Dentist and possible problems


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Old 08-17-15, 12:01 PM
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Dentist and possible problems

Just had my 6 month. Looks like we finally got past the grinding of teeth when sleeping argument. We go through this every appointment. He says I do and I say I don't. I have proof and he doesn't. He just sees symptoms. Anyway, we didn't go there today.

However, after my cleaning by the hygienist, he does his standard inspection. No major problems, but he begins to ask if I smoke, use marijuana, drink heavily, eat lots of spicy foods or any other extreme use of oral activity. I answer no to all of the above. He then says he sees a pebbly effect on the surface of my soft palate. He tells me it is not natural and is usually caused by some kind of extreme use as described by above referenced actions. So I think back and tell him I do like to eat lots of ice and lots of those Italian ice deserts in one sitting. Maybe several time a week. He tells me to stop for about 3 weeks and come back to take another look.

I have no discomfort, no soreness, no breathing or sleeping problem, no swallowing problems or thirst problems. I swear they look for things to treat. If they can't find them they invent them! But I suppose I'd rather error on the side of caution and I'll be seeing him in three weeks.
 
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Old 08-17-15, 12:09 PM
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I hate the dentist and have significant apprehension every time I'm scheduled to walk through their door. In the past, I have occasionally taken my pulse in the car before I head in and always find it to be over 100 bpm (my normal is in the low 60 bpm range). The hygienist still insists on putting a blood pressure and pulse cuff on my wrist every visit and noting that my pulse seems awfully high and maybe I should look into that.

The first time she did it the BP was 123/84 and the pulse 106. I answered that since I'm in the dentist office now and was in divorce court that morning, I thought both sets of numbers were just fine. Additionally, since I have earned a Dr. in front of my name, I'll worry about my pulse and BP and let them just handle my teeth. That conversation was more than four years ago. Clearly she's not listening to me....
 
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Old 08-17-15, 01:04 PM
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I have gotten my dentist's office over the "sell" phase over the years. She cleans, he inspects and does whatever he has to do. The one thing they do is give me two penicillin pills before they start. They explained with two knee and one shoulder replacements I don't need any infection getting to those areas. That has been going on for 4 years. Works for me.
 
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Old 08-17-15, 01:10 PM
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I have to take my son to the dentist tomorrow [toothache and no money] but what gets me is they never want to do anything on the 1st visit other than inspect and make you come back in a few days or week so they can do the work ..... and charge for another office visit
 
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Old 08-17-15, 02:44 PM
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I really should look into sedation dentistry. Have a very strong gag reflex, came very close to vomiting when they were doing x rays and a healthy dental phobia. Are there sliding scale dentists in your area Marksr? That would bring down the cost a lot. Good luck!
 
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Old 08-17-15, 02:49 PM
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There is a place called Healing Hands [?] that gives low cost services [dental and regular medicine] to the working poor. My son probably qualifies but I'm not sure what the process is or how long the waiting list is .... and toothaches don't like to wait
 
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Old 08-17-15, 03:14 PM
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My wife is a dental asst.. they are looking for mouth cancer. Its a serious thing...
 
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Old 08-17-15, 03:40 PM
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Mike,

Lets not hold back on the C word! Just kidding.

Yea, I suspected as much. That's why I'll follow up. But I really don't think it's anything to worry about.
 
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Old 08-18-15, 01:56 AM
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...what gets me is they never want to do anything on the 1st visit other than inspect and make you come back in a few days or week so they can do the work ...
When you take your vehicle in for some body work do they give you an estimate and then ask you to make an appointment to bring the car in for the work? When you were still working in the trade did you give an estimate of what the job would cost and then immediately get the paint and tools from your truck? Dentists schedule their time and they rarely have open time in their daily schedule to immediately start treatment.


Are there sliding scale dentists in your area...
Most dental schools take in poverty cases for just the costs of materials used, i.e. no professional fees are charged.


My wife is a dental asst.. they are looking for mouth cancer. Its a serious thing...
Absolutely true. If you see a dentist or hygienist that does NOT do an oral cancer check you need to find a new dentist.


I hate the dentist and have significant apprehension every time I'm scheduled to walk through their door.
Why? the procedures done today and the equipment used is so far removed from that we suffered through as kids there is absolutely no comparison.

When I was a kid, pre teens, I had to go to a really bad dentist. This guy had more hair on his arms than most people have on their heads. He had a drill that was one step removed from a foot-pedal driven model that the patient had to pedal. His tools were so old they were black with age. When he drilled he had to put his whole body weight on the drill to keep it cutting. And one of the worst parts was that I generally had to go on Saturday afternoon and he insisted on having the college football game playing on the radio. (I've hated Husky football ever since. One time he kept stabbing me with the Novocaine needle numerous times and finally muttered under his breath, "Can't seem to find the place!" I think I was about eight years old the last time I saw that jerk and I went for 17 years without seeing another dentist.

The next dentist I saw (25 years old now) was a million times better than the first but he was still only a mediocre dentist at best. While he mostly used an air turbine drill he still had a string-driven one that he sometimes used to polish fillings. This guy did work on a friend and told Roger that he just needed to do a little drilling so he wouldn't need any anesthetic. Yeah, right. He also pulled a tooth on my father-in-law and in the process levered the pliers against his lip, cutting it severely, and never even gave him any pain medication or prescription. When he wanted to pull my wisdom teeth I told him no way and asked to be referred to an oral surgeon.

After that I found a very good dentist, or so I thought. He was extremely good in giving the anesthetic shot, so good that you often didn't feel it all. The previous dentist would fit crowns that had to be literally hammered into place but this new guy just had you bite down on a chunk of rubber. While seeing this dentist I started to see a periodontist and he did some checking on the general dentist, finding that the consensus of his colleagues was that Dr. C had "wonderful hands, but nothing upstairs". I had to agree with that as Dr. C would get clamps, dams and cotton in your mouth and then ask you questions...and most of the time the questions were just stupid stuff. He also told me that rather than using dental cement to hold the crown he just used super glue from the hardware store across the street, claiming it was the same stuff, but far cheaper than the dental material.

I had the periodontist recommend someone and he sent me to a relatively young (two years older than me) good looking woman dentist. She was so good that I actually looked forward to seeing her. Dr F. was the gentlest dentist I had ever been to and she went out of her way to make the experience of having a person's teeth worked on as easy as possible. Even though she was in Seattle and about twenty miles distant I never had the slightest inclination to change dentists again. When she decided to retire I was worried I was going to have to look for a new dentist but she had sold her practice to a much younger woman and gave her the highest recommendation possible. She said that Dr. J would be her personal dentist.

It was a good recommendation and over the years it has proven to be true. Dr. F was VERY careful with crown fittings and more than once she had the dental lab redo the crowns she put on my teeth. Dr. J is just as careful. I didn't know it at the time but the hygienist that has been scraping my teeth for almost thirty years (at the periodontist's office) told me that the dentist has to "eat" the cost of the crown in that situation and that I was very lucky in having a dentist willing to do so rather than "make it fit". A year or two ago I was out with a woman friend and I broke off a tooth with a crown (eating a sourdough roll) and Dr. J got me in the next day and was able to re-glue the original crown in place and then schedule me for a new crown prep the next week. The glue job lasted until the night before my appointment. I was very apprehensive about being able to get this tooth repaired thinking that because it fractured just above the gum line that I would need it removed and an implant installed but Dr. J was able to fit a new crown and everything has been just fine.

I have my teeth scraped three or four times a year and that alone has made my dental problems minimal. I see the general dentist once a year and it is only about once every three or four years that I actually need anything more than a routine exam and a few X-rays. Now I will admit that during my working life I had dental insurance so the cost factor was mitigated significantly. But when I retired I lost that coverage, except for two years of COBRA coverage. I have been without any dental insurance for about eight years now but I continue on with my dental care. And yes, I actually look forward to my appointments. Where else can I get a sweet young thing to cradle my head on her chest... Okay, Shaun isn't quite a sweet young thing anymore (she's about ten years my junior) but she is still sweet. I get to see her again next month.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]54799[/ATTACH]
(Dr. J.)
 
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Old 08-18-15, 04:15 AM
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When you were still working in the trade did you give an estimate of what the job would cost and then immediately get the paint and tools from your truck?
The difference is myself and most professions provide free estimate. I understand that a doctor/dentist office is a different but they charge just as much for the exam and xray as they do for the work. The last tooth I had pulled required 2 visits, each costing $175. IMO that is just a way for them to bring in extra money

The dentist I went to as a child would give me a novocaine lollipop when I entered the door. By the time my mother had taken care of the paperwork [while I was playing on the floor] and the dentist was ready for me - my mouth was already numb That is probably illegal today but it removed any fear of dentists when I was a child.
 
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Old 08-18-15, 10:12 AM
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Furd, some people just have a real fear of dentists and dental work (me included) and it's got nothing to do with new equipment and advances. It's a fear just like anyone else's fears of something else.
Also, some people need several shots of numbing stuff to no longer feel anything, so they feel pain until the right amount is given. That's why!
 
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Old 08-18-15, 10:33 AM
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mark, They don't charge for a visit plus the work to be done. If you had those two teeth pulled in the same visit, they would charge you the same amount.

Furd, how old are you? Your dentist looks to be about 30.
 
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Old 08-18-15, 02:37 PM
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Droo, I had 1 tooth pulled but 2 visits. Took my son this afternoon for an exam and xray [$94] he goes back in 2 weeks to have 2 teeth pulled at the tune of $298 When I was his age it was $25 per tooth including the xray all done in 1 visit.
 
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Old 08-18-15, 03:33 PM
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Furd, how old are you? Your dentist looks to be about 30.
C'mon, all the regulars here know I am in my mid sixties. That is an older picture so I suspect that she is in her later thirties now. My regular (medical) doctor is also an attractive younger woman, maybe forty now but not quite as photogenic as the dentist. Eat your heart out!

Furd, some people just have a real fear of dentists and dental work (me included) and it's got nothing to do with new equipment and advances. It's a fear just like anyone else's fears of something else.
I suppose. I am deathly afraid of snakes and only slightly less fearful of rats. However, I can go to the zoo and watch the snakes as long as they are behind the double layer of glass. As a kid I couldn't stand to be anywhere near any snakes and my older brother used to tease me with garter snakes. I was maybe 15 years old and one time in the garage I was welding up a trailer for my Tonka truck and a rat dropped down a few feet away, I went screaming into the house and didn't go back in the garage for several days. These days I can watch a rat in my back yard or on the porch without any problems as long as the door is closed. My point being, a person may have serious fears but with little work they can alleviate those fears. My childhood fears of the dentist stemmed from the brutality of dentistry in the 1950s and once I found out that modern dentistry is almost painless I lost those fears. I can remember that as a kid the mere thought of having my teeth drilled and filled sent terror through my body but today it is merely an hour or two out of my life. Having the proper dentist goes a long, long way towards alleviating those fears.


When I was his age it was $25 per tooth including the xray all done in 1 visit.
Almost everything today is vastly more expensive then when we were kids. I thought it was horrendously expensive when I bought my 1997 Toyota Camry LE (new) and had to pay twenty grand. Now that same twenty grand will only buy a tiny Korean-made car. Dentists, like most medical professionals, try to maximize the number of people they see in a day. They do so by scheduling the individual patients time according to the procedure to be done so an emergency exam may be fitted into a 15 or 20 minute slot whereas a crown prep will require two full hours. Often a single dentist will be seeing and treating more than one patient at a time using several assistants to do the routine work. They simply do not have the luxury of scheduling each and every patient for an extended time and then sitting around twiddling their thumbs between patients. Also, modern dentists are totally unwilling to pull a tooth until every other avenue of treatment has been rejected. Back when we were kids it was common for "baby" teeth to be allowed to have cavities since they were going to fall out anyway. In older people it was just assumed that they would be fitted with dentures, either partial or full rather than try to restore damaged teeth. I am 65 years old and except for the three wisdom teeth I had pulled before I turned thirty I have all my natural teeth. (I still have those pulled wisdom teeth but they are in a little plastic box. ) My teeth are NOT pretty, those years as a teenager (and no dental care) did a real number on them as far as staining and such but they ARE strong and will likely last my entire life. I have one tooth the periodontist wanted to replace with an implant something like ten years ago but I preferred to wait until it was absolutely necessary. Today that tooth is no worse than it was way back then. The dentist has since retired and I still have no real need to having it replaced.

Oh, I remember when you could take your car to the body shop and get a firm estimate on the cost of repairs. These days you need an appointment to get an estimate and they freely admit that the cost may be anywhere from $500 to $1,000 more than the estimate. So, yeah, life HAS become more difficult than it was 20, 30 or 40 years ago.
 
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Old 08-18-15, 04:02 PM
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My tooth cleaning cost me $134.00. Just a cleaning and that is a discount price because I paid via credit card. My dentist has put on several temporary caps that I consider permanent. He keeps telling me a filling he did years ago is just about worn out. Then he says I got my moneys worth from it.

He argues with me that my teeth are the most important part of my body and I should have them checked regularly and spare no expense. I tell him the eye doctor says the same thing about my eyes. I haven't been to a regular doctor in years. I'm afraid he would have me in bed awaiting an operation because nobody should feel too good and must be hiding something.

My car mechanic tells me that too about my car and my plumber says I need to call him twice a year to clean out my pipes. My electrician says I should update my electrical system because today's electronic are soooo sensitive. My boss wants me to work harder because its good for business and in turn good for me. But I don't see a raise. Even my veterinarian daughter wants me to have the dog over for treatment. The dog is fine but he's old. She'll give a discount!

The only one I haven't heard from is the funeral home. But they just bide their time. They will get everyone eventually.
 
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Old 08-18-15, 05:33 PM
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My teeth scraping is about $175 and part of that is because I live in an urban area (with high rents) and part is because I have it done at a periodontist rather than a general dentist. I do get a slight discount because I pay cash and maybe because I am a repeat customer. I'm not sure how long that last discount will last though because the periodontist that originally owned the practice retired a year or so ago and sold the practice. I have yet to meet the new periodontist.

I occasionally need to get an amalgam (silver colored) filling replaced and glad of it. It must be at least fifteen years ago I told my general dentist I wanted no more amalgam fillings because of the mercury content. I think I have had a few composite (tooth-colored) fillings replaced but they keep improving the materials and methods so those older fillings are better than twenty years old and the newer ones will last the rest of my life.

I see my medical doctors on a fairly frequent basis but that is because of my chronic health problems and a necessity of having prescriptions renewed on a yearly basis. The schedule with the eye doctor varies from once a year to quarterly depending on what he sees on any particular visit. Since I lost the hearing in my left ear as a child and the hearing in my right ear is definitely deteriorating I need my eyes functioning well so I put up with the more-than-normal eye exams.

I don't have a mechanic, plumber or electrician. Fortunately, my car almost never needs anything beyond a routine oil change and tires and I am as competent as any residential plumber or electrician so I would simply never hire someone of those trades.

Yes, the veterinarian does send me cards asking to bring Douglas in for a routine checkup (cost about $120) every six months but even though he is 17 or 18 years old he is in better health than I. Funny thing is that I don't get such reminders for Toby (12-14 years old) nor Squirmy (6 to 8 years old).

And I DO get advertising from the funeral homes...maybe they know something I don't!
 
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Old 08-20-15, 03:08 PM
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I pay $180 for exam/cleaning and xray.

C'mon, all the regulars here know I am in my mid sixties. That is an older picture so I suspect that she is in her later thirties now. My regular (medical) doctor is also an attractive younger woman, maybe forty now but not quite as photogenic as the dentist. Eat your heart out!
Hah! I don't know why men stood in the way of women being professionals. I certainly prefer dealing with them over men.
 
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Old 08-20-15, 03:44 PM
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I (and my wife) go to a local Community college where they train dental technicians and hygienists for my cleaning and examining. - The biggest bargain in the world because a visit is about $25.00 or $35.00. The students are in their second year and ready for graduation. The students do as much as they want to "bite off" based on what they see after reviewing the X-rays(included). Then, a regular dentist comes around to review the X-rays to see how capable the student was to do cleanings and other procedures, including X-rays from every possible position. After the student finishes up, the dentist returns to give a final critique for final grading and graduation.

Appointments are easy to get when the college is in session and often you can get in within a day or two. The schools are looking for patients and there are even reserved parking spaces near the door for patients. They usually have over a dozen chairs and technicians at any time.

Worth looking into, depending on your location.

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Old 08-20-15, 04:16 PM
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I don't know why men stood in the way of women being professionals. I certainly prefer dealing with them over men.
Me, too. [ipk[ewojgmnergkia[ler
 
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Old 08-20-15, 04:27 PM
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Appointments are easy to get when the college is in session and often you can get in within a day or two.
That's great! Around here the wait is much longer and there is a "means test" applied which means that it is mostly people too poor to see a private dentist but with enough money to pay the low costs charged by the dental school.

The thing that totally blows my mind is when a person has dental insurance but refuses to use it. When I was working our dental insurance covered up to 80% of the costs for first tier procedures (ordinary fillings, exams and the like) but only 50% of the cost for second tier procedures such as root canals and crowns. The percentage started out lower and after three years of seeing a dentist at least once a year reached that 80% figure. There was also a $1,500 yearly cap on the benefits. I knew several people that had not seen a dentist in a decade that a few months before retirement decided to go see a dentist and then learned that they would only have a 60% insurance benefit and also that they needed $5,000 (or more) of work. If they had only started to go a few years earlier.
 
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Old 08-20-15, 04:55 PM
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The UB School of Dentistry here in Buffalo accepted all five of my kids and they received the best care possible and a cut rate cost. The best was that a dental professor always oversaw the work and would correct or step in if any looked off. Too bad they would not accept adults when I tried. They were very picky about who was able to enroll in the program. You had to guaranty that you would be available. One or two cancellations and you're out.
 
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Old 08-21-15, 02:03 PM
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Had a root canal today, only dry heaved twice when they were doing x rays of that tooth.
 
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Old 09-10-15, 03:07 PM
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Well I had my three week check-up from the dentist to check for cancer. I'm clean. He says the pepply effect and roughness that he saw three weeks ago has subsided. I told him it was most likely I ate some too hot pizza or some such thing. He said he and me would rather be safe than sorry. Amen to that.
 
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Old 09-11-15, 07:51 AM
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Oh stop whining and sniveling......about dentist costs, health care costs, pharmacists and even veterinarian charges.

Every body has to contribute something (their fair share) toward the doctors and or pharmacists high end monthly vehicle payment!... Those expensive vehicles cost plenty to own, insure, maintain and drive!

 
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Old 03-02-17, 04:24 PM
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Ginger can help to ease toothache pain it has been used successfully to stop a toothache at night fast for many years now.
Just peel off the skin, rest it against the tooth, and gently bite on it.
Toothache is an awful pain, but when the pain eases, we should still visit the dentist to get it checked out.
 
 

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