Dental adventures

[islandpiper]

Things don't last forever, and that includes teeth. Poor buggers never get to dry out, never see any sunshine, get soaked in various hot sauces and alcohols, and have to grind everything from pizza to pork rinds for decades. No wonder they eventually crack and break. I broke off a large part of "tooth #14" a few weeks ago, had a root canal (four roots) last week and I'm home today after having the tooth ground back and a post installed for a crown. One of the worst parts is having so much novacaine that my tear ducts don't work and i can't really close my left eye. But, thank God for the novacaine.......and lots of it.

Actually, the most painful part came at the front desk when i handed over about the same amount of money that used to buy a good used mini-van.

piper

 

[oldsparkey]

Ain't it fun ........ Seams like everytime I visit the dentist he tells me I need a crown. Going in this Wednesday ( day after tomorrow ) for a cleaning and what ever else he tells me. I will start worrying if he starts smiling and does those hummmmmmm things.
It's my every 6 month contribution to his business.

 

[BEARS BUDDY]

Chuck, take solace in the fact you are sending his kids through grad school and paying off the mortgage on his condo on the beach at Cancun. The poor man needs the funds. :mrgreen:

 

[oldsparkey]

Well..........

Things are the same , never change :evil: Had the cleaning and some digital X-Rays done , sure as heck they showed some decay under the amalgam filling on tooth #4.

1st words out of the Doc's mouth is ... You need a crown on that one before it gets any worse.

Yes , These are the Golden Years for the medical profession that you and I are providing to them by being here. :roll: :lol:

"O" Well a crown is a lot better then a bridge or even dentures but I think dentures might be more fun , just go into the office , spit them out , hand them over and let them check them. Better yet just mail them to them with return postage , no driving or a office visit. :wink: Bad idea , that way I would miss seeing that cute receptionist .

 

[islandpiper]

I had the tooth ground back and a post installed, and got the trays for the crown, paid for the crown and labor........and if i typed out the dollar figure it would be like living it over, all over again. I'll tell you, though, I could have bought a pretty nice canoe with the same money. dang

piper

 

[Strongman332]

well i am lucky to have all my teeth. but unlucky enough to have had major work done to all of them. I am not sure if I should call any of them real. I think the roots are the only parts left, but thank god for insurance.

 

[islandpiper]

When we moved to the small town of Iron River, Michigan a drill and fill cost $20 TOTAL. The next year, the teacher's union , the largest group of employees in the county , covering the teachers, janitors, cooks, bus drivers, etc struck and got a big deal in their contract, including dental insurance. It covered all their dental work and anyone in their families. Then , a drill and fill went to $90. Insurance is great, IF YOU HAVE IT AND SOMEONE IS PAYING FOR IT FOR YOU. For the rest of us, we just got higher bills.

piper

 

[dawallace45]

I just hate going to dentists , you wait months then they rip you off , I had a cracked filling some years back , I went to the local dentist , she put a dressing on it and told me to come back in a month , I told her I just wanted it filled and not a temporary dressing , she said she didn't have time to do it that way , so I come back in a month and she drilled it all out and she put another dressing on it , I got the shits bad and even worse when I found I had a infection in it , I decided that I'd go to another dentist so I tried to make a appointment some where else , the closest dentist was about 100 miles away and had a 7 month waiting list , the temporary dressing cracked and I had to go back to my original dentist , she puts another dressing on it , I told her look I'm sick of just getting temporary dressings on it I want it filled properly , she told me she would do it properly next time , now each time she is putting a temporary dressing on she is drilling away more of the tooth , I went next time and she starts cleaning my teeth I asked what she was doing and she said she was getting rid of any plaque , I said I didn't want my teeth cleaned I wanted the filling done , she said she didn't have time that day and besides there really wasn't enough of the tooth left to fill and what I really needed was a crown which she would do for me at the bargain price of $1200 , I told her she could go F@#k her self and she was bloody stupid if she thought I'd be paying for that visit , I was then able to get into another dentist 100 miles away several months later due to a cancellation , he checked it out , told me the tooth had been butchered and there wasn't enough left for a decent filling and I could either get a crown of have it out , I had it out , have a few more cracked fillings and teeth now but I keep putting it off , Bloody dentists

David

 

[Wannabe]

Han another tooth break today. Sure wish I were Scottish. Irish just don't have any luck at all.
Bob

 

[oldsparkey]

Got the 1st step for a crown on #5 this morning. Arrived on time , was seated , had the swab with the topical on it placed into position....
Later the Doc came in and used the good stuff that is delivered by a long thin needle..... Hot dog it is working. I sat there , sat there ,sat there. sat there , finally a teck came back in the operator and told me pretty soon. Well it was more then pretty soon , it was quite a while.
Wow , the doc is here and we are going to get things done..... Grinding away and having a good time. Adding this and that to the tooth , more grinding and what ever it is they added sure stinks plus it has the most God Awful taste to it. One thing leads to another and by all the time passed it was a shade over 2 hours later I walked out with a temp crown.

All the others have been done in a hour or less so I asked if he was busy..... He had to do some unexpected surgery that took longer then it should of. Judging from the sounds that came from the room next to mine I would have to say that was the truth. :wink:

Naturally there was the warning of don't eat anything for two hours and chew on the other side for the next couple of weeks till we get the permanent crown on.
Stopped at the front desk and wrote a check ( :shock: Piper I know what you were saying in your post ) and got an appointment for the permanent crown. Then the reminder .... You can have cold or hot liquids for the next two hours but nothing to eat.

I know why they tell you that , they do not want you biting any of the tissues in your mouth including your cheeks and it has to be a lot more fun watching the liquids run from the patients mouth when they try to drink something.

 

[Wannabe]

Chuck,
I go back bext Thurs. for my perm. crown. Guess I was lucky, I was in the dentist office a total of about 40 min.
Bob

 

[BEARS BUDDY]

Its called a crown due to the cost approaching the value of the crown jewels of Great Britain.

 

[oldsparkey]

Got crowned today and tomorrow they say I can start chewing on that side without worrying....... Wanted to get all the dental work done before hitting the woods and rivers this fall.

One down two to go. :roll:
Cardiologist tomorrow and then the eye Doc on Monday to make sure I am seeing correctly. Probably will need new glasses since I can see at a distance better without them. The arms are still to short to read anything so I guess glasses will still be in order for the fine print. :lol:

 

[Kayak Jack]

What we need is a stockpile of spare parts for geezers. sigh Call it "For All Real True - American Geezer Parts, just FARTPARTS for short.

 

[WDfrmTN]

What we need is a stockpile of spare parts for geezers. sigh Call it "For All Real True - American Geezer Parts, just FARTPARTS for short.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[oldsparkey]

Some things just make a person wounder about the facts of life.

Got the crown in place and it is working really good but in that process the Dentist told me I needed a deep Cleaning , a periodontal cleaning. The one where they put the juice in the quadrant of teeth and do the deep scaling. You know , way below the gum line and way down there where no one should go. When the happy juice wears off you are in some sort of hurt if they get carried away.

As he told me , the insurance will handle it with a small co-pay....... RIGHT. The key word here is PAYED.....since it is a rather expensive process requiring 4 visits to do the whole job.

My dentist for the last 35 years sold his practice to this new guy who is quite good and all he can tell me on every visit is that I need that deep scaling / cleaning....... The old dentist told me that 30 or so years ago and showed me the x rays ..... nothing has changed from then to now looking at the xrays. DAM... 30 years and nothing has changed but the dentist. :roll:

Now he is the one who checks the teeth after a cleaning and gets $35.00 for that look see , then he does the same after any work ( Prep for a crown ) and gets the same .... Installs the crown and guess what..... You need a deep scaling and cleaning. I guess he has X-Ray vision.

Then they try to set me up for a appointment to have that done before I leave there office ....... I CAME UNGLUED...... Something they did not know is that I did that in the service for the guys that needed it..... Not the ones who did not need it. :roll: :roll: So I explained to them about the germs in a persons mouth ( Dirtiest [ germ filled ] part of the human body ) , being a heart patient along with what that deep scaling would do , being on two different blood thinners and being a old fart.......

My choppers are working just fine , like they have in the past 66 years and if they work the same for a few more years then I will be happy and do not expect to get 30 more years from them or me. . Still have good gums ( Just like they should be ) and no oral diseases to indicate any problems.

I may have to locate a different Dentist.

 

[catfish]

chuck like the old saying they seen a sucker coming ( they thought). :lol: :lol: