As a child, I went to a dentist who was a family friend. He never used novocain unless he was pulling a tooth. I grew up in an area that did not have enough natural fluoride in the water. I sat through many old fashioned drillings and fillings with no pain relief.

He often went to dental conferences, but I think he partied rather than learned new techniques.

I guess this falls under the category of mine is worse than yours. I am missing 7 teeth in my mouth. What dental insurance has long ago reached its limit, so we are stuck with the entire bill.. We just don't have several hundred bucks laying around. We hope that Tony gets a bonus in August and then I can get some work done. If not, I have to wait until Oct 1 when the register goes back to zero and start again..

I am truly afraid that when I do go back he is going to suggest dentures. That scares the beejebbers out of me. I am only 51.

Having been thru the 'do I do implants or dentures' process, I have learned a new theory. That is, dentures impart a whole new eating process so as to lead to a whole new weight-loss process that ought to be looked at within nursing homes!!!! My original theory was "No Way!!! Not that much $$$$!!! I could die tomorrow" But after about 9 months of dentures for the two extractions, and after losing about 18 pounds, my DH convinced me that maybe the implant route might be worthwhile. I am now very glad I endured the process of implants and could once again eat 'like normal' (tho the weight loss might have been looked at as an advantage!!!) The enjoyment of eating was sorely lacking. And I had to imagine those who are much older, no choice, nursing home bound, who may never be able to express their lack of interest in various foods....nor why. ~ I am now facing another possible extraction, and only hope I have enough bone structure remaining that it can support an implant.

Laura, some of my neighbors in this rural community got dentures when they were teenagers. Most people get them a lot later, but many do very well with dentures. No weight loss. :-)

I have the most painful, expensive dental story of all. My XH is a dentist. There -- I win.

LOL, Dedtired! Sometimes a 'loss' IS a win!

Alisande -- I would expect the oral surgeon to take care of the 'emerging' bit at no cost, or only a minimal 'office call' rate. He didn't complete the job!

Some of my earliest memories are of 'that smell' in my dentist's building. Part the odor was the 'hot' smell of the grinding drills. Today, when a dentists uses a 'grinder' to buff an area, my whole body tenses.

In my era dentists routinely pulled four eyeteeth before braces went on. Before I was fifty, all my teeth started collapsing toward the front of my mouth. I think today they wait longer for the jaw to grow into the teeth! (Or stretch the jaw.) This left me with enough less chewing surface that I let my wisdom teeth come in -- have three of the four.

My teeth look great in our wedding photos. A year later ALL of my many silver fillings had to come out and be replaced with gold inlays or crowns. Poor DH had picked an expensive 'lemon'. Now I have very little actual tooth surfaces.

Implants can work well. A friend had to have bone grafts before implants, then in eight years it all fell apart anyway due to both his advanced age and the treatments for cancer elsewhere in his body.

Nope ... no teeth.

Last year when visiting the dental school to bid the last of them "Farewell", the student to which I was assigned had background in the Ukraine, and I told her that, when the Korean Business Men's Association was putting on a dinner for the disadvantaged in a social agency in our city, I happened to be there at the time and told them that we Canadians had a major lesson to learn from them: how to live next door to big neighbours ... without getting eaten.

I told her that I thought that such a lesson would be useful for the Ukrainians, as well, living as they do between Europe and the land mass that includes Russia.

She agreed, heartily.

When I went as a missionary (liberal Protestant) to Korea, we said that it was 1953 ... but the Koreans said that the year was 4286. I figured that if we doubled the 1953, that'd be 3906 ... still a much smaller track record than theirs.

And they've lived next door to China, Japan, Manchuria and Russia, often having trouble from one or other of them, but still retained their identity through it all.

The Palestinians have had similar problems - living between the civilization in Egypt and Mesopotamia. When one of them wanted to give the other trouble ... marching through the desert is a pain in the butt ... and one needed a navy to travel the Mediterranean ... so one wanted to travel the bridge called Palestine. The other, preferring to make war out of their own territory, quickly travelled up to the bridge, preferring to war on someone else's territory.

Seems as though similar rules seem to apply, even in this (so-called) enlightened age.

The year 1953 was just at the end of the Korean war, and a major part of our work was helping a bunch of refugees get re-established in south Korea - when there were no jobs: most of the companies had laid off a substantial portion of their staffs.

When modern war sweeps across most of your country four times in about three years ... no one has to explain "trouble" to you!

ole joyfuelled

Alisande,

I had a tooth fragment left too...I took 6 capsules of organic garlic capsules for about a week..they helped the body to push it out.. 2, 3x a day..

Garlic capsules are my "natural" helper.

My husband just went through a year long issue with a dentist he engaged to have a replacement upper plate made. He was back nearly 2 dozen times for adjustments, none of which made the denture feel any better. My husband is not a quitter, but he finally gave up, went to another dentist, had another plate made, and has been wearing it for 12 days now and has had absolutely no problem with it. Not one adjustment was needed. No dental insurance, so he paid out of pocket for both dentures. The first dentist offered no refund on the unwearable denture.

Now,I am one of those people who got dentures as a teenager.

My story....
I was a senior in high school when I had all my very bad teeth pulled and replaced with a full set of dentures. Let me assure you that false teeth for a 17 year old high school girl is a traumatic experience.

I had to make light of it to survive. Just 2 weeks after getting my top denture, I removed them to play a part in my senior class play. I was the essential "hillbilly" girl who sang a solo in the play.

That was 55 years ago. I am now on my 3rd set of full dentures, but still very reluctant to be seen toothless even by my husband.

terri, I'm glad you're feeling better, but I don't believe there's even been any study proving a significant medical benefit of garlic capsules. If your painful condition worked itself out, that's great, it would have done so with or without the garlic.

This last January amidst several months of other health issues, I had a molar crown fall off. I experienced no pain from the tooth despite the fact that the tooth was exposed for over a week from the missing crown. Having just started a new job, I had to find a new dentist that was accepted by my dental policy.

I went in and told the dentist that I just needed my old crown re-cemented on. The dentist said that would be a liability to him if the cement didn't hold and I choked on it so I agreed to a root canal and new crown. Ever since the root canal, the tooth has ached. I went back a month later and told the doctor that it hurts to eat, touch my face or brush my teeth. He said the tooth must have cracked and that I need an implant which involves four months without a tooth on that side of my mouth. And of course additional cost done by another dental specialist that I will have to absorb. I said no.

I'm furious. Because I've been seeing a half a dozen doctors for my other health issues and having a number of test that require me to take time off from my new job, I have not been willing to take even more time off to go back to the dentist. He told me he would talk to the dentist who did the root canal and get back to me. Which he never did. I have an appointment with the dentist office for a cleaning next week and will have to deal with whatever the next step might be then.

Jodi-

Maybe a better job could have been done or maybe not. The fact that he didn't follow up with you as promised may be an indication he knows there's a issue with what was done. Screw-ups are common. One dentist friend has told me that he often gets new patients whose prior dentists have done sub-par work for which he can only scratch his head. Professional courtesy leads him to fix problems but say nothing about it to the patients affected.

It's important to remember that there are a lot of crappy doctors and dentists in practice. For all the ones that graduated at the top of their classes, an equal number were at the bottom. There's no way to know who is who.

I'm not sure I would go back to the same dentist, there are too many good ones to choose from. Get recommendations from people you know and start again. It's a shame you have to go through this and a shame that your dentist seems to not be forthcoming about the problem.

When I was about 17, I had an infected tooth that needed to be pulled. The dentist couldn't deaden it, due to the infection but pulled it anyway. The pain was excruciating. Tears rolled down my face as he told me, I was feeling pressure, not pain. It gave me a lifelong fear of dentists...and let me tell you, there isn't much I am afraid of. In 1973 I had a lot of dental work done. I had an infected tooth, but the dentist gave me gas, and I did feel pressure, but no pain. There is a HUGE difference.

Almost two years ago, I had all my teeth pulled, four implants placed on top, four on bottom and arches of teeth screwed to the implants. I went in at 8:30, and I came out at 6:30 pm with beautiful teeth. I never had any pain. I didn't take as much as a tylenol. I had about 18 teeth pulled. (I've had a tooth pulled and had a "dry socket" and that was more painful than the toothache.) Dental implants are expensive, but my husband had received an settlement and the money came from that. I would do it over, a hundred times over. I was afraid of the adjustment I'd have with regular dentures. Until the implants healed, I had to eat food that was soft enough that I could cut it with a fork, but my diet was hardly restricted at all. Now I can eat corn on the cob or bite an apple....no slippage. I can chew anything. And I don't have to be embarrassed about my teeth any more..

Alisande, when I was in my early 20's I had to have a molar removed. Like you, I had so much pain afterward and was told that it was a sliver of bone that would work itself out. It took a couple of weeks but then I saw a tiny piece sticking out of the gum. I sterilized some tweezers and pulled it out. What relief!

Thanks for sharing all your stories, some of which were nightmares. (Jodi, I'd be furious too.)

Gazania, good for you for having humor triumph over embarrassment!

When I had the extraction done, I had to sign all sorts of papers listing possible complications. I remember one of them was having a piece of bone left behind. The dentist made sure he covered everything--especially his you-know-what. LOL

The "painful" part is that we lost our dental insurance. Fortunately I had a lot of work done over the years that was covered, the last being an implant, only one tooth, that cost $3000...I've had several root canals along with fillings and routine cleanings...I go in faithfully every 6 months and still have problems, at the last cleaning they found an old filling that's going to need to be replaced. I've always had dental care but my teeth weren't good...a few years ago even the cleanings bothered me, I got the nitrous, it helped somewhat but I need a lot of it and it costs extra..My mom had dentures and she had a lot of trouble and my MIL had a bridge which also caused problems so I hope I can afford more implants if I need them.

One of my favorite sayings I've always used when I'm dreading doing a task is "I'd rather have my gums scraped"...well two summers ago I had to have my gums scraped...OMG...I was sore for two weeks and I've had to change my saying when I'm procrastinating!

I have dental insurance. My dentist thinks I'm his retirement plan! :0)

He has determined that a root on a molar does NOT have as sharp a point as it used to. It needs to be extracted. ha ha ha Seriously? I said THAT....he said I could be on vacation when it starts to give me problems....uh yeah....and I could fall overboard before THAT happens. ha ha ha That was a year ago.....

That's my most recent story....I haven't been back to have my teeth cleaned....looking for another dentist....

(I had a current dental assisting certificate at one time)