I have traintracks, choochoo Options

[Charmy]

This is my flirting face.

(IMG:http://i1356.photobucket.com/albums/q731/Vether/5b3ff5c7-eefb-4917-bb04-8b976ea011de_zps88d8a60d.jpg)

The rainbow shines so hard on people's faces they're blinded.

Anyway, I got my braces on yesterday. I didn't even realise they started putting on the brackes until halfway through. It was the weirdest frikkin' thing. They put this red thing in my mouth to keep it open, trapped my tongue, had two beepy machines poking around my mouth, sucking, gooey stuff on my teeth, like, three metal appliances and a red spatula. Then they applied all the different colours. I intended to get rainbow, and it was the third suggestion she made when telling me about the colours. "You can get red, green, rainbow-" "Rainbow! That's what I wanted."

So now I smile rainbows.

THE RAINBOWS HURT.
But I'm getting used to it. I can hardly chew a thing though. I kind smoosh it around with my tongue and swallow it down.

Tell me about your braces experiences, because I'll have these on longer than 365 days and have plenty more to endure.

[Mizukithepanda]

I've never had braces, but hey, smiling rainbows has got be a hell of a lot better than farting rainbows.

That said, I can regale you with tales of various other dental experiences.

[Charmy]

I like to consider farting rainbows a rather relaxing and wonderful moment.

Tell me your dental woes. /Slides up some floss

[Noviwan]

I used to have retainers long ago they were emerald green had them for a year or two then when my dentist said I didn't need them anymore They vanished like a guardian angel that served its duty.

[Peter]

I know this is a little old, but it's interesting that you have braces when your teeth already look really straight. May I ask why you had to get them?

[Charmy]

My teeth weren't in a bad condition, but not perfect either.
On the bottom row, one of my teeth sticks out noticeably more than the rest, and I always hated that. And I can't actually sit them on top of each other in a straight row. I'm not obsessive about my teeth, but they said I could get braces before getting all my wisdom teeth pulled out and see how that goes. I also have a small overbite which I may or may not get corrected also. I thought it was a good chance to get rid of some things I don't like about my smile.

[Mizukithepanda]

I have a slight overbite as well, and my dentist always maintained that it's best to just leave your natural bite as it is. If it was such a large overbite that you were having issues closing your lips over your teeth or something, I'd say go ahead, but really, slight overbites can lead to having a very pretty smile as well.

Oh, and I said that I'd relay some dental stories when this was made... What would like to hear about? Crowns or root canals? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lalaexdee.gif)

[Twilight Wandere...]

I vote root canals.

[Peter]

Huh, and here I thought your smile was pretty. To each their own I guess.

Two for root canals. I can share some stories as well and some about having my wisdoms removed. :)

[Mizukithepanda]

Okay. Let's go for the first root canal I got.

So, a couple of years ago my teeth were pretty bad off. (For the record, last January was about a year from when this happened.) I'd had rampant decay across my top teeth for a while and it was only getting worse. My dentist at the time (slimy bastard) was having issues with me as a patient. He couldn't handle the sheer amount of decay that I had, and after he ended up poking and prodding a really sensitive cavity to the point where I sort of developed a fear of the explorer tool, he decided to hand me off to the new lady he was hiring as a partner. During one of my visits with this lady, she decided to redo a filling in my back molar, because she saw some decay around the filling. After getting the old filling out and cleaning out the new decay, she realized that she had drilled too deep and that the tooth, which had previously been completely fine aside from a little extra decay, now needed a root canal, because the nerve was exposed. (What a great dentist.) I didn't feel any pain or anything, so I didn't really see why I needed one at all, but she insisted and my old dentist backed her up.

Now, it's important to note that root canals have varying levels of difficulty. The teeth in front are generally considered easier to perform one on, because there are only two somewhat sizable roots to clear out. The molars, especially the ones furthest back, are considered the most difficult teeth to perform a root canal on, because there are three roots instead of two, and they're not always large enough to see properly. Most general dentists will not touch a back molar root canal and will instead send their patients to an endodontist (someone who specializes in root canals) so as to avoid liability and provide the best service.

My dentist tried to do it herself.

Now, a lot of people seem to think that root canals are these absolute misery fests that are horrible little bits of dental torture, but really, the procedure isn't that bad. You get numbed up, they put this thin sheet of rubber around your tooth to isolate it, drill out the pulp, remove the nerves, check the depth, sand down the rough edges inside, fill the empty roots with something (I think mine were filled with gutapercha), seal the tooth with a filling, and then pop a crown on it. If the dentist is good, it takes about an hour and a half, if they suck it takes anywhere from three hours to two whole appointments. This lady was obviously the latter.

It started out alright for the most part. She went through the motions of the root canal slowly (Because she wasn't sure of herself. B|), but other than it fucking taking forever, it seemed fine. After about two hours she'd finished drilling (which is a miserably long time if you've ever been in a dentist chair) and had moved on to checking depth, sanding, and filling. She spent what seemed like forever just checking the depth over and over again, and since it was my first root canal, I didn't really know that that was unusual. That shouldn't have taken more than half an hour or so to do. It's common to have to check a few times, and I've seen it take ten to fifteen minutes in some cases, but half an hour of checking depth to see if you did it right is ridiculous. But, she'd already shown in the past that she was a ludicrously slow dentist, so I just assumed this was normal for her and didn't think anything of it. She finished filling it, gave me this weird blue filling in my actual tooth to seal it all up while I waited for a crown, and sent me home with a $1600 bill.

A couple of weeks later, she called my parents up to tell them that she was absolutely certain that she'd done it wrong and I'd have to get it redone. (This wasn't just over the phone either. They actually called all of us into a meeting at the office to discuss the fact that she fucked up.) Oh yeah. I got two for the price of one. I was sent to an actual endodontist this time, and my dentist office offered to pay for it, since we'd already paid for the one that bitch screwed up. The x-rays showed that she'd only managed to get about halfway down the roots both with drilling and filling, which is really, really horrible for a root canal. My endodontist (who's a really nice, calming old man) went in, drilled all of her crap out, cleaned out my roots for real, and filled them back up properly... in an hour and a half. If he'd done it from the beginning, instead of having to fix someone else's mess, it would've only taken an hour.

This was actually the final event that spurred us to find a new dentist. There's no point in staying with a dentist who doesn't know when she's not good enough to handle something. And there's even less point in staying at an office that allows these kinds of things to unfold.

I've also had two other root canals. Neither are quite as exciting of a story as this one, though.

[Twilight Wandere...]

Damn your dentist sucked balls. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lalaexdee.gif)

I wouldn't sit for that. I'd have gotten out of the chair and left...

[Mizukithepanda]

You can't exactly do that when you've got pins and shit in your mouth and biting down on them might damage something. You've literally got no choice but to sit there.

[Peter]

Man, what a story. I've only had one root canal done, and at least the procedure wasn't as awful as yours sounds like it was. But unfortunately, it was on a tooth that didn't need it done. The guy basically told me that I needed it done, but I have switched dentists since then.

My new dentist asked why I had a root canal done. I told him because my previous provider of care said it needed done.

"Were you in pain?"
"No."
"Could you feel things falling into the tooth?"
"No."
"Was it sensitive to the touch or to hot and cold?"
"Not to the touch, but all of my teeth don't really like hot and cold much."

Basically, said it probably just needed filled, but due to the location (judging by I guess where he drilled?) he said he probably didn't want to hassle with filling it. That was a few years ago. I also never got a crown on it yet, but I should look into doing so soon. I get nervous about it.

[Mizukithepanda]

That's ridiculous. If it just needed to be filled, he should've done that, since you have to fill the tooth after you finish the root canal anyway. Not to mention that the root canal is the larger hassle of a procedure. He probably wanted the fucking money. Fillings are cheap, but root canals cost thousands of dollars. (My mother actually knew one particularly nightmarish and horrific dentist who would go in after a patient was numbed up and on nitrous and use his tools to give them problems they'd need to get fixed for tons of money. *shudders*)

That said, root canals done when you aren't feeling any pain are generally either on teeth that have had a TON of work done on them, or, like in the case of my first one, the nerve is exposed. They really do need to do them then.

I'm also curious as to why you're nervous about it. Is it unfilled and just... open? Because, your new dentist should've seen to that immediately. Once it's filled, it's unlikely to be a problem. You technically CAN go without a crown on it for a long time, especially if you've still got most of your tooth structure left. On top of that, fillings and root canals tackle two completely different problems. You can't always do one procedure and fix the other problem with it. That's not how it works.

Your current dentist sounds like a complete moron. :/

[Peter]

No, it's filled. I'm nervous because it's only getting weaker with each day it stays without getting any nutrients, so I don't want to break it. It is much harder to get a crown to stay in place on a post as opposed to the natural tooth. The entire tooth is still there, thankfully.

He was, and that's why I don't go to him anymore. I'm fairly certain it was all about the money. But alas, no way to reverse it now. :(

[Mizukithepanda]

So you've switched to a new, new dentist? Because I thought you said that the guy you switched to after the moron who did the root canal said that it probably just needed to be filled and the other guy didn't want to deal with the hassle of doing that. (That's how I read it at least.)

[Peter]

No no, just one new dentist. X) The singular new guy has been great ever since I started going to him. Making sure I understand all that's going on and everything. It's much better this way.