i skipped the dentist for 5 years starting maybe my junior year of college, when my parent’s insurance dropped me. i went again after i got decent insurance at work.
i had no cavities, but i did have periodontal disease. i had to go in 4 times for about an hour each visit to have my roots planed. they’d give me like 12 shots in my mouth and then go to town scraping and prodding. not fun. i spit out a lot of blood that week. the last time i went the dentist was busy, so i just told them to go ahead and scrape without the shots, because, apparently, the hygenists can’t administer painkillers or anything. bad idea.
but i’ve been flossing every day and i got one of those newfangled sonicare toothbrushes, which i highly recommend. i’m supposed to go to the dentist at least 3 times a year, though.
the problem is, i’ve changed jobs and my current insurance doesn’t cover this dentist. so it’s been 8 months and i haven’t seen anyone… after the holidays i’ll get my ass in gear and find one. i know my dental hygeine is tons better than it once was. those automatic toothbrushes really help. plus, i hate to admit it, but i never really flossed before.
It had only been 15 months since my last dental appointment, but it was with a new dentist in a new state. The first appointment was just an evaluation to see how my teeth looked–if I had any cavities, measuring the gaps betwen my teeth and gums, my dental history, and to see if I needed a regular or a “marathon” cleaning session. Then I made a cleaning appointment.
I skipped something like 8 years of dental visits when I had no dental insurance, but then my teeth are really-really boring (knock wood) with the exception of having impacted wisdom teeth removed. They continued to be just as boring, and have ever since - I haven’t had a cavity since middle school, and the dentist always says how boring my teeth are. The first time after the long absence, the cleaning didn’t even take any longer than usual. I brush my teeth and all, but I’m certainly no dental hygiene maniac. So you never know - it could be far more uneventful than you expect.
Zev – one new thing you may find is that they have a tiny camera on a pick that they move around in your mouth, and it’s displayed on a TV screen that you can look at. They can freeze-frame shots of your teeth. It’s really kind of neat.
Until they use it to nag you. The hygenist points it at some back teeth, and says “see how the gums around those teeth are receeding? They aren’t getting flossed as often or as well as your other teeth. They’re hard to get way back there, but if this keeps up, all kinds of bad things can happen with them. You’ll get gum disease, or root canals, or even have to have a tooth pulled. We need to keep working on that tooth!”
She never exactly scolds, just gets real serious about all the bad things that can happen. She carefully uses passive voice, “these teeth aren’t being flossed enough”, but it’s easy to see WHO it is that isn’t doing that flossing.
Hee hee, that’s precisely why I didn’t go for six years (started back a year ago). I have a very good dentist, and they didn’t scold me or anything, but I did overhear my hygenist when telling the desk girl what to bill me for, when she said “Today I got all the gross scale, but she’ll have to come back in two weeks or so for the fine scale.”
:eek:
Can’t they come up with a nicer word for it than that? “Big snickerdoodle caramel surprise” and “little”, etc? Do you have to refer to something in my mouth as “gross scale”?
I wish I could send you to my dentist. I can’t imagine him scolding me, and if he did, I’d be outta there. I hadn’t been in several years AND had a back molar that had been slowly disintegrating for that whole time – I figured I’d probably need a crown, and I was scared, so I figured I’d wait until it hurt but it didn’t even when about half the tooth was gone, so at that point I gave in and went – and he never said a word about how I should have gotten it seen to long ago (I knew that, duh!) and I now have that crown. I think if I’d wanted much longer the tooth would have been a goner.
Don’t let them get on your case about not going for years. You finally showed up, which to them should be the important part.
I was absent from a dentist’s office for over 10 years. (Partly due to procrastination.) I had to go when a tooth fell out. (Well, it didn’t totally. Just the top part.) Bizarre. I guess the tooth cracked and then rotted from the inside and finally the top just fell off. No pain, however. That was unusual for me, because I have hard enamel and my teeth are pretty strong. (I think I got the crack in the tooth from trying to open a bottle. :eek: No, I don’t do that anymore.)
The dentist was very nice, and the pain wasn’t very bad. They had to pull out the tooth (waaay in the back) because it was too far gone. I’ve gotten used to its absence.
Anyway, the bizarre thing was that when I had my teeth cleaned, the hygenist made a comment about how “clean” my teeth were. She seemed to have a really easy time of it. The cleaning didn’t take very long. Even though I hadn’t visited a dentist in forever, I was scrupulous about brushing. (I was bad about flossing, though.)
Bottom line, don’t worry. You may be like me, with some bizarre good dental genetics, and not be in horrible shape at all.
Intellectually I knew I should’ve just gotten a new dentist, after my previous one moved away-25 years ago! I too had been pretty lucky, no problems until a right of center front tooth started to wobble. Finally dragged myself to the dentist, and got the, not unforeseen, shock of my life. Always thought I’d just wait until I needed full dentures, then go and get them. Found out it’s much better to have some natural teeth in place to act as an anchor for the partial bottom plate I’ll be getting in a few weeks[much to the relief of the Dopers who’ll be attending a Dopefest at the end of January] Fortunately, enough teeth survived[lost 7 total] to help in this process. Still have to go to several sessions with a periodontist, let’s not even bring up THOSE images, shall we. Upshot? All can recognize the stupid, stupid, stupid thing I did neglecting my dental health all these years. No one berated, shamed or yelled at me. As has been noted, not really good for patient/doctor relationships. Hie thee to a dentist soon all you slackers!!!
Not too bad for twenty years… four cavities, one of which was a borderline root canal (the tooth that was aching), but he decided to do it as a filling and see how it goes for my next visit next week.
The dentist I went to is my wife’s dentist, who has been her dentist since she was a little girl. That being said, he didn’t have any of the newer gadgets that some of you described.
Overall it was more or less pain free (a minor jolt or two along the way, but I guess that’s the price I pay for my long neglect). I did, however, get a much better appreciation of the Bill Cosby dentist routine… especially the part where the dentist tells the patient to rinse when his face is numb.
Once again, thanks for the encouraging words. It made this “traumatic” time a bit easier to handle.
Is anyone else concerned that we haven’t heard from zev in over 34 hours? Perhaps he’s been checked in to the dreaded dental intensive care unit for overnight observation. :eek:
Well I know that, but it just feels (and now I’m going to use a word I haven’t used since third grade) grody when they talk about your teeth with that perfectly innocuous word.
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