If I value my health a fair bit more than most and am a transhumanist, when should I bother to get second opinions before having dental work done?
I had 16 fillings done a month ago and my teeth mostly all still hurt, so I’m going to go back to the dentist and see what he says as soon as I can, but I’m not sure what he’ll want to do to me, if anything. (I think fillings are supposed to stop hurting after a week or two). I like him, and I want to trust him, and finding a new dentist would be annoying, but it’s so weird and scary that I just had that many fillings done, because… I’ve always gone to the dentist every 6 months for a cleaning, and I never had to get a filling before, even though I always got routine x-rays to check for cavities every year. I’m only 22. I think that the reason I had to have that many fillings done was because I’d been downing tons of cough drops which contained sucrose for several months, for the reason that my acid reflux had been upsetting my throat.
I guess that I’m really just reminded of my frailty by this experience, and of how easy it is for someone to get old or sick, or even die. Sorry I’m such a bucking mess right now (mentally and physically), and thanks for any suggestions.
Check with your doctor about the acid reflux and its effect on your teeth. I would guess that the reflux had a greater effect on your tooth decay than the cough drops. He might know enough to tell you whether or not your dentist is reacting to the problem effectively, and at the very least has a better grasp of the problem than any of us :-)
(Also, you should be seeing him anyway if reflux is a problem.)
I would guess that the reflux had a greater effect on your tooth decay than the cough drops.
I’m so scared. Yikes. I feel like I’ve tried everything short of surgery for my reflux. Although I’ve been on a PPI (a doc just switched me to an H2-class reflux med a few days ago, for whatever reason, so I’ll try that for a bit) since I started taking the cough drops, so I’m guessing that that’s been sucessfully raising the pH of my stomach, even if it hasn’t done much else.
A possible partial solution, as far as your teeth go, would be to start chewing gum. Xylitol gum may be particularly effective, but failing that, sugar free gum is good. Chewing helps rinse your mouth with saliva (clearing reflux off of your teeth), keeps your mouth hydrated (dry mouth often accompanies reflux and is not good for oral hygiene), and helps control pH.
Good idea. I switched to xylitol mints about a month ago—I find that I go through the gum much more quickly than I go through the mints, but I could switch to the gum if that was a superior choice.
I would guess that gum probably gets you salivating more and has a more even effect across your mouth, but that’s just speculation on my part—I’ve never used mints.
I had 16 fillings done a month ago and my teeth mostly all still hurt
I had more than my fair share of tooth fillings, and they usually hurt for a day or two. Later only if I expose them to heat or cold, such as drinking hot tea, biting an ice cream, or inhaling cold air with my mouth. (Also if I touch the filling with an aluminum fork.)
What you describe feels wrong. The sucrose doesn’t seem like a good explanation for the remaining pain—cavities take time, new ones don’t appear overnight. ChristianKl asked about X-rays because of two other options: either the dentist didn’t clean the tooth correctly and there is still something under the filling, or maybe your tooth has two cavities: one visible which was fixed, and one invisible (under the gum) which wasn’t. But this seems unlikely to happen under 16 teeth at the same time.
On the other hand, a tooth pain is sometimes hard to localize. I had an experience that my tooth hurt, and it felt like the whole jaw hurts; yet when one tooth was fixed, the pain was gone. (Not sure why: maybe the source of pain was too close to a common nerve for all teeth?) So, maybe you have a problem with one tooth, and it feels like all of them hurt.
This is helpful, if scary. Thanks. It does seem unlikely that all 16 teeth would still be screwed up—pain localization failures seem more likely, but Im just going off of my intuition. I’m going back to the same guy who did all of my fillings ASAP to get things checked out again. (I wonder, if some number of my teeth weren’t cleaned correctly, does that mean it’s ok for me to keep seeing that dentist?)
In my experience different dentists care about very different things and to very different degrees. So if you changed dentists, I would not be surprised at all if the previous one said nothing needed to be done and a new one said you needed 16 fillings. But if it’s the same dentist, that is a bit strange.
Same thing just happened to me. I did, however, switch to a dentist with far better equipment who was able to show me pictures of gaping problems in my molars and I had just spent 6 months dosing myself with diet coke to stay awake while writing up a paper for grad school, so it wasn’t terribly shocking.
When I switched dentists three years ago, the new dentist claimed to have found several issues during initial check-in and also said that my wisdom teeth need to be torn out as soon as possible. So I have that experience as well. Although, since then, she never complained about anything even though my flossing routine worsened considerably.
Ok, I went in today, and the dentist says that I’m probably just grinding my teeth at night. I’ll have him fit me for a night guard soon. I believe that that’s at least part of the problem, and time will tell if he’s right that that’s the whole problem. (He did an x-Ray a month ago, before I had any of my fillings done, but not one this time. Also, my bite wasn’t high.)
After they finish doing the fillings, they file the new material down to fit your bite. You might recall them having you bite down on a piece of paper and then they’d sand away all the parts that were hitting. The more fillings that get done at once, the harder it is to get this done properly, I think. If certain parts of your filling or teeth are hitting before the other parts are when you bite down, or if they are otherwise not fitted well, it can cause pain throughout. (They are also more likely to fall out then)
If I value my health a fair bit more than most and am a transhumanist, when should I bother to get second opinions before having dental work done?
I had 16 fillings done a month ago and my teeth mostly all still hurt, so I’m going to go back to the dentist and see what he says as soon as I can, but I’m not sure what he’ll want to do to me, if anything. (I think fillings are supposed to stop hurting after a week or two). I like him, and I want to trust him, and finding a new dentist would be annoying, but it’s so weird and scary that I just had that many fillings done, because… I’ve always gone to the dentist every 6 months for a cleaning, and I never had to get a filling before, even though I always got routine x-rays to check for cavities every year. I’m only 22. I think that the reason I had to have that many fillings done was because I’d been downing tons of cough drops which contained sucrose for several months, for the reason that my acid reflux had been upsetting my throat.
I guess that I’m really just reminded of my frailty by this experience, and of how easy it is for someone to get old or sick, or even die. Sorry I’m such a bucking mess right now (mentally and physically), and thanks for any suggestions.
Check with your doctor about the acid reflux and its effect on your teeth. I would guess that the reflux had a greater effect on your tooth decay than the cough drops. He might know enough to tell you whether or not your dentist is reacting to the problem effectively, and at the very least has a better grasp of the problem than any of us :-)
(Also, you should be seeing him anyway if reflux is a problem.)
I’m so scared. Yikes. I feel like I’ve tried everything short of surgery for my reflux. Although I’ve been on a PPI (a doc just switched me to an H2-class reflux med a few days ago, for whatever reason, so I’ll try that for a bit) since I started taking the cough drops, so I’m guessing that that’s been sucessfully raising the pH of my stomach, even if it hasn’t done much else.
A possible partial solution, as far as your teeth go, would be to start chewing gum. Xylitol gum may be particularly effective, but failing that, sugar free gum is good. Chewing helps rinse your mouth with saliva (clearing reflux off of your teeth), keeps your mouth hydrated (dry mouth often accompanies reflux and is not good for oral hygiene), and helps control pH.
Plaque and pH
Xylitol gum
Googling will easily find more information, including less technical information if desired.
Good idea. I switched to xylitol mints about a month ago—I find that I go through the gum much more quickly than I go through the mints, but I could switch to the gum if that was a superior choice.
I would guess that gum probably gets you salivating more and has a more even effect across your mouth, but that’s just speculation on my part—I’ve never used mints.
I had more than my fair share of tooth fillings, and they usually hurt for a day or two. Later only if I expose them to heat or cold, such as drinking hot tea, biting an ice cream, or inhaling cold air with my mouth. (Also if I touch the filling with an aluminum fork.)
What you describe feels wrong. The sucrose doesn’t seem like a good explanation for the remaining pain—cavities take time, new ones don’t appear overnight. ChristianKl asked about X-rays because of two other options: either the dentist didn’t clean the tooth correctly and there is still something under the filling, or maybe your tooth has two cavities: one visible which was fixed, and one invisible (under the gum) which wasn’t. But this seems unlikely to happen under 16 teeth at the same time.
On the other hand, a tooth pain is sometimes hard to localize. I had an experience that my tooth hurt, and it felt like the whole jaw hurts; yet when one tooth was fixed, the pain was gone. (Not sure why: maybe the source of pain was too close to a common nerve for all teeth?) So, maybe you have a problem with one tooth, and it feels like all of them hurt.
This is helpful, if scary. Thanks. It does seem unlikely that all 16 teeth would still be screwed up—pain localization failures seem more likely, but Im just going off of my intuition. I’m going back to the same guy who did all of my fillings ASAP to get things checked out again. (I wonder, if some number of my teeth weren’t cleaned correctly, does that mean it’s ok for me to keep seeing that dentist?)
In my experience different dentists care about very different things and to very different degrees. So if you changed dentists, I would not be surprised at all if the previous one said nothing needed to be done and a new one said you needed 16 fillings. But if it’s the same dentist, that is a bit strange.
Yeah, I did just move, and change dentists. That’s scary that dentists vary that much.
Same thing just happened to me. I did, however, switch to a dentist with far better equipment who was able to show me pictures of gaping problems in my molars and I had just spent 6 months dosing myself with diet coke to stay awake while writing up a paper for grad school, so it wasn’t terribly shocking.
When I switched dentists three years ago, the new dentist claimed to have found several issues during initial check-in and also said that my wisdom teeth need to be torn out as soon as possible. So I have that experience as well. Although, since then, she never complained about anything even though my flossing routine worsened considerably.
Ok, I went in today, and the dentist says that I’m probably just grinding my teeth at night. I’ll have him fit me for a night guard soon. I believe that that’s at least part of the problem, and time will tell if he’s right that that’s the whole problem. (He did an x-Ray a month ago, before I had any of my fillings done, but not one this time. Also, my bite wasn’t high.)
After they finish doing the fillings, they file the new material down to fit your bite. You might recall them having you bite down on a piece of paper and then they’d sand away all the parts that were hitting. The more fillings that get done at once, the harder it is to get this done properly, I think. If certain parts of your filling or teeth are hitting before the other parts are when you bite down, or if they are otherwise not fitted well, it can cause pain throughout. (They are also more likely to fall out then)
Source: Personal experience with bad fillings.
Did the dentist do an X-ray?
Yes.