Having had poor teeth all my life, most of which are now gone, I have also had terrible experiences with dentists. There has been the wrong advice on brushing which led to gum recession, due to the mania of cleaning, which in the day involved hard tooth brushes, but they always put it down to gum disease, with no real evidence only opinion, when my gums have seldom bled. I have had a dentist notice a decay, say it will demineralise, then face a tooth abscess in a few weeks’ time. Teeth have been filled which should have been pulled because of their insane conservative “save all teeth” ideology, leading to killer abscesses that I had to endure, always on a long weekend. I have waited in the dental surgery to get such teeth pulled for hours, while rich clients got a clean. I could go on, but Roosh in the below article raises another issue, about the fanaticism in having X-Rays, like X-rays were candy.
https://www.rooshv.com/why-i-dont-trust-american-dentists
It may be a psychological phobia, but I now hate dentists. I just get teeth pulled if I can find a dentist to do it, most won’t, wanting to do massively expensive root canal treatment, which may not work for people like me with calcification of the canals. Thus, while I am over 70, with one last wisdom tooth a few months back, that constantly went to abscess (treated with antibiotics), I had trouble getting an extraction, and had to take a GP’s letter with me to get someone to pull it. There is the issue of liability that Roosh in the article cited above speaks of, so Australia is heading right down the American road. We have all the worst of American culture and none of the very best, such as firearms freedoms. If we could carry guns I would put up with American style dentistry, biting the bullet.
The biggest problem with dentists, apart from the politics and pain is the bill. A real killer. Yet, it is just too painful to pull your own teeth. Misery.
https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/theres-a-big-reason-australians-are-skipping-out-on-their-dental-checkups/news-story/f87dc12e0ad4edc4078f23c4d4e784c1
“Finder.com.au surveyed over 2000 Australians and found that the equivalent of 12.6 million people have purposefully avoided the dentist, with and the biggest reason having to do with money. The research found that a massive 41 per cent of people listed high costs as their main reason for not visiting the dentist. Fear was the second most cited reason, with 20 per cent scared of needles, pain or just the dentist office itself. Laziness headed up third place, with 13 per cent of people claiming they just “never get around to it”. The study found that women are more likely to avoid a trip to the dentist, with 47 per cent of women saying it is too expensive compared to 36 per cent of men. Whatever your reason might be for skipping out on visit to the dental chair, it could be doing more harm than you realise, with dental complications being the third biggest cause of preventable hospitalisations in the country. Only one in three Australians said they keep up to date with their dental visits, which is why more than 63,000 Australians are hospitalised each year for preventable dental conditions, according to the National Oral Health Plan. Health insurance expert at Finder.com.au, Bessie Hassan, said it was astounding that dental issues were so common in Australia. “It’s hard to believe that oral health is a problem for a first-world country like Australia,” she said. “Oral disease is among the most common and costly health problems experienced by Australians yet many can just not afford to see a dentist.”
Keep what teeth you have left, clean. Just think of the bill every day, and sweat, blood.
https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/screwdriver-surgically-removed-after-dental-mishap/news-story/01d30b11ecf65eb98414ad07513ff761
“As if swallowing a screwdriver wasn’t bad enough — an Aussie grandfather has been slapped with a $20,000 bill for a dental procedure which caused six weeks of discomfort. When 80-year-old Bob Morrison was told by his dentist, who cannot be named, that his teeth were pretty much done for, he was told he needed full upper and lower implants. However, when he woke up form the operation, Mr Morrison told A Current Affair the dental staff at his surgery had something uncomfortable to tell him. “They said that something or other had dropped down my throat and they wanted to make sure I could breathe,” he told the program. “It wasn’t until the next day that he (the dentist) said that it was a dental screwdriver and that it would naturally pass through in three or four days.” Fortunately the piece of kit didn’t pierce Mr Morrison’s bowel and his GP said “nature would take its course” — so the pensioner sat tight for a few more days. However, a full week passed and the 2cm long steel screwdriver was still firmly lodged inside the octogenarian’s gut. After a month, it was suggested that colonoscopy was the only option which Mr Morrison said was “not a pleasant experience”. “I was told that colonoscopy was the way to go,” he told Channel Nine. “The next thing I recall is they stood me up and they wanted to make sure I could breathe properly.” After the complicated operation, an overnight stay and six weeks after it landed in his body, Mr Morrison was finally rid of the screwdriver. But he claims that the stress of the ordeal still lingers. “I have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress syndrome and I’m seeing a psychologist about that because I can’t sleep,” he said. However, an extra dose of pain came when the dentist’s bill landed on his doorstep. The initial agreed fee for the procedure was $50,000, which Mr Morrison said was more than he could afford. He said he could pay $20,000 upfront because he was selling his home and pay the rest once the sale went through.”
I would prefer to go gummy, with no teeth at all. I believe that teeth are over-rated, since one does not need them to drink alcohol. One could buy oblivion from the pain of existence for $ 20,000. The utter sadness of life, well, at least my fading life makes me want to drink, and not stop. Alcoholic melancholy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n396FnIN9jQ&list=OLAK5uy_lOcqu1Eg6HoYVoD6Rt_EqfVy4bqjKg1cg