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It was my roughly annual dentist trip today, to yet another new dentist. Last November's visit produced 3 fillings, all three of which have apparently been botched (Grrr! This only reinforces my belief that an online rating system for dentists is essential), and now host thriving little colonies of subsurface bacteria who by this point have probably already gained tool use and may well be on their way to developing music and art. Their thriving culture is going to be cut short, but they are not the main event: they're not what has my dentist seeing little dollar signs every time I open my mouth.
My most broken tooth, and my dentist's Christmas shopping money, is the result of a root canal in October 2002 (or so my blog informs me, how useful to have one's life so comprehensively documented). Being more filling than tooth, it was always pretty weak, and about 3 weeks ago it broke off completely, leaving a great big hole. I described this to my dentist, who initally assumed I was exaggerating and said "well, chipping is not uncommon..." but then he took a look and said "Oh. It really is just a great big hole. Wow. Let's take some x-rays."
Said x-rays confirm that there is barely any tooth left at all to glue a fake tooth onto, but he's going to do his best (and from the projected cost, his best will apparently be fabulous), and in a series of subsequent visits he'll be drilling and making "root posts" (which sound worryingly agricultural to me) and bridges (possibly) and then a crown in my choice of gold (classy!) or some sort of metal-china composite which, given its projected expense, better make a sort of bionic ch-ch-ch-ch noise every time I chew.
I still think this is all, over a multi-year period, cheaper than drinking alcohol instead, but it's beginning to seem much more like I'd have to pull out a spreadsheet and some graphing software to prove that.
So remember kids: brush your teeth. Or you too will know the shame of hearing your doctor book an appointment for a new kitchen the moment you step out of his office.
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Comments
Chris
Laurie
ade
Graham
I suppose you mean this is from drinking soft drinks instead of booze. But I bet if you did drink it would alcopops and bacardi breezers which are pretty sugary. And instead of soft drinks you could drink, oh, I don't know, water, or something.
In general soft drinks are *evil*. They're really calorific! Also, all the ones in the US are mostly corn starch, which is a consequence of the power of the *corn lobby*. Yes, the US is the victim of Big Corn.
Lastly, you should have 6 monthly check ups, not annual. What are your dentists thinking?
graham
ed
@ Graham: the corn syrup thing is a result of the sugar lobby, actually. There's a price floor on sugar, largely because cane sugar is not very profitable (making sugar from beets is much cheaper) and so soda makers use high fructose corn syrup instead.
Diet sodas aren't all that hot either. Best to just drink some water.
Laurie
@Ed: no, it's not going to be gold. I'm spending extra for the bionic one that has FM radio and a spoiler.
marc
Btw, I read an article recently that listed the most dangerous drinks to teeth, according to a study by scientists at mumblemumble University. They were, in order, 1. Lemonade, 2. Sports drinks (gatorade, lucozade, etc.), and then 3. Sodas.
Some tips they gave are to avoid slow, long sipping, use straws (although don't use straws if you've just had dental surgery, obviously) to get most of the liquid past teeth, and have a good drink of water to rinse out teeth after drinking anything.