Losing a tooth

[Nefarious]

It's only as tooth. It's about half way back, so not immediately visible. I lost loads as a kid. So why does it feel so disturbing?

I had an unfortunate encounter with an unusually robust piece of pork crackling on Sunday which split a tooth vertically down the middle. It was sore, but I fully expected an emergency dental visit to patch it up and send me on my way. But no. Dentist ummed and arghed for a bit and decided there was no saving it.

Do you know how much violence it takes to get a healthy tooth out of your head? I didn't

40 minutes of levering, twisting and yanking felt like my skull was going to collapse. I was numbed up, so it wasn't directly painful, but it did feel deeply disturbing - you can feel the amount of force being applied and every fibre of you being is screaming "this isn't going to end well".

OK, there's a minor concern about eating differently from now on, and yes, it does still bloody hurt, but mostly I think I'm in a bit of a state of shock about losing a bit of my body that's never coming back.

[JLv3.0]

That's how I felt about my hip joint being essentially cut off and replaced with an implant. Couldn't even bring myself to look at the implant itself, and 11 years on haven't quite come to terms with the fact that for a certain amount of time, the only connection between my pelvis and left leg was skin rather than bone

And oh yes - teeth are really quite impressively well attached, aren't they. Incredible devices really, considering how much use they get over how long a period of time, and how relatively poorly we all care for them.

[Nefarious]

Nothing like your hip scenario, but the nearest thing I can compare it to is seeing my own broken ankle with the bones pointing in all sorts of wrong directions. It's the caveman bit of your brain saying "ooooh, we're fucked now".

[Broccers]

When you're a kid it's ok as you get 50p and a new one comes along.

Having had wisdom teeth out I know exactly what you are describing.

[RobYob]

I watched the Mrs get a tooth out as "moral support" she was off her face on whatever the anaesthetic was (she was also hilariously talkative but remembers nothing) and the dirty great pair of pliers and the wrenching and twisting to get the damn things out was very unsettling. Little female dentist looked close to having to brace her knee against my Mrs shoulder for leverage.

[Sundayjumper]

I had a tooth out earlier this year too. Right at the back on the bottom right. Exactly the same thing - split in half from top to bottom.

I’m a massive wuss and opted for full sedation. Very glad I did. I don’t remember a single thing from the actual op and it took a whole day for the drugs to wear off. Perfect.

[JLv3.0]

DIR

[NotoriousREV]

I had a wisdom tooth out that had cracked, just numbed rather than sedated. It was definitely not a fun experience. the main part of the tooth was bad, but it turned out that my tooth had weird roots that left shards in my gum, all of which had to be dug out.

[Simon]

I've had all my wisdom teeth out over the years as they were impacted, but the extreme sedation means I didn't notice a thing. What's worse is the memory of them removing number 3 tooth from the upper right quadrant as there was no room for it as it came through. That was when I was 11-12. Experiencing that kind of removal (and hearing the 'crack'!) as a child put me off dentists for a long time!

[V8Granite]

I had a root canal which I broke after trying to move something heavy. It was repaired and I then broke it again and I had it repaired again last month and it feels much better.

3 nerves in one tooth, I strained my forearms when they got removed as I don’t take to the pain relief well and I could still feel it a bit.

Impacted wisdom teeth were removed but I went under for that and am glad as others had said it could be brutal.

Dave!

[John]

Cracked rear tooth removed here too.

It felt like the dentist numbed the whole of my head just to be on the safe side as I couldn’t feel my ear when I thouched it which was very weird. The most disturbing thing was the creaking noise as he twisted and pulled the tooth, the sort of creaking you get in films when steel beams are collapsing . It took some getting out and he was telling me to brace myself against his effort, the sweat beads forming on his forehead were a bit off putting too. It did eventually pop out though like a big red champagne cork

[DeskJockey]

I'm glad I've got all my teeth and no need to have them removed!

Wife had to have wisdom teeth out. First one out ended up damaging a nerve so she's now got a numb spot below her lower lip.

[drcarlos]

Wife had to have a tooth out a couple of years ago now, it gave her somethine called dry socket so even after it was out gave her grief for a couple of week afterwards and needed antobiotics to sort.

Reminded me of a guy a long time ago where I worked who went in for Wisdom teeth out and said he'd be back in a couple of days. When he wasn't back a week later I was told the op was a bit more involved. When he came back he said he'd opted for full sedation and when removing his teeth they discovered that they were fused to his jawbone so he woke up in massive pain with a wired jaw and feeding via a straw as they'd broken his jaw in 4 places to get the fuckers out.
This explanation was some 8 weeks later as he'd been in hospital for 3 weeks recovering and signed off for the follwing 5!

[Ascender]

I’m a massive wuss and opted for full sedation. Very glad I did. I don’t remember a single thing from the actual op and it took a whole day for the drugs to wear off. Perfect.

Dentists give me the fear, so I'm slightly comforted to hear you can get full sedation - what's the criteria for that?!

[NotoriousREV]

I’m a massive wuss and opted for full sedation. Very glad I did. I don’t remember a single thing from the actual op and it took a whole day for the drugs to wear off. Perfect.

Dentists give me the fear, so I'm slightly comforted to hear you can get full sedation - what's the criteria for that?!

Find yourself a dentist that deals with patients with a phobia of dentists. There’s a fair few around. Also ask about painless treatment.

[Sundayjumper]

I’m a massive wuss and opted for full sedation. Very glad I did. I don’t remember a single thing from the actual op and it took a whole day for the drugs to wear off. Perfect.

Dentists give me the fear, so I'm slightly comforted to hear you can get full sedation - what's the criteria for that?!

There wasn't a criteria. My regular dentist said they could do it with a local anaesthetic, or if I wanted sedation they would refer me to another practice. I said "yes please". It took just over a month to get a consultation, then another three months before the op. All NHS. A long time I know. I could have had the op the week after the consultation if I'd gone private but mine wasn't really painful, just annoying, so it wasn't too much of a problem, and semi-subconsciously it was a way of procrastinating. It's not nice thinking about having bits of you removed.

They called it conscious sedation, but I was definitely out for the whole thing. I remember nothing. Ask your dentist next time you see them. I'm sure they'd be happy to tell you about the procedure even if you're not needing it just yet.

[mik]

Broke a tooth last year - part remaining in my gob was like a razor and sliced my tongue to bits before I could get to the dentist. Luckily it was crown-able. (The tooth - not my tongue.

[Nefarious]

When I had the first three of my 4 wisdom teeth out it was with a diazipam shot and local anesthetic.

They said I had to being somebody with me to help me home afterwards. "Pfff", I thought, "I've had enough chips and peas in my time, I think I can handle a bit of valium". I was wrong. I pretty much crawled home on my hands and knees (the rest, I think I flew)

[Sundayjumper]

Funny story though, my tooth had been niggling for ages but finally split while I was on holiday in Peru with Gavster. We were staying at a farm in the middle of nowhere at the time. First thing the next morning we hiked up to the main road to hitch a ride into town. Calling it a "main road" is a bit generous though as it's just a dirt track. The first car that stopped was a taxi, a really shonky old Corolla estate that already had three passengers in it. The driver indicated we should sit in the boot

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Half an hour later we're in Santa Teresa and in the tourist information office. They seemed surprised and really quite pleased to see some customers. They directed us to the medical centre down the road and I was taken to see the dentist immediately - excellent service. I then had a bit of a panic. The dentist could obviously see what was wrong but didn't speak any English and my Spanish is basically limited to using Google translate, so I was nervous and quite desperate to avoid any misunderstanding as I DID NOT want the tooth pulled out there & then. [1]

We managed to figure it out and he reluctantly patched it up with some resin. The resin fell out a week later but by then I was only a day away from home so it had done its job. I was charged a grand total of 30 Soles for the emergency consultation & treatment. Less than £7.50 !

Everyone was lovely and very helpful, they just seemed a bit baffled as to why we were visiting their town in the first place.

[1] My Dad has a story from a holiday in Spain where he went to the barber and asked for "un poco", which means "a little", because he just wanted a little bit off. The barber interpreted it as meaning he wanted a little bit left and had already started doing a crew cut with the clippers before my Dad realised and by then it was too late

[Swervin_Mervin]

I had a root canal which I broke after trying to move something heavy.

You been moving heavy objects with your teeth again Dave?