Teeth woes

so i have my first dental appointment in years on wednesday that my wife booked for m... I have some issues with my teeth and i know work is required... and as 38 year old man I'm terrified!
 
I have recently been for an extraction and a filling after a 4 year absence from the dentist.
The extraction was a tooth that had broken around 6 years ago and had been temporarily filled.
I had been meaning to go for the last 3 years but kept forgetting about it until I got suspected neuralgia.
I had a pain in my temple that felt like someone had hit me really hard with a pointy object. I couldn't sleep properly...weird thing was it only started aching on an evening.
I seen a different dentist to usual and vowed to change when I got back which I tried a couple of days later only to be told "she's left" - gutted, the biggest reason for forgetting to visit the dentist was the butcher that I usually saw.

Good luck !
 
I'm currently saving to get most of mine replaced with implants. When I was younger I needed corrective surgery which failed, and the orthodontist at the time I hated, when removing the braces he left cement all over and cut into quite a few teeth which I had to have filled. Left with an overbite that cannot be corrected without the whole lot being removed and a distrust for dentists who on the NHS will only do so much if they can fit it in to their standard appointments.

I struggle to eat hard foods, I cannot bite, I went to the dentist for the first time in a few years last year and all they would offer was a cosmetic bridge that didn't even solve most of the issues I had. I didn't go ahead with it and a few weeks ago they had the cheek to call to book for a "checkup", even though they know I never had the treatment.

I've found another dentist that offers NHS checkups and private treatment (implants) so I'll get another opinion and will consider going abroad for treatment due to the amount of work that needs doing. Dentistry here seems a bit like car garages, some like the repeat business of doing shoddy work, others are happy just to cash in on MOTs (checkups).
 
I eat sugary stuff all day long and my teeth are fine.

Hell I normally end up having weetabix loaded with a tablespoon of sugar after brushing and before bed.

Maybe I have super invincible teeth?
 
elmarko said:
Well, we have acid related tooth decay, varying difference thickness of enamel, the predisposition to bruxism (tooth grinding) etc.
Click to expand...

None of which are tooth decay.
One is erosion of enamel.
One is attrition.
One is abrasion.
Decay is specific, it is called tooth decay, you need four things, a tooth, bacteria, time and sugar.

Thats tooth decay, the other are various different things which can damage teeth.

In rare cases people can have dentinogenesis imperfecta, and amelogenesis imperfecta, or malformation of the tooth follicle, this can lead to decay affecting teeth at a faster rate, and the other things you mentioned leading to damage at a faster rate.

The original statement remains accuarte, tooth decay is caused by sugar feeding bacteria, which produce acid to damage the tooth. Without sugar you will NOT have tooth decay. Acid damage, erosion, attrition, abrasion are all different ways to damage teeth, stop calling them tooth decay, they are not.
 
I had a break from the dentist for about 15 years, ending just a few years ago. A quick clean and check up at my first appointment back and I was back on my way again; no decay, no nothing other than a small build up of plaque in an awkward corner.

I'm now 37, still have a very sweet tooth but don't have any fillings or problems at all. At the last visit, the dentist said my oral hygiene is "remarkable"! :D <-- see
 
Definitely worth going to the dentist for regular check ups and cleans to prevent any problems as much as possible. I need to be more careful with my diet - recently needed a filling and it was a bit of a wake up call. Gave up on NHS dentists years ago - too difficult to find a good one and most don't carry the best equipment.

Some of my problems have originated from the NHS preventative treatment where they sealed my molars. I guess the stuff they used back then wasn't as good and in some places has cracked (would have lost a tooth had an X-Ray not picked this up!
 
ozaudio said:
I think the thought of a needle in your mouth is the scary part , its just a scratch like any other needle. find an nhs dentish and it isn't expensive

http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/AboutNHSservices/dentists/Pages/nhs-dental-charges.aspx
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Never really understood the fear of the injection at the dentist - its literally like having a biro touched against your skin - even when they inject into the roof of the mouth its not that bad.

I spent too much of my life brushing my teeth the wrong way (too much rinsing out) thanks to someone who should have known better given they had dental training :|

Sugar control is the hardest bit - ever since using an Oral B Pro-Expert Medium toothbrush and Sensodyne Repair & Protect and making sure I brush twice a day properly my dental health has gone up significantly.

EDIT: Actually my worst issue has been due to the 2 molars that I tend to put pressure on if I grit my teeth while lifting heavy stuff or under stress which has done more damage to them than anything else.
 
I too have been rinsing out too much. Didn't really think about it - I now just spit instead of rinsing with water.

I don't get the injection thing - my dentist sprays the gum anyway to numb it before hand, so you feel even less. The only thing I don't like is the sensation, especially when you can feel it between your jaw bone and tooth (like my last filling). Was a waste of time anyway since he ended up having to numb the main nerve (and most of my tongue along with it!).
 
My teeth were fine, went to the dentist, had two fillings. All honkey dorey. The hygienist is where it went wrong. :( picked and polished my teeth, a few months down the road started getting extreme sensitivity to hot and cold down the left side of my mouth. Hoping it just goes cause the bills are extortionate!
 
I've always brushed my teeth twice a day, but unfortunately about 2 months ago I had to get my first filling (I'm 31 by the way). One of my molar's at the very back of my mouth had a small hole in it and the teeth had started to rott from the inside :(
 
Well, my new shiny toothbrush arrives today! £70 in, first expense, I will be booking a dentist appointment in today as well. Also, buying new mouthwash as it turns out Listerine doesn't have fluoride in it which is what I've been using for years.

So I'll get Colgate fluoride mouthwash, not sure which toothpaste to go to? My main focus is simply to get my receding gums to grow back.

Any suggestions?
 
I go to the bargin shops and get the tooth paste that costs £3-4 in a supermarket for around £1 - 1.50, same with mouth wash, £1 mouthwash but has all these same things the £3 bottles have.
 
I have poor teeth (part my fault/part genetics) and am too saving for private treatment.
I had a lot of unnecessary work (fillings with no sign of decay) done by unscrupulous NHS dentist when I was younger.
My advice would be, if you have good teeth NHS checkups are ok, but if you need work doing go private.

My last encounter with an NHS dentist was I had a tooth damaged by a slap in the mouth with a spanner, the dentist rebuilt the tooth and told me to remember that the tooth was not for eating with!!!! WTHFF
Fell out 2 days later, I have since had it crowned privately.

Keep smiling :D
 
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I've been lucky enough that I have parents who strongly stressed good oral hygiene, eg not being allowed sweets very often at all (and I'm sure much less sugary food, although less was available twenty years ago?), twice daily brushing and rinsing.

The best investment I made was an electric toothbrush. I think I paid £150 for it but it's ten years old and still going strong, its more than paid for itself as far as I'm concerned.

The only thing I don't like doing is brushing before breakfast, as I haven't found a toothpaste with a neutral enough flavour for me.

My teeth aren't straight or pretty, are a bit oddly shaped and I certainly don't have a particularly attractive smile, but I couldn't care less. They're healthy :)!
 
Hikari Kisugi said:
None of which are tooth decay.
One is erosion of enamel.
One is attrition.
One is abrasion.
Decay is specific, it is called tooth decay, you need four things, a tooth, bacteria, time and sugar.

Thats tooth decay, the other are various different things which can damage teeth.

In rare cases people can have dentinogenesis imperfecta, and amelogenesis imperfecta, or malformation of the tooth follicle, this can lead to decay affecting teeth at a faster rate, and the other things you mentioned leading to damage at a faster rate.

The original statement remains accuarte, tooth decay is caused by sugar feeding bacteria, which produce acid to damage the tooth. Without sugar you will NOT have tooth decay. Acid damage, erosion, attrition, abrasion are all different ways to damage teeth, stop calling them tooth decay, they are not.
Click to expand...
You implied that by avoiding sugar you can avoid tooth decay.

This is not true as you can still get tooth decay from eating carbohydrates or acidic without consuming refined sugar, every single person eats some sugar & a number of those who eat some sugar will suffer from tooth decay because the thickness of the enamel has been worn/reduced by a number of side conditions (a majority of which have a genetic element).

You make it sound like if a person doesn't eat sweets, cakes, biscuits & drink fizzy drinks they will not get tooth decay (which isn't actually correct), while you may wish to move the goalposts my original statement regarding the causes of tooth decay are more complicated than just sugar consumption is still correct (as already weakened teeth by other factors will decay with even a minimal amount of sugar present in carbohydrates which are virtually impossible to avoid).

"It's not just sugars that are harmful: other types of carbohydrate foods and drinks react with plaque and form acids. (These are the 'fermentable' carbohydrates such as the 'hidden sugars' in processed food, natural sugars like those in fruit, and cooked starches.)

Snacking between meals on sugary or acidic foods and drinks can increase the risk of decay, as the teeth come under constant attack and do not have time to recover. It is therefore important not to keep snacking on sugary foods or sipping sugary drinks throughout the day. "

http://www.dentalhealth.org/tell-me-about/topic/mouth-conditions/dental-decay
 
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Wazz-1 said:
I had a lot of unnecessary work (fillings with no sign of decay) done by unscrupulous NHS dentist when I was younger.
Click to expand...

One thing that keeps popping up from time to time on the subject of dentists is the ones employed by the NHS 30-40 odd years ago. My mother (now in her early 50's) as a kid got a lot of fillings in her teeth, teeth that didn't even need the work doing. She said she used to take care of her teeth because she hated the dentist, but to no avail, she usually got a filling regardless. I've heard similar stories from other people around her age too, so it obviously wasn't an isolated case.
 
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