Dental experiences with O.City
 

Had a pretty interesting day today at the office. Morning was pretty normal, drill and fill, check hygiene, extract a tooth etc. Nothing too out of the ordinary.

Pretty normal lunch. Trolled around on CP, ate an apple and a handful of wheat thins.

Then the afternoon hit.

I see inmates from the county jail here in town if they have a tooth ache or something, sheriff or deputy will call up and bring them up in shackles and the whole bit. It's not big deal, most of them are just happy to get out of pain and it's not a problem. So dude comes in, my assistant goes in to ask the normal "which tooth is bothering you, let me get an xray, blah blah". I was in the lab doing something so I wasn't really paying attention. She comes in and says "doc, you will need to come look at something" to which I responded "he need a tooth out, which tooth is hurting"?

"All of them". Huh, ok, weird response but lets go check it out. Sure enough, continued meth use pretty much causes things to not go so well intraorally, so he was pretty much decayed out and most teeth were broken off to the gumline (google meth mouth if you want to see it, i'm not messing with photos). Asked if I could extract all 26 teeth he had left in the 30 minute block we had on the schedule for him.

I laughed, said "nah, which one hurts the worst, we'll take that out". He pointed to one, I numbed it up, used an elevator to take it out, about 30 seconds worth of pressure and it was pretty lose. 2 teeth next to it are super mobile and infected (which starts draining as I get this one out, that smelt nice) so I told him he was getting 2 free extractions since he was already numb in that area and they were loose and I was right there, no harm no foul.

It's always fun when we see the inmates, the Sheriff comes up and sits in the room with them all serious, then when I come in the room we talk about hunting or why the Chiefs always break hearts or something.

He breaks down and starts crying thanking me, that he already felt better (if you saw the amount of infection I drained, you'd see why) and asked if he could make an appointment for when he got out. "Sure, how long you think you'll be in this predicament".

"I figure 4 or 5 years, you scheduling ahead that far yet"? Told him nah, just take care of himself and come see me when he gets out.

Next patient is an amish guy (we have a fairly big amish community near us), super nice guy, needs a crown. Asks if he can barter instead of pay, I ask what is in it for me, said he'd bring me a dozen eggs every week for 6 months (they have chicken barns or something) or I could have a quarter of one of the cows they're butchering. Sold, eggs and beef for a crown, sign me up.

Only problem with that is he scheduled an appointment for himself, but brought 4 other family members who all needed work done.

So we had a waiting room full of inmates and Amish this afternoon. Thought that might be a good name of a band or something.

you probably could have impregnated his daughter for a crown

Amish folks have to have outsiders hump their women to avoid inbreeding in small Amish communities

This seems like a great tourism development opportunity. Does anyone know of any hotels for sale near Amish colonies?

who’d you hire to pick up the horse shit out in the parking lot ?

So do you tie his tooth to a string and then close the elevator door and press "up"? I guess that would work well.

Did the Amish not know that the going rate is a bottle of Pappy?

Speaking of Amish, supposed to be some place in SWMO where they sell cheap, cheap pies, cookies, pretzels, etc. that are incredible. Can’t put my finger on the name but I’ve been meaning to check it out

There's a road side stand just south of the Stockton city limits where they sell fried pies. Several different flavors, made that morning. Damn they're good.

Hah! Cool stories, you should make this a whole series O.city.

Didn’t they have anything better than critter and egg? Like furniture maybe?

Yeah, that wasn't expected. I've tapped into it, it's pretty tasty.

Sorry, lol, elevator is a dental too.

Dental elevator. Basically looks like a flathead screwdriver if you bent eh end to a half C. That's the one I use atleast.

There's a couple stores down here that they have.

I did braces on one of the girls a year or two ago and the mom made us some home Made strudel. It was awesome.

I've definitely got some stories. Shit, seems like I have something crazy happen atleast once per week.

I was in a bowling team called The Amish Mafia. I think that would suffice for a good band name.

I'd like to hear more also O.city.

Yeah what the hell, let’s make it a Wednesday night thing

I had a guy call me one Saturday night a few years ago, was during the fall I was watchin some football game in my sweat pants.

Anyway, the guy says he has a severe tooth ache and he had gotten drunk and let some of his buddies try to pull it and that they'd just made it worse, would I come in on Saturday night and pull it for him. Said no at first, but he said he make it worth my time, so off I went in my sweats.

I show up and there's 3 guys waiting on the tailgate of their truck, 2 of them drinking beer and 1 of them laying down holding his face. I have at that point a pretty good idea of which dude I'll be working on.

So I get him in the chair, take an xray, sure enough they'd done about as well as you'd think with a pair of channel locks, so I numb him up and off we go. As I'm working on it, i'm using an elevator (thanks Rainman) to loosen the roots up as they'd broken the crown off down to the gumline. I had to cut a trough around it in the bone to get a purchase point to get leverage but that was no biggie.

Anyway, as i'm working my back is to the doorway into the operatory and I can kind of feel someone standing behind me looking over my shoulder. I kind of look up and it's his two buddies whos names escape me, but we'll call Bill and Mike.

They see me using the tool I've got there, which as I said earlier is kind of like a flat head screwdriver with a bent end, and I hear them talking.

Bill says "damn mike tahts where we messed up, next time we pull one of his teeth we have to use a flat head first to loosen it up". I half heartedly laugh, thinking I'll probably see them on the news in the future or something and extract the tooth.

They offer me a Budweiser, we have one in the parking lot and I leave, only to never see them again.

That was the last time I went in on a weekend for a non patient of record.

Enjoyable thread, cheers!

I'll confess that I'm a little disappointed.

Went in one night about 11 for a guy that called and said he was in severe pain, couldn't sleep and had to have something done. I learned to ask a lot of questions on the phone during this situation.

I get up and throw some clothes on and head to the office. It's about a 25 minute drive to my current office from the house, so I get there and flip everything on, guy comes in and is talking about how he's having so much pain, can't eat etc.

Sit him in the chair, he takes out his denture and says he has this severe soar spot when he eats. I give him that "are you ****ing kidding me" look, ask him "so you have a denture sore spot and you couldn't sleep, did you think maybe just to take your denture out"?

"Huh, I didn't even think of that". Wasn't my finest hour.

As I said, I always ask a lot of questions now if it's an emergency.

Do you wear scrubs while working?

If so, how do they make your ass look?

Usually wear scrubs.

Pretty good, solid 8.

**** yes.

Do you double glove on prisoners?

Maybe they left you a beer and it was just sitting there in the parking lot.

i am an anti dentite

In a weird coincidence, I should note that I just had a dental checkup today. I have no good stories about it, though. They cleaned my teeth and gave me some travel toothpaste when we finished.

Anti dentite bastard.

O sounds like way more fun than my dentist.

Got another inmate coming in this afternoon, should be a fun time. I'll update later.

Sometimes this shit makes me pretty beat down. I made a full set of dentures for an 18 year a few years back, was his graduation present from his parents. Heartbreaking. Kid had never touched a toothbrush. Parents had the mentality of "my grandparents had bad teeth and dentures, I had bad teeth and dentures, he will have bad teeth and dentures". Sure enough, that's what happened.

Pro tip. That's not how it works. It's not genetic, unless you have an actual genetic deficiency (which is pretty rare). No you didn't get the bad teeth from your parents, you got the piss poor hygiene and you drink soda all day every day.

I had an instructor in dental school that was a retired Navy dentist. Really cool interesting guy. He always told patients, dentistry isn't expensive, neglect is. That's the damn truth.

I hear all the time "nah doc, it doesn't hurt, I'll fix it when it does". Ok, well it could be fixed with a filling right now, when it hurts it's either a root canal and crown or it's cold steel and sunshine (extraction).

Tell me this O cause I’ve been curious for awhile

Does coffee stain the teeth regardless of hygiene habits? Or does it all come back to just brushing your damn teeth

It stains.

It can be removed if it's an extrinsic stain, but coffee tea etc, will stain.

So in more of a temporary fashion? Like wine, etc.

I usually try to brush right after having it. Idk if that helps or not.

It does.

It takes a while and a lot to really stain it that bad, but they'll stain. Don't do whitening if you aren't gonna cut back on any habits that cause stain.

People all the time "I wanna whiten my teeth, but I won't stop drinking 5 cups of coffee per day". Well ok then.

How often do you floss O.City? How many people still think they can get away with lying about how much they floss?

how do you drain infection?

is it like popping a really huge wet zit that turns into a flowing river of pus?

i'd watch that shit live on webcam

Every night brah.

My hygienist grills people about their habits all the time, I don't anymore. I have a big window in my office, I've extracted teeth and watched people walk out the door, stand in front of my window and light a cigarette after I just said "don't smoke, it increases risk of dry socket".

They always say "oh yeah, I brush and floss daily". So your gums bleed when I touch them because....? Or that shit that looks like bread on your teeth just got there in the last 30 minutes? Ok. Cool.

People are gonna do what they want. They don't listen. I just tell them their options and they can choose what they wanna do.

"I care as much about your teeth as you do".

also i am terrible about flossing - i do it, just very sporadically, i do brush 2x regularly and mouthwash - and just went to the dentist this morning, wasn't bad but i always have some plaque they have to scrape off, usually takes 20 minutes or so

how much do they hate me?

i assume not so much since they see people with total nuclear fallout mouths

Bet you love it when the women inmates show up

Incise and drain. Take a surgical blade, bury it in the abscess until it drains or you hit bone.

I've drained a lot thru the actual tooth. Open the tooth to do a root canal and it will drain out.

That's pretty normal. Hell, I always have some calculus build up on the back of my lower front teeth. It happens, not much you can do in some spots. I have a permanent retainer after having braces and it's a real bitch to clean around.

holy ****

i bet that is painful after the numbing wears off

you gotta stitch it up right?

yes, this is the main problem area for me, and upper outside teeth

anyway, i never feel bad, clean my ****ing teeth and give me no guff, that's what i pay you for

O, can you whiten a dead tooth with normal hydrogen peroxide whitening? Asking bc I don’t want to get a ****ing cap if I don’t have to.

Edit: tooth was whitened already with a route canal/bleach, but there’s a thin line at the top that’s bothering me bc it’s not whitened.

No, want it to keep draining.

Have to either start a root canal or extract the tooth where the issue is coming front.

Have you had endo (root canal) done on said tooth?

Saw your edit. If it's intrinsic like that, it's tough to do without a crown or veneer. You can do the internal bleaching and get good results but it can take a bit.

I've never had a cavity, nor single thing done to my teeth other than checkups and cleaning.

O won't have to worry about me coming in due to emergency unless I grind my teeth into dust during yet another playoff meltdown.

holy ****, how vain are you

I'm going to go with a 6 here...

Hey, you bastard, you ok? Haven't heard from you in a while!

I noticed i had tartar build up on the backside of my lower front teeth the other day so i picked it all out with a paper clip cuz im a bad ass mofo like that.

...Actually i just dont like going to the dentist...or doctor.

Sounds smart. Good job. LMAOROFL:evil:

Dear Mr. O.city, I read on a website that there is some thought that flossing may not be as beneficial as people think. Your thoughts?

Is the correlation between flossing and good dental health a direct one, or because daily flossers are more likely to take better care of their teeth in general?

I'll listen off the air.

Hey it worked though! Teeth feel so clean and smooth now....

Eh, it's more about removing interproximal (between teeth) buildup and impacted debris (food) than anything. I haven't read on it recently, there was some stuff about it a few years ago (maybe what you're referencing) but I won't comment on it either way.

Brushing is the gold standard, but what I would say is the majority of decay occurs between teeth directly below the contact point where they meet. That can't be cleaned with a brush.

LIke you've said, most people that floss regularly are pretty habitual with their oral hygiene so that may correlate. Like most things in life, it's not one thing or another.

Diet, hygiene, type of bacteria intraorally etc is different for everyone. Some patients have a lot of trouble with periodontal disease but no issues with decay, some have decay but fine gum tissue, some both.

im alive. you know me, never a dull moment. i'll get you guys all caught up when it's all over with. it'll be entertaining.

i saw your chris jones thread yesterday but havent gotten to read it yet, i could still just see beuhler's head exploding though. LMAO

LMAO


the wife drinks coffee all the time. hell she smokes when she drinks too.


but she peroxide and sodas those ****ers at LEAST once a day and it shows.

what a bunch of vain assholes

was enjoying a bowl of hot soup..........till I read this!

wow

what's wrong with hot soup

When you think about the distribution of teeth, is it a bell curve, or is it a logarithmic curve?

In other words, if I asked you to recall the best set of teeth you've ever seen from a combined aesthetic and health standpoint, would you immediately winnow the list down to a select few sets that wowed you? Or are perfect teeth something that should be pretty common so you've got 10 or 20 or 30 percent of patients with excellent teeth that are all perfect or near-perfect?

something about nasty teeth and tooth decay kind of ruined it for me!

:doh!:

Eh, would have to define perfect. Orthodontically perfect is different than say, restoratively perfect. I've got quite a few patients that don't have any restorations (filings, crowns etc) and have had braces so they're pretty.

Just depends what you want/like.

Afternoon inmate is...…..surprise surprise a 21 year old previous (he says) meth and crack user. Guess he hasn't been using for 5 months, he's been in the clink that long.

Extracting a couple molars. Probably needs all his teeth extracted. Sad.

"Baby take your teeth out" by zappa comes to mind

And of course he says he's not numb and is freaking out. Should be a fun afternoon.

Now I get to work on a screaming 8 year old with a tooth ache. Wow, this is turning into a real bang up afternoon.

Is it 5 yet?

I'm just wondering if there has ever been a specific person where you've said, "That's the best set of chompers I've ever seen."

Yeah, some of my work!:D

But no, not really. I've seen some really cool cosmetic cases that turned out well.

THEN STOP ASKING ME IF I FLOSS!!!! WE BOTH KNOW I DON'T, GODDAMMIT!

Same dentist for 10 years and every time "how's flossing going...."

Dude, you just had your hygienist tattoo my gums for 10 minutes and my mouth tastes like I got punched. Oh, and when she tried to floss she kept wrecking the string because my wisdom teeth are in all the way and that shit's hard to get in and out because I have pretty much no clearance there.

Everyone in this room knows I didn't floss. Why do you need me to tell you this again?

It's just part of the routine. Honestly.

I say the same 3 or 4 conversation starters to every patient. Then we talk about something else to pass a few seconds, then I check them out then off we go.

"How is everything going? Do anything interesting for vacation this year?"

"Have any interesting trips planned?"

"How is the family?"

"Epstein didn't kill himself."

You just like to floss shame.

Side note - my dentist got a whizz-bang water scraper thing about 4-5 years ago and asked me if I wanted to use that instead of the metal pick. Oh hell yes, I'll try anything instead of that damn metal pick.

I love it; high pitched whir I can ignore well enough and nowhere near as much agony. They get the last few spots they couldn't hit with the metal one but I don't have a screaming headache and bloody mouth anymore.

But now I specifically have to ask them to use it. They don't mention it and my wife doesn't even realize they have it. They do - it exists and they're happy to fire it up if I ask them to. Is there any reason why it seems to have fallen out of favor or do you figure this particular office just had enough patients who didn't like it that it's not at the front of their mind.

Ultrasonic scaler.

My hygienist uses it on every patient. I hate the sound of it, it's right by my office so I hear it all the time I'm in here on CP.

Pretty much.

Update.

Inmate starting sobbing loudly, apparently he wasn't as tough as he thought. Got him on some antibiotics and will see him in a week. He's a sissy, he was numb, just didn't like pressure.

Heh