come in handy for a tinkerer like me. I also have a cerumen curettethat is great for earwax removal!
And, when I asked my doctor for some syringes for hobby use, he grabbed an assortment of needles and syringes and gave me a bag full. 18 years later, and I still have dozens of them in a workbench drawer.
As a minor side note, in “The Burglar in the Closet” by Lawrence Block, one of the plot devices is that after a dental scalpel is used as a murder weapon, the police go to a dental supply house and buy the exact same model to take around and show to a suspect.
. I ordered a set of implements from Amazon, and took care of it.