Part of my body fell off last week

[VincentMalamute]

Fairly big chunk of tooth fell off eating avocado toast last week. I went to a new dentist. One not in-network on my insurance plan but my thought was that dental emergencies were unlikely to bankrupt me vs a medical emergency, I'd rather find a dentist that was good and pay out of pocket.

He has painless injection technique. Last two dentists in Milwaukee were painless. Last dentist here was not and was not receptive to feedback on improving her technique. I'm a huge baby about needles and 1.5 mg of Xanax beforehand helped too.

Got the final crown glued on today. This guy was much more thorough in examining periodontal pockets, looseness, and xrays. His explanations were more detailed and seemed based on science. I have big issues with bone recession, shallow sockets, periodontal pockets so my teeth need someone with a solid science based plan.

An important criteria of a dentist is technical skill which is extremely difficult to assess. You would have to get a procedure done on a bad tooth and see how well the first dentist does it. Then go to a second dentist on the identical bad tooth and compare the two results.

Another important factor in choosing a dentist is that he does not overtreat. That's obvious if he looks in your mouth and says you need five cavities filled, five crowns, and three root canals. It's not going to be that obvious and will be years down the line when you stop and count how many of your real teeth you still own.

Who knows if this new guy is going to rank on those last two criteria. Based on the first two, I'm going to take my business here though.

[facw]

@vincentmalamute Dental overtreatment is scary: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/05/the-trouble-with-dentistry/586039/

I have a crown, but that was recommended by two different dentists to deal with a crack I could clearly see, so I feel pretty confident it was necessary. I did have the temporary crown fall out twice, and the permanent crown once, though I have no idea if that was an issue of skill, or if it was just challenging. It's been in two years now without further issue, so hopefully that problem is resolved.

[Qaaaaa]

@facw Dentistry is a scam, the absolute worst case with any dental condition is the tooth dies and falls out on your own or you just have to have it pulled. You don't need all your teeth.

[MUSASHI66]

@vincentmalamute Painless injection is the bomb! I have Delta Dental insurance and my dentist just moved here - he might have said Milwaukee? He said he used to have painless injection in his old practice and he bought it for the news practice as well. I barely felt it. Great new technology.

[VincentMalamute]

@musashi66 said in Part of my body fell off last week:

He said he used to have painless injection in his old practice and he bought it for the news practice as well. I barely felt it.

?? I didn't think is was a technology you had to buy. I thought it was technique. Thorough and waiting long enough for the topical lidocaine to take effect. Then once you're injecting, you do it slowly enough, the lidocaine doesn't burn from overpressuring because it had time to numb up the area.

Source: I used to numb up misc body parts but I don't know the specifics of what they teach dentists. I do know that if the patient could handle it, or if it was just one spot, just inject quickly, listen to the scream and get on with it. I would not like my technique used on me.

my dentist just moved here - he might have said Milwaukee

What's his name in the unlikely case he was my dentist too?

[VincentMalamute]

@facw said in Part of my body fell off last week:

Dental overtreatment is scary

Yup, read that article or something similar. It's just like medicine. It's really difficult to know who has the skill or not. Especially surgeons, you have to have them see the exact same patient with the same issue, and then compare results.

Lots of data with tracking readmissions, complications, but that is seriously limited too. Only if you are in the field. OR nurses know which surgeon they would not send their family members to. Radiologists know which surgeons have a lot of complications because their complications end up with x-rays and CT scans. We never see the patients of the good surgeons because they healed without problems.

I'm no longer tied into the medical or dental community here so I'm clueless as a civilian.

[MUSASHI66]

@vincentmalamute from what he told me, it’s a machine. Something like this I think

https://www.milestonescientific.com/dental-solution/the-wand

No clue on the name. Dental office on Harmony in FoCo, by the sandwich shop. No clue on the office name either, I'd have to look it up.

[VincentMalamute]

@musashi66 said in Part of my body fell off last week:

@vincentmalamute from what he told me, it’s a machine. Something like this I think

https://www.milestonescientific.com/dental-solution/the-wand

oh weird. Never heard of it and really vague on how it works. I'll have to look into it. My dentist isn't using it. Just needles but slowly enough it doesn't hurt.

[RiceRocketeer]

@facw yeah that is terrible. Years ago I changed jobs and dental insurance, and tried a new dentist office that had 5 stars on Yelp. They recommended multiple crowns for both me and my wife. Went to another and they said we needed nothing besides a routine cleaning. I still have the estimate from the first dentist because it still pisses me off thinking about it and I can't believe they have the balls to do that to people.

[VincentMalamute]

@ricerocketeer The factors I mention make it very difficult to tell the skill of a dentist or doctor and then you have to wait decades to see if he is an overtreater.

When they start off with 'you need multiple and expensive procedures" , you did right by running. Civilian reviews usually focus on bedside manner because most people don't know anything about the technical aspects of dentistry or medicine.

[derp]

[interstate366]

@derpwagon

[VincentMalamute]

@derpwagon

[Albino Kangaroo]

Painless injection? I don't like the taste of the topical stuff they apply first, so when I get novocaine I just have them jab it in. Unless it is really close to the root I just have them skip it and dive in. That is harder to do in the winter if their water supply is really cold and is often a deciding factor. I just don't like wasting the 10mis waiting for novocaine to kick in and if you don't have it done you can feel the fit and finish of the filling so you know everything lines up right. I have had a ton of work done (root canals they can numb me up. I brush and floss, and rinse, and get f-ing cavities. Co-worker at work, mid forties, 1 cavity she got last year, her older sister, never had a cavity.

I go enough to actually know the support staff names and am very thankful to have a great dentist. One big improvement to my dental health, and this sounds odd, was having my wisdom teeth removed. All four of my wisdom teeth grew normally, but they make it really hard to brush the back teeth properly. One wisdom tooth needed a root canal and they said they don't really do root canals on those, just pull them,. And if you get one you should get the lower, then heck if you are in for 2 might as well get them all done. So much easier to brush back their.

[VincentMalamute]

@66p1800inpieces said in Part of my body fell off last week:

Painless injection? I don't like the taste of the topical stuff they apply first, so when I get novocaine I just have them jab it in.

No, it doesn't hurt that much on an absolute scale. It's all psychological. The thought of a needle inside me just sets off a biological anxiety cascade.

The topical lidocaine taste is fine compared to just the "thought" of a needle. It's me.

The way this dentist was able to thoroughly explain , say, the periodontal disease and treatments and why for both was important. I brought in my bite guard for inspection and he said that bruxism has a "technical" definition and is not grinding or pressure. His thought process is similar to my own that tries to explain disease process using science.

re: taking out wisdom teet. As a teen, they took out my premolars to get my teeth to fit in my mouth.

[Albino Kangaroo]

I think I would have welcomed having the wisdom teeth removed as a teen.

As a teen they slowly spread my upper palate apart so my wisdom teeth would fit.

I am just waiting for them be able to clone teeth and pop new ones in. They are getting closer.

[VincentMalamute]

@musashi66 said in Part of my body fell off last week:

my dentist just moved here - he might have said Milwaukee? He said he used to have painless injection in his old practice and he bought it for the news practice

Can't be my old dentist in Milwaukee. He didn't use the device.

[VincentMalamute]

@66p1800inpieces said in Part of my body fell off last week:

As a teen they slowly spread my upper palate apart so my wisdom teeth would fit.

It's wild how malleable the body is.

I am just waiting for them be able to clone teeth and pop new ones in. They are getting closer.

They kinda do that now with the implants and stuff. The problem I have is the removing the old crap and putting in the new one process. I suspect that is still going to be the same with the fancy cloned teeth.

[VincentMalamute]

@musashi66 said in Part of my body fell off last week:

He said he used to have painless injection in his old practice and he bought it for the news practice as well. I barely felt it. Great new technology.

I was curious why every dentist doesn't have that tech. Google says it's been around since 1998 so it must not be the end all. Looking up how it works, it basically seems to be a computer controlled pump to allow the lidocaine to be injected slowly through the needle.

The device makes it easier but if the dentist was inclined to minimize pain, he can do the same thing by hand. Which is what my new dentist does and my previous one in Fort Collins did not care enough to do! Even after I asked her to!

[MUSASHI66]

@vincentmalamute Honestly, I have no clue, this was my first experience with this and my dentists in Denver, which I used for last 12 years, didn’t use it.

I am so uncomfortable around dentists, I just want to be done and run out. When I was younger, I used to bring a spare T-shirt because I sweated so much.

[VincentMalamute]

@musashi66 I am the same as you, just can't deal with needles, so when you told me about the device, I was excited if that was the solution. Doesn't necessarily sound like it if your dentist injects slowly with good technique. But use of the device eliminates any variables, it sounds like.

[bison78]

@vincentmalamute

My dentist has this single tooth numbing device.

It is a pump that is attached to a needle. The point is that it can pump the anesthetic at a much more accurate rate than a dentist can achieve manually.

It results in numbing just the tooth on which the dentist is working, not the entire side of your mouth.

[VincentMalamute]

@bison78 said in Part of my body fell off last week:

@vincentmalamute

My dentist has this single tooth numbing device.

It is a pump that is attached to a needle. The point is that it can pump the anesthetic at a much more accurate rate than a dentist can achieve manually.

It results in numbing just the tooth on which the dentist is working, not the entire side of your mouth.

yah, that's Milestone's "The Wand" @MUSASHI66 and I have been talking about. I don't really care if it's a single tooth or the whole side of the mouth that's numbed. I just get freaked out over the needle. I have found several dentists as well as my new one that can manually inject painlessly. They need to want to do that which my last dentist didn't care about. From googling, The Wand takes any variation out of the equation but it's possible to inject painlessly manually as I'm happy to say my new dentist does.

[MUSASHI66]

@vincentmalamute You would like the machine. There are no needles to speak of, the wand has some, but it is not like the old fashioned syringe and needle. A lot ore pleasant experience, and it eliminated the "crunch" noise of needle going in the gums.

[VincentMalamute]

@musashi66 said in Part of my body fell off last week:

You would like the machine.

Please don't tell me that when my dentist doesn't have one! I looked on the company's website for nearby dentists and there's only two in Loveland. Five if you include Johnstown, Windsor, and Fort Collins. In the twenty years since it's introduction. FWIW.