I should probably add "teeth" to my interests

[sistermagpie]

Happy birthday ginzai!!! I wish you a little stalker Tim Drake of your own just for the day.:-D

I went to the dentist today to get a filling. Instead, the dentist told me I needed two. Then told me to make an appointment (3 months from now) to get the fillings. And to buy yet another rinsing thing.

I've had tooth problems all my life. This is the first dentist I've ever known who didn't fill cavities when s/he found them. The receptionists' prime directive seems to be to keep people from getting their teeth fixed as long as possible.

Note to self: Find new dentist in dental plan tomorrow. Be sure to make sure new dentist fills teeth.

Comments

[kind-strangers.livejournal.com]

At least it's not as bad as Japanese dentistry. When I broke a tooth they didn't take any kind of medical history before sticking a needle in my mouth. The work was done quickly but not perfectly. My friends who had fillings done usually had to make 3 appointments for each filling.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Wow! Okay, I no longer feel that badly about it!

[ginzai.livejournal.com]

*g* I think everyone should have an ickle stalker!Tim on their birthday. The addition makes things ever so much better. And dentists? They suck. Muchly. Or at least the one that I went to last time did. I don't know... I'm like you in that respect. If there are fillings to be done, then they should be done when discovered and thus not make people miss two (or three!) days of work to get it all sussed out. -_-;

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, AND I just got in trouble for not coming back to work after it was over because it just seemed ridiculous to do that. I should really get a dentist near work instead of near where I live. I hate having to deal with leaving work for something. Other people always seem to come and go far more freely than I do at any job.

But you do deserve a little stalker Tim.:-)

[ginzai.livejournal.com]

Auch. That's ridiculous, really. I'm fairly lucky in that my office is mostly relaxed about these things, but I've been in other positions that weren't and I can sympathize. Good luck with it!

*g* My adoration of Tim continues to grow, thanks to having now read his first actual adventures as Robin and his 'running off to train in the wilds of France' story arc. And thus, I thank you muchly.

[samaranth.livejournal.com]

Three months!!!!!

Find another dentist, oh yes. It's not just the inconvenience - teeth that need fillings hurt!. They should be filled much sooner, rather than later.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

I know! I mean, you'd think a DENTIST would be the person to want the teeth filled, right? Why are they the ones saying, "Okay, just walk around with that for another few months. No biggie."

[arclevel.livejournal.com]

The family dentist when I was a kid would always have you stay longer and fill the teeth. Then my parents decided he wasn't doing a good job, so we switched to a larger practice where, among other things, you had to schedule a new appt for fillings; generally your first option was in about a week. When I was getting my teeth cleaned while home from college, which was a 10-hour drive, this meant that I generally went ridiculously long to get them filled. Not that I really minded. Every time that dentist filled a tooth, it never hurt before he filled it but hurt to chew on for weeks afterward. Needless to say, I don't go there anymore.

[millefiori.livejournal.com]

it never hurt before he filled it but hurt to chew on for weeks afterward.

I have this problem, too -- my dentist says it's because the numbing shots, drilling and filling irritates the nerve and it takes a while for it to settle down. It happens every time I get a filling. :/

I'm curious, did yours stop when you changed dentists? This has happened to me with two different dentists.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Yikes! That must be awful to deal with!

[arclevel.livejournal.com]

I've only had teeth filled once since then, though he did two. Both felt fine very soon after they were filled, but one of them started hurting a week or two later. I thought the filling had broken or fallen out, but the next time I was there (quite some time later; I was too cheap to make an extra appointment unless I had to), they looked and said it was fine, and as it had stopped hurting by that point, I dropped it. In terms of the immediate aftermath, though, I felt fine.

I hate needles going into my gums. Keep in mind that I give blood and happily watch the needle go in as I chat with the nurses, and in general I have a pretty high pain tolerance. I can't handle needles in my gums, though. The last dentist -- the one who always seemed to make things worse -- offered to use a little gas so the needles didn't hurt, but then use Novacaine as the main anesthetic. I liked that system, but now I have to wonder if it was related to the way I always hurt afterwards.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

When I was a kid they always seemed to do everything right away. Sometimes I would have a toothache before I went, other times not. Once when I was little I seriously injured myself chewing on my tongue before the novacaine wore off. Oops.

It would drive me crazy if it hurt to chew on it afterwards-that's awful!

[arclevel.livejournal.com]

Once when I was little I seriously injured myself chewing on my tongue before the novacaine wore off

Yow! My biggest numbness-related problem was right after I had my wisdom teeth removed, so I was *very* numb, and through much of my face. Mom was advised to get me a Frosty so I could eat *something,* so we stopped by Wendy's on the way home. I was eating by getting a spoonful, pointing it into my mouth, and turning over the spoon. So I thought. Mom realized after a while that I was missing my mouth with nearly every spoonful and thus very slowly pouring the Frosty down my front. Messy, but at least not painful.

[mizbean.livejournal.com]

I feel your pain. Oh boy, do I. I've had dental problems all my life and I really do try to take good care of my teeth, even have one of those fancy sonicare toothbrushes. I just have thin enamel, something I've inherited from my mother.

I just had to have a cracked filling replaced with a crown - a nice $700 bill (I do have dental insurance, thank god) and I had a root canal last year and various other problems: pulled teeth, bridges, filling, etc. Sometimes I think I'm putting my dentist's kids through college.

And did I mention that I have a pathological fear of dentists? Gee, I wonder why.

Yeah, I would think that you would want to have those cavities filled right away. You wouldn't want to have a root canal done on those.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

A friend was telling me how dentists are having trouble because of all the breakthroughs in tooth care so they don't have a lot of the business they used to count on. I feel like this should make them treat me even better since, like you, I have just terrible teeth despite the time and money I spend on them with the electric toothbrush and the flossing and the different rinses! My one dentist used to say I was, "The girl with the teeth like butter." Funny thing is I like dentists because I've had some really good ones (that I naturally had to spend a lot of time with)...maybe that's why these guys drive me crazy.

Ugh root canal is definitely not something I want right now.

[petitesoeur.livejournal.com]

going to the dentist has become a very complicated, expensive and time consuming business at best -- yours sound worst -- find a new one

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I just have to go for the inconvenience of looking for somebody else.

[millefiori.livejournal.com]

Oh, man--I can't believe they have a three month wait! Their practice is either too busy to accomodate you or (paranoid dentophobic thought) they're deliberately lengthening the wait time so as to allow decay to spread--more surface to fill means more $$ to charge.

I suppose I can see rescheduling if they'd only booked time for one filling, but could do both with one numbing shot, you know? But I'd expect a new appointment within a week, two at the most!

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

The last time they almost *really* screwed up when I was fitted for a crown, and then had to come back to get it put in. I told them what I needed done, and they gave me an appointment a long time away. When I finally came in the dentist wasn't even sure they'd still HAVE the crown, and if they did she worried it wouldn't work because so much time had passed it wouldn't fit anymore. They're lucky it did, but that was the first time I started thinking, "Okay, I need to find another denist." I just got lazy about it.

[kearie.livejournal.com]

You should definitely find a new dentist! If you wait to long to get a filling you might need a root canal, and that's the epitome of no fun...

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

That is definitely my fear.

[(Anonymous)]

This is probably a dumb question, but do you have sealant on your teeth? If not, it might be worth investigating with the new dentist (speaking as someone who had years of teeth problems, beginning from the high doses of phenobarbital they gave me as an wee un (I stopped taking it a week before the FDA pulled it), then moving into the "shark teeth" phenomonen of having the permanent teeth come in behind the baby teeth and thus requiring 8 teeth pulled in kindergarten and then, for some bizarre reason, having none of my baby teeth become loose, requiring them ALL to be pulled over the following eight years. The only plus was that the tooth fairy "felt sorry" for me, and so I generally scored a paperback book with a dollar inside, and at least one afternoon off from school. Also, I still get to see my speciality "pediatric" dentist at the age of 23.

Anyway. A sealant is probably worth the investment if you have chronic problems.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Wow, that does sound painful. You were very unlucky in the tooth department.

I think I may have had something like that done when I was a kid, but I'm not sure. I'll ask about it when I go back. Thanks!