skunkworks

I left an impacted lower wisdom tooth in for too long and it damaged the adjoining molar; both were extracted. I now have two missing teeth on one side of my jaw – the void feels weird.

gary

tof

Been lucky over the last decade or two (or maybe I just brush better). No issues at all other than replacement of a fifty year old filling that was starting to fail. Oh, and I had one wisdom tooth extracted maybe 20 years ago. That was actually fairly painless!

I, too, have a mouth full of fillings from my youth. And my dentist didn't believe in using novacaine (third possible spelling so far in this thread) for simple fillings. I hated that man. Curse you, Dr. Salisbury.

So, I've got novocaine, novicaine, novicane, novicain. Turns out "Novocaine" is probably correct. Of course nobody actually uses Novocaine any more. (Novocaine is a brand name for synthesized procaine.) Today most dentists use Lidocaine or Lidocaine based anesthetic cocktails.

Conedodger

I've never had a cavity and still have my wisdom teeth. I did have a tooth capped last year that was cracked. Hope my luck holds out. My mom had lots of problems with her teeth. She was a heavy smoker though.

Morris

Is it safe?


(doesn't anyone remember this?)

buckeyesue

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "Is it safe?"

Do you mean is it safe to still have your wisdom teeth?

I still have all four wisdom teeth at age 68 1/2 and have had no problems.

goblueS2K

Buckeye Sue and I go to the same dentist and have been going to him for over 20 years. He seems very conscientious and meticulous in his work.

Lately, we have nto9iced problems.

Sue had 3 crowns dislodge on their own, and just yesterday, during my own checkup, they found that two of my fillings were missing. The fillings were put in last May! I wonder if the dental assistant who my dentist uses is not skilled enough to finish the job. Normally, our dentist prepares the crowns and prepares the tooth for filling, but the assistant does the final step of either gluing on the crown, or filling in the tooth cavity. I am not sure why this practice does it this way, other than to save the dentist time from having to do the routine stuff.

Lainey

I have never heard of an assistant doing that kind of work. I'm not even sure it's legal in our neck of the woods. I have never been to a dentist where anyone other than the dentist completes the work of a filling or crown. Sounds as if the dentist is charging dentist rates for an assistant doing the work. I'd look for a new dentist, or have a conversation with him about his practices in his practice.

dlq04

Interesting couple hours yesterday in the chair and another two-half this morning. Today took longer because he had two visiting dentists that wanted to learn from him... these are people who have been doing dentistry for about 6 years and still are not able to do what he did while in dental school. He told me yesterday the two coming today are excellent but the school training comes up short. Yesterday he shared with me how things have gone downhill at even top schools like Univ of Mich due to the lowering of adminission standards and what they need to know to graduate. Instructors now have to follow up just to make sure the work they assigned was even done. He said in his day if you didn't do it you would have been kicked out of dental school the first time that happened. My dentist makes his own gold posts for use with the crown; it's a dying art as the new dentists have their's done by a lab. It was interesting to hear him explain why some of the materials and techniques they would mention they use have long term bad outcomes. Nothing beats the experience of pro.

dlq04

It's a very visible top front tooth. Perhaps that's part of it. It not like just getting a side or back done. They are varing the shade three times on the final crown. I've been going to the same dentist for over 30-years. He never cuts corners but instead goes the extra mile.

dlq04

In my case, an assistant made the temporary tooth, did the test fitting and refitting until she thought it was good, then had the dentist return to double check her work and he did the final step and she cleaned off the glue.