Warning: These Common Dental Habits Could Be Hurting Your Teeth!

[@skybest]

Uhmmm...have you heard the new ruling? Pretty sure that's mainstream now in the US....literally NO amount is safe, they just have to dump it somewhere else and dispose it in an environmentally responsible manner unfortunately :D

[@keithammleter3824]

"Dental anxiety" was mentioned - people scared to go to the dentist. Perhaps the USA is different to my country, Australia, but that would surprise me. In my experience, there are three main reasons why people don't like going to the dentist:- 1. Early experience: When I was a child in the 1950's, going to the dentist was pretty traumatic. Most couldn't care back then how much pain they caused. They all behaved as though it was the patients fault and patient should be punished - as in if you have decay it must be because you are not brushing properly. It's all your own fault, kid. (in the 1960's it was discovered the local water had very low flouride levels.) They would inject the anesthetic (which itself was extremely painfull) then immediately begin work. By the time the anesthetic took effect, the dental work was already completed. I learnt to tell the dentist to not use anesthetic - I was then far better off. Later, I went to a different dentist. He insisted on injecting anesthetic, but he would then wait for it to take effect. Why didn't the other clown do that? 1950's and 1960's dentists would say something like "he can't feel anything now." and ram something sharp into the gum. 2. There are a lot of crooks in the industry, leading to patients thinking dentistry is extremely expensive. When my dentist retired, and I had moved, I tried a new dentist. This turkey claimed my mouth was in a shocking state, full of decay and cracked fillings. That surprised my because I had my previous dentist do a routine check each year and he had been telling me everything is fine. So I got a second opinion. This guy also said that multiple teeth needed surgery, but not the same teeth! So I got a third opinion. This guy said only one tooth was dodgy. I went with him - for the next 20 years of routine checks. A few times he deemed a couple of fillings needed redoing, and I never had any problem. 3. Dentists mostly don't tell you anything while they work - not what they are doing, where they are at, nothing. Or they mumble so you can't understand them. So you sit there with a mouth full of rubber and tools, wondering when this is going to end. ATTENTION ALL DENTISTS: You want your patient to trust you? You want him to come back next time with confidence? Then TALK TO HIM. Communication builds trust. And don't crack jokes with your nurse while you are doing something that is uncomfortable to your patient. We hate it.

[@Dr.BrettLangston]

Thank you for sharing your experiences! It’s hard to believe you had to go through all that. Proper communication is so important-it's also how you can tell if your dentist is truly trustworthy.

[@keithammleter3824]

@@Dr.BrettLangston I don't think it is hard to believe - it's a common experience. My wife's boss, seemingly an intelligent business manager lady, will not go to a dentist. She gets tooth pain from time to time and just goes to a doctor for pain killers and antibiotics - which of course work, but I shudder to think what her mouth will be like by the time she retires. The reason she won't go to a dentist? She can certainly afford it. Traumatic experience at the dentist when she was a child. In the 1960's, the government here started adding flouride in the water supply, and decay rates dropped quite dramatically, so dentistry for the next generation after mine was not so bad.

[@foreigner4300]

Hi dr brett greetings from Turkiye.You seem like a very decent doctor and i am going trough a really tough time rn because of my tooth extarction i need your advice to feel better i guess.So i had a habit of exccesive chewing gum nonstop since i was 14 and turkish gums are not sweet and soft your mouth actually works a lot when you chew it.and at 17 i broke my second molar tooth while chewing gum but i didnt stop chewing gum with that broken tooth and i didnt see a dentist after getting it broken so this continued until i was 20 because after some point,something started pulling out of my tooth while chewing gum and it felt horrible so i HAD to stop chewing at 20. So now i am 21 and my tooth for the first time was aching real bad i couldnt sleep because my tooth became abscessed due to infection for the FİRST in its life time so i went to see a dentist she was a well known dentist she said that my tooth was decaying and it was kinda shaking and i needed to do root canal or extension. 50/50 chances. told me to use antibiotics and be back at her office so i did that.So after the infectuon was gone i fwlt like my tooth wasnt really shaking whatever i went to see her again she saw my tooth again and said that i needed extraction as if it was the first time she saw it because the first time she was saying that i was really young and she would try to save my tooth after the infection was gone and now the infection is gone and she says that i needed a tooth removal.İ was kinda shocked bcs i am 21 and she said i had 50% chances to get root canal and i was actually holding onto that idea.İ was so shocked and unwilling the decision was made in 3 minites but she said i had to do it and i could do implants in the summer.İ asked her like i just turned 21 is it ok .She said yes.So she removed it and it was DEFİNETLY a traumatizing removal.My tooth didnt come out in one piece .And my roots were so white and healthy İ was trying not to regret about the removal beacuse the healing process was to bad for me and my roots were so healhty so i kinda regretted.İ had dry socket it was pqinful and no one told me anything about that.And now that i am healing i just realized that i have sunken cheek.Like it has lost its volume and it messes my confidence really bad.No one told me anything about that...What would you do with a patient like me.Would you also recommend me removing my tooth.My roots were so healhty is it still ok to remove that tooth.Only if i knew i would suffer this much and had to wait for implants i would keep that tooth like it was the very first time it created infection in its lifetime.İ now dont have a tooth .Yes i wasnt able to use it for a year but i got used to it and at leats there was tooth in my jaw bone and i would still have my volume .

[@foreigner4300]

And also am i going to be able to gain my cheek volume after implant.