Dental Problems
 

I just went to the dentist to finally get my teeth checked out b/c for the longest I've been eating only on the left side of my mouth b/c there is this huge cavity (it is one big hole) on one of my bottom teeth that is preventing me from biting down on that side when I eat. Anyway, after they took a look at my teeth, to my surprise they told me that I had relatively healthy teeth. This sounded kind of wrong b/c I'm going to need a root canal for that tooth along with a crown for it. I also need all four of my wisdom teeth pulled out and I need a good cleaning of my teeth and gums done to get rid of the tartar buildup that was causing my gums to become a little bit swollen as well as some fillings for several cavities that I have. I was happy to hear that my teeth were "healthy" but looking at what I needed to have done on my teeth I was thinking otherwise.

Have any of you gone anything like root canals or having your wisdom teeth pulled out? If so, could you please tell me about it? It has been a really long time since I've had anything major done on my teeth so I am really nervous and a little bit scared. I always never liked going to the doctor or dentist.

Anyway, please share. ^.^

I got my first cavity last month. I have pretty flawless teeth aside from that. I needed to get a front tooth extracted to better fit in my wisdom teeth, one of which needed to be yanked out after it got infected. If you want my advice, GET PUT TO SLEEP. I was awake for the infected wisdom tooth extraction, and I felt pretty much everything. It was fucking awful.

I've never had a cavity and my wisdom teeth are growing in straight and with plenty of room. That being said, when I was about 12, I had a cyst grow over one of my molars (a baby tooth still), which had to be removed and the new tooth subsequently dragged out of my gums with a series of brace harnessed pullies. After the whole thing finished, I had this strange, oral cast for a few weeks, which eventually dissolved. I had to rinse my mouth with a special antibacterial agent for several weeks as well, which was less than pleasant.

My mom has had root canals in the majority of her teeth. She brushes regularly now, but didn't see the dentist as a child until the age of 14 due to the constraints of rural living, which left her teeth pretty weak. She probably has a root canal about once a year. It has gotten to the point where she can get a root canal without anesthetic. It's not something I can understand in any way.

From your post, I take it you don't go to get your teeth cleaned every 6 months like they suggest people do? If that's the case, that's probably why they said your teeth are healthy, because they expect people who don't get regular cleanings to have terrible teeth.

I've never had a root canal, but I recently went to the dentist after not going for years(Didn't have dental insurance) and I had to have quite a few cavaties fixed. Cavaties aren't really that bad to have fixed as long as they numb you up. It's more of a thing where you sit there thinking "Are you done yet? This is annoying!"

I think with wisdom teeth it really depends on the case. I've never had to have mine removed, but this one girl I know had hers removed a couple years ago and her mouth got all swollen to where she couldn't eat solid food for a few days.

At one point I didnt go to the dentist for a couple years (I HATE HATE HATE the dentist), and when I did go, I found out I needed THREE cavities filled. And that I had to go THREE separate times to fill them all.

And the first time? Guy didnt use Novocain. My folks wonder why I hate the dentist.

When I had my wisdom teeth out they were still inside my gums so they had to cut open my gums, break the teeth and suck the pieces out through a tube. I wasn't asleep but I was pretty doped up for most of the experience. And then I couldn't eat for 2 days :(

For what it's worth, I am ALWAYS scared at the Dentists office, even for a routine cleaning. I'm not scared like a phobia or anything I'm just uneasy and unsettled for whatever reason. Probably I remember all the painful things that I've gone through there.

I'm one of those people who won the genetic lottery. I have no wisdom teeth, I have very very strong enamel on my teeth and my teeth all grew in straight enough so as to not cause any issues with overbite or chewing and such. So I rarely get cavities. If I do, they are very small one's by the time I get to the dentists. Only thing is, I have sensitive teeth. So when I was getting those cavities filled, no matter how much freezing the put in, I could still feel that drill.

I had two fillings when I was a kid, and had to have two baby teeth drilled out after they became impacted (would have resulted in the adult teeth clashing with them and coming out malformed and bullshittery).

Other than that I think I'm fine. They're kind of crooked, and back when I was actually seeing an orthodontist we came to the conclusion that we couldn't afford braces. I live with it.

I've had all four of my wisdom teeth removed. It was done years ago when I was 16, and the teeth hadn't fully appeared yet when I had it done. But I just chose to get them out so I didn't have to worry about them. One tooth did cause minor pain anyway. I remember that recovering wasn't a pleasant experience at all since my gums were quite painful and I couldn't open my mouth or talk much. The bleeding lasted for a full week, and I only ate mashed potatoes. Even two weeks after the surgery, my mouth still hurt quite a bit while talking.

Dental problems? After a tooth ache back in March, it was discovered, like aliens in a pyramid, that I'd have to have my wisdom teeth removed, one of them was pretty crucial because it was shoving a tooth out of the way. I couldn't afford a proper dentists $6000 oral handjob (?!) fee so I went to the public health system, they shoved me on a waiting list and everytime I was called up to get it done they'd push me back again. Last I heard it was going to be another nine months or something, that was two months ago, if I mention months a few more times and subtract my shoe size divided by how many months I could wear a pair of shoes then wow. Since then I've lost the tooth that the wisdom tooth was pushing on and I've been taking these fancy pain killers for what.. seven months now? Because pain killers usually don't do shit to the mouth type area. But my body got addicted to these (SHOCK) and now rejects them causing vomit and fun times.

I eventually got the money together to go to a proper dentist, and he was supposed to do it.. uh.. last month, but surprise, now it's next year. DENTAL PROBLEMS?! :tpg:

You guys are lightweights.

In seventh grade my dentist realized i had crossbite, sent me to an orthodontist. First visit there, Orthodontist practically shit a brick - i had class 3 crossbite which is as bad as it gets. My lower jaw stuck out enough that even with my jaw shut i could still fit my tongue though the gap. He knew i'd need surgery, so he sent me to an oral surgeon. Surgeon was like "yep, you need surgery. But we can't do it till you stop growing or else the crossbite will just come back." So in the five to six years they waited for me to stop growing i had braces twice, for two and then one year. And then my wisdom teeth taken out.

Then i got to have the surgery. That amounted to the surgeon breaking off my lower jaw, shaving off some of the bone, and screwing it back into place after cutting my upper jaw in half and widening it.

My teeth were wired shut for 2 months, it was 6 months before i could open them all the way again. I lost 60 pounds in that 2 months because i was basically pouring soup into my clenched mouth and hoping that some would make it back into my throat.

Year after than i got my tonsils out. Not because i really need it, but because the surgeon said they were particularly huge and, what the hell, we might as well.

You ain't lived till you get juiced up on nitrous and have 2 inches of stainless steel ripped out of your mouth. Just sayin.

Ugh, I got 4 wisdom teeth yanked but not all at once. I hate pain killers more than pain so I just toughed it out for like a week.
Brutal just brutal. Dental work is probably one of the governments most effective way to get people to talk.

I'm lucky to have strong teeth, so even if I usually forget to brush my teeth sometimes I've almost never gotten cavities (in fact I've only gotten 1 in my life so far). What sucks though is that I usually get a lot of tartar on the back of my underteeth, and because that's where my tongue's at (most of the time) I tend to lick it and get blisters on the tongue. So whenever I get alot of tartar I actually ENJOY going to the dentist to take it off.

Yeah, I had pretty much the same experience. Usually insurance doesn't cover anesthesia and it can be very expensive. The novacaine didn't work for shit and good lord, that's probably the worst pain I've ever felt in my life.

Don't worry about wisdom teeth; everyone else who's responded so far complaining about them is either actually a girl or a pussy.

I had all four yanked at once when I was fourteen or so, and like Fire on Ice's they hadn't broken through the gums yet. I don't like the feeling of being doped up so I opted to stay awake during the procedure and just get local anaesthetics and it really wasn't a big deal.

I'd say the only part that was a little weird was hearing the cracking noises as they broke the teeth to remove them piece by piece and realizing that those wet crunching sounds were coming out of my face.

They bleed for a bit afterwards, but just keep biting down on the gauze they give you. Mine stopped after a couple of hours and it didn't take too long to heal. Just don't drink through a straw or anything like that 'cause you can give yourself dry sockets, and I hear those hurt like a bitch.

I was shot up with some kind of time-displacement liquid, so I wasn't aware I had been out, or the fact that all of my wisdom teeth were already pulled by the time the doc was finished.

That was nothing, but getting a filling sucked. You can feel the sour sensation of the drill literally shooting into your brain, and then the doc gets out a ray gun and blasts your face.

Hrm...I have had cavaties and had my wisdom teeth pulled.

For wisdom teeth, I got out lucky. I went in with my bro (who was also having his teeth pulled) at around nine. I then laid on the table, and after they finally had me lie correctly (that being totally on the chair), they gave me some gas, said for me to count, and before ya knew it, i was out.

I was asleep as they worked on my mouth, and when I woke up, I was outside with my parents. My first instinct was to get up, in which both my 'rents and the nurses stopped me as I would have fallen flat on my face (not recovered from the gas). Apparently, although I don't remember this AT ALL, my 'rents also said that before that time I tried to help my dad with his crossword puzzle among a few other things.

I then went home, went to bed, and slept it all off. OF course, I had cotton in my mouth (as while I had stitches in my mouth, it would still take time for it to properly heal). By that evening, I was pretty much good. Still couldn't eat much of anything save for Jello, but I was in good shape. Three or four days later, I couldn't take it anymore, caled the dentist and got their OK to go back to solid foods.

My brother didn't get so lucky. For whatever reason, the bleeding didn't stop. So, they literally had to go back at like 2 in the morning and put new stitches in or something like that. DOn't worry about that though...my dentist said he had not seen something like that in ten years.

As for cavaties...I had...seven...at once. All due to not flossing (so floss people!). It wasn't that big of a deal. You come in, they put a very thin needle in to numb your mouth, and then they go one too after another. The basically drill out the cavity, then put the filling in, and then harden it. The WORST is not the procedure, but the actual expense (250 U.S.D., OUCH). you are fine to eat and drink later that day, although you have to wait off your mouth from being numb (as you can't really move it much).

A few nights ago, a girl asked if she could see my teeth. I obliged her. I then asked if I could see hers. She responded as if I had asked to see her kooch. (which is fine considering she was Fatty McBoBatty.) She shut her mouth and couldn't be asked to do differently for the rest of the night. Jeez.

People are fairly insecure about their teeth. I've always had good teeth (I've never had a cavity or anything and I have very straight teeth) but I am starting to get a bit of plaque buildup on the upper portions of my top teeth.
I also chew a lot of copenhagen so it is starting to destroy my bottom gumline.

However, I have a fairly healthy set of choppers, all things considered.

I was talking to some people at work and they said that although getting teeth pulled hurts like hell, it's not super bad. Also, all of my wisdom teeth are out of my gums so you can see them which I guess means that the dentist won't have to cut into my gums but I still don't know. When I was little I had my gums cut into by a dentist. I don't remember what for but it hurt like crazy for the first day or two and after that I was alright. If it's the same thing for my teeth pulling and root canal, I guess I'll be alright. I just don't want to miss anymore days at work. Looking at my bill, I have $500+ dollars to pay. Without insurance, it would have cost me like $1300+ so I guess things aren't so bad thanks to MetLife.

The dentist just gives me the willies!

Well as of right now, I've had 2 of my back teeth pulled, one on each side, both bottom. Mainly got that done because one of them was hurting like HELL at times. And he just looked at the other one and said it needed to be removed as well. I got a shot to knock me out and then when I woke I had absolutely no pain at all but a mouth full of bloody gauze.

Ever since then Ive had no problems until recently when I started having these 5-10 minute bursts of pain in one of my teeth. Its so bad that when it happens, one of my other teeth starts to hurt a bit and my ear hurts along with my head. Happens about 3 times a day on average now. Usually when I brush my teeth it goes away but coems back later. Im guessing I need to go to the dentist but Im wondering what he'll say that has to be done.

propped like hell

Anyway last year I started a new job which afforded me health and dental insurance, so I got nine cavities filled, my wisdom teeth removed, and some assorted cleaning and whatnot. The most painful part of the wisdom teeth was the price tag - I took a five day weekend and I was able to eat normally by the end and use a straw a week after.

My sister had a root canal and it's not that big of a deal, you're not in pain for as long as you would be for your wisdom teeth.

I've had a few medium or large cavities drilled without anesthetic as a child (shitty dentist) - I don't recommend it.

As bad as it is to admit it, I don't have great teeth. I plan to save up and get them fixed in a couple years, or wait for my job to give me Dental once I've been there long enough. Like lurker, I had a bad dentist as a kid, but I also drank too much soda / ate too much Candy =\ And thus my terrible secret is unveiled.

I haven't been to a dentist in some 14 years and recently I had a plan of getting some work done since my lower wisdom teeth cause unbelievable amount of pain that makes it impossible for me to sleep. When I usually ask the person at the desk the payment arrangement I'm usually told that it costs half a grand upfront, which that leads me to do a 180 and go out the door (still withering in pain).

Wisdom teeth extraction is no biggie, just glad to get it done. Reading up on comments here and realized that I got really good dentists over in Texas. I had a bit of sweet tooth as a kid and got tons of cavities in my molars. My dentists would compliment on my teeth for being "perfect". I do have a perfect lower bridge for sure.

The one I have right now... sigh... he's uber frickin shitty and I regret going to him. Lets just say when he was giving my two upper molars their fillings, he literally fractured them. In other words, in any crunch of a chew I'll feel the damn pain.

ARGH. I guess I'll have to go to one of those decent expensive dentists that my insurance won't cover til after I pay upfront.

Getting my wisdom teeth pulled out, was a little weird. They pulled out all but one, because there is one tooth that is just below my eye, and that was like 3 years ago. They don't know how it moves up there, but apperently it those happen.

Reading all these comments gives me the willies.

This poor person is probably going to be scared of their life to go to the dentist, now... But I assume this thread will attract more horror stories than normal, "oh-it-was-fine" comments.

I got my wisdom teeth out, and not gonna lie, it wasn't pretty. I had the top two taken out a year before the bottom two, and they weren't bad. The bottom two were a bitch, though; I was in a lot of pain and began vomiting and my face swelled up veeeery big, so my mom took me to the emergency room... We probably overreacted, but I had just been diagnosed with diabetes, and they warn you to seek medical attention if you are continuously vomiting, because that means your blood sugar could plummett with no way for you to get it up. But like I said, my mom and I were a bit paranoid and always convinced that I could die at the drop of a hat; I'd only had the damn disease a month or so.

So they put me on an IV drip and got me un-naseous and I went home after about 5 or 6 hours.

Oh, and I was awake for the actual procedure; I didn't want to be knocked out because they said I'd have to go down the elevator in a wheelchair, and I wanted to take the stairs (I have a rather sizeable phobia of elevators, and haven't ridden in one for 6 or 7 years). So they just did some general stuff (a mask over my nose for something or other, but it made me feel kinda dizzy, so I subtly breathed through my mouth), and I could feel the incredible pressure and drilling and uuuugh. Then I high-tailed it down the 6 flights of stairs to the car with my mom anxiously calling for me to slow down.

All right, this comment didn't help one bit, now did it?

I think I'll have my teeth ripped out and have implants, they're not that expensive.

I went to go get my root canal yesterday and guess what but they couldn't do it. That tooth had been decaying for so long that the crack went below the gumline which then requires some other stuff to be done. He told me I had 2 options: 1) Get something called crown lengthening done on that tooth so that it can be salvaged for a root canal and then have a crown put on it (the crown lengthening costs a fortune and then I still would have had to have a root canal....damn) or 2) Just have that tooth pulled out along with my four wisdom teeth.

I'm just going for the teeth pulling. Having five teeth pulled on the same day is kind of scary but it does cost less than having a crown lengthening. Plus, the guy told me that it would take like 6 months to have all of that done. I don't have that kind of time since I can't take any time off during January and February since those are the busiest times for the company I work for.

Oh well.....teeth pulling it is. ;.;

pfft... I got three root canals, eight fillings, and two teeth pulled within two months.
The most painful of these was getting my teeth pulled; the root canals aren't that bad, except for one of them... it was so infected that he couldn't numb it so he started drilling before it was numb then he stuck the needle down in my tooth... that hurt like heck... but other than that it was fine... lol

I need to get my wisdom teeth done myself. It's not fear that's preventing me, but money. Even with insurance, they want half up front, and I just have better things to do with that kinda cash.

I just had a dental appointment this morning, and thankfully all I needed was one small filling. Apparently my teeth and gums are in great shape. The main reason why I went was because I've been having a toothache (sometimes severe, sometimes not even evident) for a while now. And the worrying this is...he said there wasn't anything wrong with it. =X

I think he's trying to kill me. O_o

I avoid dentists as much as possible. I brush my teeth with straight baking soda, sometimes baking soda and peroxide. This helps keep them clean and white without the nasty pasty film leftover from toothpaste. I don't hate dentists, though. They've helped me out before.

For instance, my eye teeth (canines) came in out of the foremost part of my gums, instead of the bottom of them like all other teeth do, and grew out in front of the rest of my teeth. It looked really strange and cramped my mouth, so I got them pulled. It hurt like crazy for a week or so, but I survived, and that created more room for my wisdom teeth.

Unfortunately, not enough room, so I'm going to have to get those pulled too. :( So at least one more visit to the dentist in my young adult life is in order. Hopefully it's the last for a while.

I still need to get my wisdom tooth pulled out. The last time I visited, because of pain on my left side, I saw on the x-ray that my wisdom tooth was growing a bit horizontally. Ironically, I don't have pain anymore when I chew on that side. I also have no cavities, much to my relief, because that was what I thought was causing the pain to begin with.

I'm prone to cavities for a variety of medical reasons - namely that I grew up with well-water (which lacks the flouride they put in city water) and that when I had a heat seizure at the tender age of two, the medication they USE to give permanently damages the growth of adult teeth and their roots.

On the other hand, one of my favorite experiences was getting my wisdom teeth out. After dreading it for weeks, he got me in the chair and gave me the options of being put out and I *demanded* morphine. He shot me up and proceeded to yank, pull, break, smash, crunch and splinter the four teeth. Wet snapping sounds, sounds of wet flesh being vaccuumed, blood slurping.

And I'm thinking "Saigon. Shit. I'm still only in Saigon."

I didn't feel a fucking thing though. I was high as a kite for hours, though I could've driven home myself. No pain, didn't even need the painkillers perscribed to me.

I'll try to not think about that 2nd paragraph LeHah. The bottom line is that you felt no pain which is a huge relief for me. I don't know if I'll enjoy those other things though.

Would anyone believe me if I said that fluor used for making toothpastes is toxic?

I have one filling, and despite how little I do to look after my teeth (I brush them...but I tend to forget some days) my dentist says I have lovely teeth. Apparently my wisdom teeth are pointed in the direction where if they do start to come through, they'll grow into my back teeth. I hope they don't ;_;.

I had to be knocked out twice when I was a kid to remove a couple of teeth, I can't remember which ones or why but I loved being put to sleep - I still remember it clearly. They tried to distract me with a toy while this guy injected me, then the room started to spin and I heard my Mum say "ohh, she's going!". When I woke up, the room was spinning and there was this other girl SCREAMING her head off. Very bizarre.

My wisdom teeth are coming through at the moment. The dentist didn't say if I'd have to have them pulled out, but if I do I'd rather be unconscious. The first tooth I ever had pulled was infected; this was back in the day when they could give you a gas anaesthetic without having to be in the hospital. As shit-scared as I was at the time, I much prefered that method to when I had 4 teeth out for my braces. I panic that when he's injecting the local I'll jerk to one side or something similarly dangerous, and I hate that even though there's no pain, you can still feel your teeth being ripped out of your jaw.

I did have a filling done without an anaesthetic once. Even though it wasn't excruciating pain, it was damned unpleasant and I won't let my dentist suggest it again.

I've never had a cavity, and hopefully never will. I did have to get my wisdom teeth out last summer, and those who say it's not painful probably didn't have impacted wisdoms. It hurts like a bitch. I couldn't eat for four days, and even after that I had great difficulty doing so. I bled for three days afterwards, and the pain didn't subside for eight days. My face also swelled up for a few days, and I could barely speak. Yeah, good times.

Getting my wisdom teeth out wasn't that bad, really. The vicodin put me right to sleep half of the time, so I was pretty out of it and didn't feel too much pain. If you can handle the gross amounts of blood coming out of your mouth the first day, you'll be fine. Oh, and don't wear anything expensive or fine for the first few days, and don't have anything on your bed that you don't want blood getting on, because I can almost guarantee there will be substantial stains.

But yeah, I almost recommend being awake during the procedure. I found it to be an interesting experience!

I've only had one cavity thus far in my life, and the dentist just filled it up. I have never had any major dental problems or surgical procedures done to me. Although, I was close to getting all my wisdom teeth out, but I'm glad I did not, because I was going to go to Miami Beach three days after, and my friends told me not to do it, because I was going to have a swollen face for days maybe even weeks.

That was three years ago, and my wisdom teeth do not hurt me any more. I have gotten accustomed to the feeling now. :p

I have some of the most fudged up teeth around. I've shocked just about every dentist I've been to. One my incisors is as deep as it is wide and one of my molars decided to come in on the wrong side of my canine. I can chew gum with my front teeth I suppose. :(

I've had two wisdom teeth pulled out. I got knocked out for it. These days you can't anymore in California because of bad dentists who did naughty things to unconscious patients. Anyway, my cheeks swelled up like a chipmunk. After a week the swelling went away but the hole in my gums got infected and now I know what puss tastes like. Hooray.

The worst experience was having a cavity drilled without any painkillers. I remember one of my eyes tearing up and thinking, "At which point should I cry out and beg him to stop drilling?" Just before my pain threshold was breached the drilling stopped. Whew.

Oh yeah, and there's that bike accident that killed the nerves in my two top front teeth, turned them gray, and now I can't bite anything cold. :(

Getting your wisdom teeths pulled out is not as bad as people make it out to be, if you're that kind of person who squirms at the sight of flesh and blood flowing out. I reccommend the getting knocked out option however. The chances of you waking up during a wisdom teeth extraction is quite rare but I won't lie and it does happen.

However if you manage to endure the whole ordeal you'll feel pretty good/sleepy afterwards, minus the bleeding, pain, not being able to eat solids for a few days.

I had both of my wisdom teeth pulled out last year, afterward, it's like living 14 days in hell :(. period.

I don't understand how teeth work. When I was in elementary school and my baby teeth didn't yet come out, I'd go to the dentist without cavities. That was also the time I'd eat a lot of candy.

Anyway I guess I'm lucky to not have a cavity. The summer of eleventh grade I got all four of my wisdom teeth removed. I thought it was painful the first few days because I was advised not to talk and I was always tempted to tell people what I feel like, what happened, etc. I was also very relucatant to brush too close. The first week I basically had pudding, jello, and anything else that's easy to swallow.A couple months after I'd feel a random sharp pain where they extracted a wisdom tooth. It's not that bad. Just make sure not to eat popcorn even a couple of weeks after surgery. It was a stupid decision on my part. It got slightly infected, but they were able to clean it out. They gave me like 3 or 4 shots to my gums which numbed everything yet I still felt the pain.

I have...less than satisfactory dental habits, but I've had a history of strong and resilient teeth for whatever reason (perhaps due to the fact that I'm like, a milk junkie).

Right now, I have (at least) one cavity, or so I was told about a year ago or so by the dentist. I didn't have time before I went back to school because of work to get it done, and it still stands this way. However, this was a surprise to me, because none have my teeth have ever like, remotely bothered me since that time period. I'm 20, still have my wisdom teeth as well, and they haven't ever really bothered me. I hope they don't, as I rarely have a large block of time in my life (due to school) to get a procedure like that done.