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This article got me thinking about a trip to the dentist I had a few years ago. From when I was 5-18 years old I had the same dentist and between ages 13-18 I h

by jakarta 16y ago

This article got me thinking about a trip to the dentist I had a few years ago. From when I was 5-18 years old I had the same dentist and between ages 13-18 I had a really impeccable record when it came to not having cavities. Then, when I came back from my first semester of college I had to switch from my old dentist (who specialized in children/teenagers) to a new one. On my first visit, he identified something like 3 cavities, which was pretty shocking to me. Before I just assumed that the x-rays were easy to interpret so the dentist is 'always right' ... but after hearing about this 50% figure it makes me wonder.

arethuza 16y ago
When I changed dentist after University the new dentist made an official complaint about the standard of work of the previous one (who I had been with since an early age). For a while my mouth was effectively "Exhibit A" in some kind of professional complaints process.
- CWuestefeld 16y ago
  Given the content of the OP, is it possible that the problem wasn't so bad, that this was all a marketing device, building the relationship between you and the new dentist?
  - masklinn 16y ago
    Launching an official complaint to a medical board as a marketing ploy? I'm guessing that would backfire hard.
  - arethuza 16y ago
    No it definitely wasn't that - I had to go to an "official" dentist who had a look as well (I forget which obscure branch of the UK civil service they belonged to).
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
jordan0day 16y ago
Warning: Post is 100% anecdote; Cite at your own risk! My wife had a similar experience. We both grew up in a small city, and throughout her life she never had a single cavity. She prides herself on the health of her teeth. In college we both moved to a larger city (which has a more competitive dentistry market), and suddenly dentists were finding cavities every time she went for a checkup. While it's entirely possible that she didn't have cavities before, and now does all the time, I feel like the competitiveness of the market here has lowered the standard of what actually requires a filling. That is, in our hometown, a dentist could take a more measured approach -- if something looked like it could develop into a problem but wasn't currently one, they had the leisure of waiting for the next six-month checkup to reevaluate. Here, it seems to be the equivalent of shoot first and ask questions later. Also, every filling I've ever had never came as a result of actual pain or discomfort, they only occurred because I went in for a regular six-month checkup. Given my wife's experience (going from apparently perfect teeth to requiring fillings at nearly every checkup) I can't help but feel about as confident as a woman at an auto shop hearing "You need your blinker fluid replaced".
- alaithea 16y ago
  > Also, every filling I've ever had never came as a result of actual pain or discomfort, they only occurred because I went in for a regular six-month checkup. FWIW, I've heard that by the time you have pain or discomfort in association with a cavity, it means it has reached the nerve, which indicates a root canal at that point, rather than a filling. So, getting cavities filled before they hurt is important.
  - mistermann 16y ago
    That seems inconsistent with my experience, I've never had a root canal in my life, but have had several sore teeth that resulted in a filling. Any well informed people care to comment?
    - btilly 16y ago
      I'm not a dentist, but I've had more dental work than I'm happy about and I listened to the explanations. (Advice to kids, not brushing your teeth is a really stupid piece of teenage rebellion. You'll have a lifetime to regret it.) When you have a cavity, cold things that get into your tooth can set off the nerve and your teeth become sensitive. (If it gets worse you respond to heat as well.) This can be corrected with a filling. There are other causes of sensitivity as well, ask your dentist if you're affected. When the cavity becomes bad enough that it touches the nerve, the nerve gets infected and you get intense pain. Antibiotics can temporarily help, but now you need a root canal. If the structure of the tooth is compromised, or if the cavity cannot be operated on (happened to me with a cavity behind my back molar, under the gum - caused by damage from my wisdom teeth), then you need to lose the tooth. If your mouth is in good enough shape then modern dentistry allows them to fill in the hole with powdered cow bone, that will become real bone, into which a post can be driven and a fake tooth created. Before dentistry, people didn't have any of this. What would happen is that their teeth would get to the point of needing a root canal, and then the pain would quickly become so bad that they'd do anything to make it stop. Anything was typically something like, Tie this string around the tooth, let me tie the other end to a door and slam it. People would start losing teeth around 20, and have lost all of them by 40 or so. Then they'd get dentures. We still need dentures. But it happens much later in life than it used to. Some people never get them. This is a good thing. A note about dentists. Dentists go to seminars on how to drum up business. There are a lot of questionable things they do. But if you show up with a mouth full of real problems, the competent ones should be able to prioritize them, coming up with a plan, and progressively fixing just what insurance will cover in each time period. At least that was my experience when I began going to dentists again after I could afford it.
ezyang 16y ago
The story I've always heard about this is that as you grow older, your immune system becomes less active in defending your teeth, and so you have to correspondingly brush more often to maintain teeth health. So if you're brushing the same amount as you were as a teenager, you will get more cavities. I don't have a citation though.

by jakarta 16y ago

arethuza 16y ago

When I changed dentist after University the new dentist made an official complaint about the standard of work of the previous one (who I had been with since an early age). For a while my mouth was effectively "Exhibit A" in some kind of professional complaints process.

CWuestefeld 16y ago
Given the content of the OP, is it possible that the problem wasn't so bad, that this was all a marketing device, building the relationship between you and the new dentist?
- masklinn 16y ago
  Launching an official complaint to a medical board as a marketing ploy? I'm guessing that would backfire hard.
- arethuza 16y ago
  No it definitely wasn't that - I had to go to an "official" dentist who had a look as well (I forget which obscure branch of the UK civil service they belonged to).

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

jordan0day 16y ago

Warning: Post is 100% anecdote; Cite at your own risk! My wife had a similar experience. We both grew up in a small city, and throughout her life she never had a single cavity. She prides herself on the health of her teeth. In college we both moved to a larger city (which has a more competitive dentistry market), and suddenly dentists were finding cavities every time she went for a checkup. While it's entirely possible that she didn't have cavities before, and now does all the time, I feel like the competitiveness of the market here has lowered the standard of what actually requires a filling. That is, in our hometown, a dentist could take a more measured approach -- if something looked like it could develop into a problem but wasn't currently one, they had the leisure of waiting for the next six-month checkup to reevaluate. Here, it seems to be the equivalent of shoot first and ask questions later. Also, every filling I've ever had never came as a result of actual pain or discomfort, they only occurred because I went in for a regular six-month checkup. Given my wife's experience (going from apparently perfect teeth to requiring fillings at nearly every checkup) I can't help but feel about as confident as a woman at an auto shop hearing "You need your blinker fluid replaced".

alaithea 16y ago
> Also, every filling I've ever had never came as a result of actual pain or discomfort, they only occurred because I went in for a regular six-month checkup. FWIW, I've heard that by the time you have pain or discomfort in association with a cavity, it means it has reached the nerve, which indicates a root canal at that point, rather than a filling. So, getting cavities filled before they hurt is important.
- mistermann 16y ago
  That seems inconsistent with my experience, I've never had a root canal in my life, but have had several sore teeth that resulted in a filling. Any well informed people care to comment?
  - btilly 16y ago
    I'm not a dentist, but I've had more dental work than I'm happy about and I listened to the explanations. (Advice to kids, not brushing your teeth is a really stupid piece of teenage rebellion. You'll have a lifetime to regret it.) When you have a cavity, cold things that get into your tooth can set off the nerve and your teeth become sensitive. (If it gets worse you respond to heat as well.) This can be corrected with a filling. There are other causes of sensitivity as well, ask your dentist if you're affected. When the cavity becomes bad enough that it touches the nerve, the nerve gets infected and you get intense pain. Antibiotics can temporarily help, but now you need a root canal. If the structure of the tooth is compromised, or if the cavity cannot be operated on (happened to me with a cavity behind my back molar, under the gum - caused by damage from my wisdom teeth), then you need to lose the tooth. If your mouth is in good enough shape then modern dentistry allows them to fill in the hole with powdered cow bone, that will become real bone, into which a post can be driven and a fake tooth created. Before dentistry, people didn't have any of this. What would happen is that their teeth would get to the point of needing a root canal, and then the pain would quickly become so bad that they'd do anything to make it stop. Anything was typically something like, Tie this string around the tooth, let me tie the other end to a door and slam it. People would start losing teeth around 20, and have lost all of them by 40 or so. Then they'd get dentures. We still need dentures. But it happens much later in life than it used to. Some people never get them. This is a good thing. A note about dentists. Dentists go to seminars on how to drum up business. There are a lot of questionable things they do. But if you show up with a mouth full of real problems, the competent ones should be able to prioritize them, coming up with a plan, and progressively fixing just what insurance will cover in each time period. At least that was my experience when I began going to dentists again after I could afford it.

ezyang 16y ago

The story I've always heard about this is that as you grow older, your immune system becomes less active in defending your teeth, and so you have to correspondingly brush more often to maintain teeth health. So if you're brushing the same amount as you were as a teenager, you will get more cavities. I don't have a citation though.