Thanks guys...I hate going to the dentist, I can't handle things in my mouth, I loathe the injections and it always takes them 5,000 to numb me up. Just what I wanted an episode about dentists.
Oh and I think my Widom Teeth are coming through.
Maggoty teeth *shudder*
Oh on the eye thing, when I was a nursing student there was this woman who needed to have her eye out and they did it under local anesthesia. It sounded horrible, imagine having your eye taken out and being able to feel it being removed, ugh. The stupid thing was that the poor woman was dying, like that she was going to die in a few days so it really wasn't necessary.
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I think it's a perfectly valid procedure if it helped alleviate pain and suffering for the last few days of her life. I'd sure as hell want it if it would do the same for me.
Local though? HELL no. I can't even use contacts. Hell, I can't even use eye drops!
Eye damage - Uveitis
Intermediate reading on it
Heavy reading on autoimmunity
Immunology textbook with some pictures
About playing the trumpet with braces: My friend plays the trumpet, is crazy good at it, whatever. When she had braces, she dealt with that by putting blu-tac ontop of the braces so they couldn't cut into her lips. I neither have had nor have braces, and I've only played the trumpet for 2 minutes (ever) and so I'm not really sure how it works, but whatever.
Okay, I listened some more, and I listened to the teeth implants bit. My dad has one of those. Those days after he got the titanium screw in and they were waiting for the gum to heal over... every 5 minutes it was like 'Wanna see my teeth?!' from my dad.
The issue wasn't playing with braces so much as playing after I had them out. My lip muscles were so used to having the gap caused by the braces that I couldn't hold my embouchure when it was gone. Took me several weeks to re-train. (I could play, just not with good tonality).
- By not flossing you miss cleaning between 30-35% of your teeth.
- When brushing your teeth, you should only exert as much pressure as you could exert if holding the toothbrush between your thumb and index and middle fingers.
- You were indeed correct when you mentioned how generally useless toothpaste is. It adds flavor and not a whole lot more (unless its Fluoride toothpaste, of course). In fact, the most important factor of tooth care is time - you should brush your teeth for two minutes, twice daily.
- The reason amalgam fillings take up more room than composite fillings is because an amalgam filling can't be chemically bonded to a tooth like a composite can. Therefore, a dentist must essentially drill a hole in an inverted cone shape, so as to hold the amalgam in the tooth.
- Subsumed by Flesh would be a great name for a metal band.
I needed all four of my wisdom teeth removed - they were impacted and growing in sideways. Basically the worries with that are getting them out before they're fully grown in - otherwise the roots of the teeth might grow up into your sinus, which can cause sinus problems, or down into this nerve along your jaw, which can leave you feeling numb and otherwise fuck things up. Because I had all four coming in, and since I was the first one in my family to have problems with them (both my parents had them come in fine, and my sister was younger and didn't have to deal with this yet) - we decided that I should have them removed at the hospital.
Looking back I think that was a bit over-cautious, and probably alot more expensive and... uncomfortable. The tranq pills they gave me before the surgery made me giggle madly for no reason, and were all fine and dandy, but I don't deal with IVs well at all (they had to put it in my hand.) I don't remember anything from being put under though - just some guy going "I'm going to give you the happy gas now" and then waking up to some bitchy nurse pulling electrodes off of me. Waking up again was really weird, I was very confused and couldn't really breathe (probably because there had just been a pipe down my throat moments before, or something.)
Note: trying to use the bathroom while there's an IV stuck into your wiping hand really sucks. Also, having the IV pulled around while hanging from a track on the ceiling that makes the needle in your hand vibrate: similarly not cool.
Recovery? I bled for about two or three days, and had the classic swollen chipmunk cheeks. On the plus side, there was lots of soup and painkillers and I missed school, but on the down side, I couldn't brush my teeth for a few days. And with all the blood... that was quite foul. However, for as hard a time as I had, three of my friends who had their wisdom teeth removed in the dentist's office fared much better. My sister's mouth bled for only about a day, and Atheri here in the forums was able to call and talk to me hours after it was done. Fuggers!
So, for every horror story, it seems there are an equal number of people whose wisdom teeth grew in with no problems at all, and an equal number of people who recovered quickly and had very few complications. It's probably best to get them removed in the dentist's office for the least hassle.
Okay, that was really freaking long. My apologies.
What made it interesting for me, was that my one lower wisdom tooth was still in the jaw bone, since it was partially impacted. So I got to hear him drilling into my jaw bone, then using what I can only describe as a hammer and punch to split the tooth into 4 pieces so he could take it out easily. The top two had already broken through the gums so they came out with amazing ease, just one good tug. Even after the fact a bit of Advil was enough for the pain, I never used my codeine prescription. I did take one codeine pill the right before the Novocaine wore off since I didn't know what to expect, the pill was leftover from my sister having hers out and she filled the prescription but didn't use it.
I have had overall good experiences at the dentists office, though my little sister however did not. My family has used the same practice for everybody, run by two dentists that are married (I always prefer to deal with the guy, his wife is kind of a bitch). When my sister was very young (before normal cleanings started up) she needed some work on her baby teeth, I don't remember what was wrong but it wasn't cavities. Our usual dentist did a horrible job of dealing with such a young child and basically traumatized her. My mom had to take her to a different dentist since she couldn't get my sister to go anywhere near the other office after that without freaking out. I have no idea what happened..
Actually, RIT does subscribe a music download thing. I don’t know how long they’ve had it, but they were promoting it all of last year. In the fall they gave out 3000 free accounts for the first people to sign up, and then pretty much every day of spring quarter there was a table right in front of Ben and Jerry’s giving out key chains and trying to get more people to sign up. They have a pretty good selection (there’s plenty of indie stuff on there that you can’t find on the hub), but the DRM that comes with it is ridiculous. As far as I know, you can’t get around it either. Needless to say, it has been wildly unsuccessful.
And I'll be damned if I take a day off my first Otakon to get my teeth cleaned.
All in all, an enlightening experience.
((shudder))