Posted by Helen H July 20, 2007 in Asides
Don’t chew ice cubes, kids! Or Frosted Flakes, in this case.
First filling ever, four days into my thirty-third year. Should have waited for the cereal to get soggy, I suppose.
Also, from the playing-hunches department: Were any Portland Pandagonians (or, as a secondary guess, Shakers) playing poker on the west side tonight? Speak up!
27 Responses to “Late Night Pandagon: How About Universal Dental Insurance, Too? Edition”
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If a shot of schadenfreude would soothe, I’m only 31 and my mouth’s basically all Bondo. Remember to floss, kids, or share my gruesome fate!
And don’t fall out of trees when you are a kid. That’s what did two of my teeth in.
P.S. veneers are NOT permanent, no matter what you have heard. 7-10 year lifetime, 20 if you are careful.
When I got my sweet sweet living-wage internship last summer, about a third of what I made went to repairing the damage done by six years without preventative maintenance. Speaking of, I am way overdue for a checkup.
oh cripes…i spend half of the past year going to one of the local dental schools to get work done because i haven’t previously been able to afford going to the dentist. I got really used to, now this is a deep one, so we may end up having to do a root canal (avoided those, so far, thank heavens). I may be benefits-eligible this coming year, and if I am, i’m getting the dental plan.
Aieeee! One of my worst recurring nightmares is that my teeth start to break and shatter. I hate that dream - I’ve been having it since I was a wee lass. I think if that really happened, especially while eating something as simple as cereal, I’d roll into the fetal position on the floor and stay there for days. My condolences!
Oooh that’s made me go and clean my teeth again - I’m 31 and lucky enough to have no fillings so far. In theory we have affordable dentistry available to all in the UK but in some areas there is a shortage of dentists. It’s not free though unless you’re under 16 or over 65 (I think - don’t quote me). Unlike IVF which is at the point of becoming compulsory. Sorry if that sounds harsh. I’m all in favour of women who want it getting IVF but it sits uncomfortably with me when it’s treated as though having a genetically-their-own child is (a) a woman’s right, (b) a woman’s purpose and (c) a woman’s obligation.
My tooth cracked last year; a piece of my molar fell out of my head, and left the nerve exposed. Aside from being an adventure in pain, one of my first thoughts was - I’m not old enough for this. I should be closer to retirement by the time I need to have caps or consider replacement teeth. (I’m in my 30s)
I sprung for a SonicCare toothbrush. It has done wonders.
I still remember my grandmother’s dentures. In a dish. I want to keep what I’ve got (left).
Car: I forget what I was eating. Salad, probably.
If it ever happens, consume only lukewarm liquids. And cold hurts far worse than hot. Just so you know ahead of time…
When I was in school a dental student friend told me you don’t have to floss all your teeth, just the ones you want to keep.
hear, hear, Sycorax… I just hit my 29th and have a mouth full of stuff that looks like teeth, but may in fact be 85% cleverly-molded porcelain fillings. Although they were all acquired in my childhood and early teens, and now it’s just upkeep. Like thinking that the back half of my molar popped off one morning, but finding out it was just a filling and it needed to be replaced. Don’t I brush and floss like a madman now…
I had my first filling when I was 5. I have 2 crowns, one from a filling that became loose and needed replacement but the hole was too big, the other from a root canal. My upper right back molar is probably next for either a crown or Cerec. I’m all of 31.
It’s not from lack of cleaning or care; no matter how hard I try, food stays in my teeth. The grooves in my molars are really deep. But now all my molars have fillings or crowns, so it’s all good. Until the fillings loosen & need replacement.
I’m 25 now, and just got four fillings done yesterday, after having pretty much no dental care… ever. The dentist commented–repeatedly, while cleaning out the cavities–that the holes in my teeth were “ginormous”. I’m going back next month to get five more done, but after that, it’s just maintenance unless I do something stupid like start chewing ice or not flossing or whatever. I can’t get over how much better these look than the cavities that were previously there. Bless you, resin composite filling material!
This will last until, of course, one of them goes bad and I need a root canal. Boy, am I ever not looking forward to that. The dentist said “might be next week, might not be for fifteen years”. I’m going to be kicking myself for a good long while about not getting this done earlier, when I actually had dental insurance but kept putting the work off… but at least it’s not going to get worse. (Barring the eventual root canals, I suppose.)
dingbat: Oh, yes. I floss religiously. Never used to, which is probably how I got here, but you’d better believe I’ve got my little evening ritual down pat.
I’m 24. I’ve probably had 30 or more fillings, from the time I was 5 onward. I’ve had two root canals, but I’ve been too lazy and po’ (depending on my parents to pay and my mom didn’t want to pay) to get crowns. So far, so good even after about 7 years of not having one tooth coronated (harr). The other one has been about a year since. My gums also bleed for no good reason and are usually swollen.
My mom has crappy teeth too. It’s a genetic thing. But they’re oh-so straight. People tell me how lucky I am that I never needed braces. Ummm … yeah. Lucky.
A friend of mine (age 45) just recently had to have all his teeth pulled. He has Tourette’s, and the treatments available are pretty well all heavy-duty antipsychotics that he doesn’t want to take. So he spent a lifetime clenching his jaw to control the twitching.
And wound up with a mouthful of cracked teeth that needed pulling. Fortunately, he gets very good dental through his job.
Auguste: You’re 33 and this is your first filling? WTF?!?! Either I’m misunderstanding you or you’re the luckiest guy in the history of dentistry.
I’ve been putting off my dentist for my next cleaning, but I think I’ll go next week. I don’t know why I’m being such a baby. I’m old enough to remember when going to the dentist really hurt.
You’re lucky. By 33, all the fillings I’d gotten as a kid and teenager started falling apart, and my teeth were literally breaking off in my mouth. At 41, I now have so many crowns, I ask the dentist to refer to me as Your Majesty.
Popcorn is also dangerous, as I can tell you one cracked tooth and two root canals later.
You know you have difficult teeth when the endodontist who does root canals all day long turns to you halfway through your root canal and says, “You know, this is a really fun tooth!” Great, doc, glad I could entertain you at work today.
Though at least the root canal itself wasn’t painful. He gave me so much novacaine that my eyelid went numb.
I’ve got similar teeth to Auguste - 2 cavities in 34 years, one of which was a result of slightly cracking a tooth (ice, I’m a chewer) and the dentist not patching it up as soon as it was found. By the time he did get around to patching it, it had turned into a cavity.
Curse me not, pandagonia - they may be strong, but fuck did they all come in at different angles. I suffered braces for my entire stint of middle school, and retainers for the following 15 years.
Can anybody explain why dental wouldn’t be covered as part of a health plan?
I mean, most health plans cover, um, twisting an ankle? Yes, podiatrists exist, but …
I could go on forever about dental insurance issues, but I’ll keep it shortish. I’m one of those people with naturally horrible teeth so the first thing I’m worried about when I have a job change is how good the dental insurance is. And dental insurance, I’ve found, is generally pretty crappy. I would love if it was covered under regular health insurance. Actually, one of the things that worries me about the possibility of universal health coverage is employers deciding they don’t need to provide any health benefits at all, and I’ll end up bankrupting myself on dental care.
Anyway, for all those worried about root canals, I can tell you right now they are no big deal. I just had one done on one of the very back teeth (which are harder because they have more roots) and it was not much worse than a filling. Longer, though.
Also, dental implants - piece of cake. Expensive though - I paid about $4k and none of it was covered by insurance.
30 here before I got my first cavities. 4 small fillings. Of course, with middle class parents in Canada, that meant regular preventative maintenance, molars coated, the whole 9 yards.
Only horror story was the wisdom teeth removal, which included one that had to be cut out in segments. Local anesthetic only; had a reaction to the Nitrous.
Ooh, LWF, my wisdom teeth were exciting, too. The bottom 2 were fine; they’d just abscessed before coming through the gumline. So my regular dentist took them out by prying. The top 2, however, were different. They were both impacted, and one was encased in the jawbone. The oral surgeon was nice, though, and he had a pleasant speaking voice. He did an excellent job, too. No pain, no swelling, nothing.
Yes, you did misunderstand me. I’m in my thirty-third year, which makes me 32.
And yeah, first cavity. Great preventative maintenance as a kid, including fluoridated vitamins. It’s not gonna be my last, though, I’m pretty sure I have two more just waiting to cause me problems.
LOL, Phoebe!
I’ve had 5, or is it 6 cavities filled now. It was depressing, because I was scared about my smile. All is well now but my teeth have moved slightly, so I’m thinking of getting that invisible retainer to restraighten my smile.
The most painful dentistry experience though was when I was getting one of those cavities filled. The dentist injected the novocaine, which happened to cause a nerve spasm. The moment the novocaine wore off my jaw started radiating pain. It hurt to eat. Couldn’t sleep for two days. That sucked. I went back to my dentist’s office and she looked at me like I was acting like a baby. I was all ready to grab the needle, and see how much she likes jaw spasms.
i currently have 2 gigantic painful cavities i need filled, as i cant eat or drink anything that isnt lukewarm at this point without yelping in pain, but i go to the local clinic for poor uninsured people so its not very expensive at all, the only downside is its pretty much impossible to make appointments over the phone so i have to go in to set one up, as theyre always incredibly busy.
i lucked out tho, they have priority patients due to having limited time and funding, and those are children, pregnant women, and diabetics. im none of those things and had i not had a very large abcess in the gum behind my bottom front tooth i probably couldnt have gotten care, but i was an emergency. as it is i waited so long hoping the abcess would go away i lost a large amount of bone beneath my tooth and i have a permanant bump in my gum that i was told is bone shards.
now ive gotten my abcess treated, a thorough cleaning, x rays, 4 cavities filled, and another 2 to be filled soon, for around 400 dollars. which isnt nothing, but alot better than private dentistry.
hooray for clinics.
I’m 34 and have had no cavities, although I did have four impacted wisdom teeth that had to be cut out of my jaw. My son has already had two cavities in baby teeth, we think mainly from them being packed so tightly together, and had an extra tooth in the front that shoved the real adult tooth back and sideways and had to be excised. Thing was shaped like a skinny little saber canine. He’ll have to have braces when the real one comes in, and although our insurance is really good, it will only pay half. Ugh.
22, no cavities (despite general laxity and carelessness in dental hygiene… I’m lazy), but 3 veneers and one part-fake, part-real front tooth from a very good buddy of mine who is very skilled at kung-fu kicking at my shoulder at the very instant I turned towards him while a large group of us college punks were roughhousing frosh year.
Unfortunately, this was on a Thursday. I called the dentist, told them I chipped a tooth, and they said they had no space on Friday and I should come in Monday. Multiple exposed nerves are PAIN over a full weekend. They freaked out when I went in: “OMG, why didn’t you tell us it was that bad, we could have done an emergency repair” Oh, NOW you tell me….