[eric_b]

Yeah I had the same thing done when I was in my early 20's. My Dad told me to try to get general anaesthetic cuz you don't want to be awake when the doc goes about his business with those medieval tools. They told me I babbled about my calc. exam (I was in college at the time) while I was under. I also had them save the teeth... in a few pieces. Couldn't believe how heavy they were, made me feel ill just looking at them.

What helped for me was headphones + loud music and vicodins.

I had all for of my wisdom teeth removed at once. It took a while for the craters left behind to heal and fill in.

vitamin c for gums also

[keekles]

Tyler, I couldn't keep anything down due to the severe nausea. I did better on regular advil.
About dry sockets: Click. Basically an exposed hole with nerve endings.

[ClassicSpiderman]

Yeah I had the same thing done when I was in my early 20's. My Dad told me to try to get general anaesthetic cuz you don't want to be awake when the doc goes about his business with those medieval tools.

I admit, I was taken aback by the whole ordeal, but in a weird way, it was kind of funny. He even showed me the pieces of my teeth as he pulled them out... heh.

[rostov]

Nice going there, doing this while infrastructure is still up for dentistry to remove such teeth. Can't imagine what'll be traded for such a job (be it slow or fast crash)

Take a good rest. I know how it's like : my wife had 4 wisdom teeth (plus another non-wisdom) removed within one go under GA), and the pain/misery was indescribable.

[ClassicSpiderman]

Take care not to get a dry-socket, spiderman. That is some of the worst pain I have ever felt, and I have broken MANY bones, as well as numerous other major injuries. Dry socket ranked up there in the top 3 for pain easily...

I'm afraid I have 2 dry sockets Anyway, it's just a matter of pain management. I've made a home-brewed concoction of salt, water and crushed aspirins to help me get through it.

[Carlo]

Dentists serve a vital function in society and are likely to remain employed (and well paid) into the far away future.

I strongly second this!

But Pretorian why don't you simply go low tech? In my opinion in a post-PO world we won't need a man with 4-5 years spent on books but someone who can just pull or cure a rot tooth.

You can start from "Where there is no dentist" and ART dental treatment system and then maybe attend to a practical dental training for missions.
You will get an unvaluable skill with no debt and loooow cost!! Don't you love this way?

Carlo.

[gg3]

Even if a vaccine for caries comes along, there are still mechanical injuries to deal with, and various other items that require interventions.

Re. anaesthetics: If lidocaine becomes scarce, there's always cocaine, and I'm not being sarcastic. Derived from the coca plant, produced long before petroleum. Nitrous oxide was also pre-petroleum, they were using it back in the 1800s to knock people out for surgery. And ether, if I'm not mistaken, is similar enough to alcohol that it should be possible to produce post-petroleum also.

However, I believe that even in the worst-likely scenarios, anaesthetic and analgesics will continue to be produced in ample quantities for any surgery that needs to be conducted. And let's not forget morphine, derived from the opium poppy, which can be grown in any reasonable climate.

Freedom from surgical pain is not something humans will readily give up.

[JBinKC]

Even if a vaccine for caries comes along, there are still mechanical injuries to deal with, and various other items that require interventions.

If you take the effect of strep mutans out of the picture you eliminate the cause for 75% of the dental procedures today. It would have a devastating effect on general dentistry, periodontics, endodontics and some effect on prosthetic dentistry. If you do decide to go that route my suggestion is it would be best that you become extremely proficient in bending wire and pick orthodontics as a specialty.

[Roccland]

And the pain is beyond words. It was done at a dentist office...they stiched me up, and gave me three perscriptions to fill: two were for pain and one for infection.

Since I stumbled upon PO about 5 years ago I have asked a handful of dentists what the downside to having all my teeth removed was...most all said they would not remove my teeth because it was not ethical...others brought up eating food and loss of taste.

After going through what I have gone through in the last three days I am convinced more now then ever...

having teeth in the future is gonna bite (pun intended) BIG TIME!!!

Now excuse me as I drift into a codine enhanced oblivion.

[Lore]

My uncle had all his teeth removed in Mexico. He regrets it deeply.

I know what he means, I regret a weekend once in Tijuana!

[kochevnik]

Of all the things we will likely have to face - having to deal with painful teeth without the services of a dentist is the one I fear the most.

I'd rather fight zombies with a butter knife.

I just went to the dentist and she wants to drill in ten different places. I did two and a few more next week, but I was so pissed I did some research.

Did you know that 20 percent of the people get 80 percent of the caries (cavities).

Here's probably the best 'planning for the future' hint I will ever leave here :

Xylitol

Not only does chewing Xylitol gum drop cavities 80 percent - Mothers can use it to inoculate your kids from tooth decay (to a large extent) also. (read the research yourself).

Here's where I bought from :

Epic

Here's a coupon I found for 50% off :

Use promotion code ae25ft

Of course this stuff has been around since 1975 !!! but never had a dentist tell me shit about it. Bastards.

[I_Like_Plants]

Last night I got a very nasty bite on my foot from a stray cat. There's a deep puncture that goes right down to one of the tendons on top of my foot, among other punctures and lacerations. I'm currently in bed on a cocktail of antibiotics and pain medication, with a heat pack wrapped around my foot, trying desperately to avoid complicated and expensive surgery. I have no health insurance. Please wish me luck.

Get your ass to the emergency room and get it cleaned out if you want to keep your foot. Go with no ID on you or something but get it taken care of. Deep narrow puncture wounds like this are BAD BUSINESS. And there are community clinics in Arizona, which is more than California can say.

[gnm]

seriously cats carry all kind of nastiness... You could lose your foot or even your life.... don't screw around with that one! I'm not kidding my wife is a nurse and shes seen people DIE from cat bites...

-G

[Eli]

Dental infections used to be a leading cause of death.

Think about it without antibiotics an abscessed wisdom tooth would cut off your air supply or tract to your brain.

The best pain medicine for a toothache is Ibuprofen 800mg taken every 6 hours then codeine or whatever on top of that.

[Kylon]

Not a doctor here, as such you shouldn't take this as medical advice, but....


Isn't the chief ingredient in disinfectant mouthwash alcohol? I mean, isn't the disinfecting agent alcohol?

So theoretically, couldn't you just get a tooth brush, brush your teeth, then swirl your mouth with a bunch of alcohol to kill the germs?

Or lacking a tooth brush, use your fingernails (cleaned of course) to scrape all the plague from your mouth, then rinse it with some homemade moonshine?

Anyways, that may be a possible solution in the future. I don't know.

Also (I don't recommend this), in the past, in order to whiten people's teeth, people would rinse their mouth heavily with urine. The ammonia in the urine would bleach the teeth, making them white.

It's an old fashioned means of whitening, but it works.

I don't suggest it though. It's seriously nasty (not that I've tried or anything).

[mercurygirl]

Last night I got a very nasty bite on my foot from a stray cat. There's a deep puncture that goes right down to one of the tendons on top of my foot, among other punctures and lacerations. I'm currently in bed on a cocktail of antibiotics and pain medication, with a heat pack wrapped around my foot, trying desperately to avoid complicated and expensive surgery. I have no health insurance. Please wish me luck.

How did that happen!? I'll send you healing vibes, poor thing. You may want to try a castor oil pack, I guess you can google it. I've done it before with various maladies. Wishing you well.

Interestingly, I've had a tooth pulled and it was nowhere near as bad as I anticipated. Healed quickly too. But that was with all the modern equipment!

[I_Like_Plants]

Castor oil pack is not going to help. Need to GET IN and CLEAN.

Back in the old days there was always cauterize and pray. Jab a red hot poker in there to hopefully burn out the pus then hope it heals up without too much deformity.

Just get your ass in to the doc, OK?

[PeakOiler]

Last night I got a very nasty bite on my foot from a stray cat. There's a deep puncture that goes right down to one of the tendons on top of my foot, among other punctures and lacerations. I'm currently in bed on a cocktail of antibiotics and pain medication, with a heat pack wrapped around my foot, trying desperately to avoid complicated and expensive surgery. I have no health insurance. Please wish me luck.

Get well soon, Shanny!, and Roccland.

Think they'll ever legalize cocaine for dental work again? It is my understanding that was the drug commonly used by dentists in the past since it is (apparently) easily made from plants, and not synthesized like novocaine.

Novocaine

[eastbay]

Back in 1998, at age 44, I had a wisdom tooth that kept getting infected due to a deep gap between it and the gum causing it to collect food particles. The dentist got tired of me whining about the series of infections and talked me into having all four of them pulled.

I had a 2:45 extraction appointment on that special day. The 6'6" 275 lb. specialist had all four teeth pried out in 15 minutes while I was wide awake and without any pain medication other than the wonderful local anesthetic novocain.

He wanted me to wait 30 minutes to ensure there were no unexpected problems. However, I was scheduled for duty at 1600 and didn't want to be late, so I left his office and went straight to work completing my 8 hour shift with a little ball of cotton stuffed in each empty tooth hole. My partner did all the talking that night.

I still have the four teeth in a little baggie.

[frankthetank]

I was at the dentist yesterday! Yeah. I love the dentist. I had a second cleaning done (it was that bad) and 2 cavities filled. They didn't novacaine me enough so halfway through he had to jab me again with the needle. The grinding was horrendous. Its been 5 years and i still hate going. There is no worse pain then that of teeth. Most of my mouth is just fillings and crowns.

They did do an excellent job of cleaning my teeth. They really can whiten teeth up just by a good cleaning. They use some ultrasonic vibrator that loosens up the plaque (it hurts) and then she scraped and then polished. She told me my problems probably resulted from the PH balance in my mouth (causing all the plaque). I don't drink pop or eat hard candy.

I've had 2 root canals (one bad/one kind of bad) and numerous fillings. The high pitched smaller drill isn't bad, its the slower grinding drill that just drives me nuts. Get dental work done pronto. I'm going back for the full treatment in another 6 months and will continue to until it becomes impossible.

Bad teeth run in families. Most of my family has bad teeth. My wife on the other hand has never had a cavity.

The lady told me to brush for 3 minutes and floss not to just get food out, but to actual removing plaque (use a v shaped pattern on each side of every tooth with the floss).