# DIY dentistry

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diy-dentistry/424079>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [October 26, 2007, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diy-dentistry/424079 "2007-10-26T05:23:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dynamitedave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ed655f/32.png) [@dynamitedave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dynamitedave)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2007, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diy-dentistry/424079/1 "2007-10-26T05:23:19Z")

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Today at lunchtime I paid a visit to the hierarchy. Sitting around the table, Menace started on about one of the subbies who dropped off some welding this morning.

The guy had a huge smile. Even though he’s South Africian, it’s a lot wider than expected. Enquires were made regarding said smiles origin.

Turns out the guy had just come from his dentist. Dentist had a poke around and enquired about a hard substance forming a dag on a tooth. Turns out the tooth owner had chipped it and after cleaning the area used some sort of filler from a diy shop to fix it :eek:

Then the dentist commented on another tooth, and that it’d need to come out. Dentist then took x-rays and disappeared off to deal with them. Tooth owner felt around and discovered the tooth was loose. While waiting for the dentist to return he wriggled and pulled at it…until it came out :eek: Dentist returned, shook his head, commented that the patient was being very unprofitable (he’d saved himself NZ$210 for the extraction) and sent him on his way 😛

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**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2007, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diy-dentistry/424079/2 "2007-10-26T15:50:57Z")

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Mog strong! Pull out own teeth!

The one that really concerns me is how Dremel tools come with a warning not to use the thing on your teeth. Have there really been that many people chucking a bit into the tool and drilling their own cavities?

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**Author:** ![Carson\_O\_Genic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cdc98d/32.png) [@Carson\_O\_Genic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carson_O_Genic)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2007, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diy-dentistry/424079/3 "2007-10-27T10:53:16Z")

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South Africans don’t have wide smiles?  
Thought for a minute you were describing my old mate Rowan,who would patch his cavities with Pratley’s putty.

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**Author:** ![dynamitedave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ed655f/32.png) [@dynamitedave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dynamitedave)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2007, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diy-dentistry/424079/4 "2007-10-27T19:22:36Z")

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[QUOTE=Carson O’Genic]  
South Africans don’t have wide smiles?

[/QUOTE]

Around here, all SA’s currently have big grins; this guy’s smile was apparently somewhat more extreme though as he’d managed to save himself money 😛