"Is it safe?"
Posted on 08/21/2007 5:22:27 PM PDT by Coleus
Opening King Tut's tomb brought to light treasures and curses hidden for thousands of years. One of the lat ter still haunts us -- the curse of King Tut's tooth. Tut, like many teenagers, needed a tooth extraction, in his case, an impacted wisdom tooth. Sadly, ancient Egyptian dentistry was unable to help the boy-pharaoh, as extractions were done only on very loose teeth, by the gentle touch of fingers. Even forceps (pliers) were probably not employed until long after Tut died. Astonishingly, modern dental extraction procedures are still mired in the technology of the an cient world. Recently, I was struck by the curse of Tut. I needed a tooth removed. Having taken lidocaine, I was fully conscious during the brutal and traumatic removal process. I became a time traveler, passing through star gates and winding up in ancient Egypt. Pliers still pull teeth!
In this age of high technology, what, if anything, is being done to modernize the practice of tooth ex traction? For scientists, inventors or entrepreneurs who would bring tooth extraction into the 21st century, there awaits a fortune aptly described as the Treasure of King Tut's Tooth. I sought those adventurers exploring the frontiers of knowledge to learn if the curse of Tut could be expiated.
I first ventured to the promising field of biomedical engineering, contacting Professor Arthur Ritter, director of the Stevens Institute of Technology biomedical engineering program. Numerous dentists had told me disconcerting tales of hav ing to place a knee on a patient's chest to gain sufficient leverage and force to perform a recalcitrant extraction. So Ritter and I discussed robotic extractors. Could we develop a machine with suffi cient power and torque forces to perform difficult tooth removals?
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
I was in the Marine Corps in the late '60s and periodically all of us would go to "clinic" to get whatever needed done by overwhelmed Navy dentists.
One of my squadmates came back with one eyeball still twitching up and down like a walleyed pike.
He said it started as the dentist gave him a shot of novacaine, and was just starting to return to normal after an hour or so......years later, I mentioned that to my private sector dentist and he affirmed that this can indeed happen.
Personally, I never minded going to the dentist; the dentist I had years ago was also a professor at USC and also taught some at UCLA - I'd accompany him sometimes on Saturdays for "show and tell", and get my work done for free. It just took longer than in the office, because 20 or 30 students would poke their little mirrors into my piehole after each step of the procedure.
I kind of doubt this. I believe that the Egyptians probably used some sort of implement to extract the teeth.
“Be true to your teeth and they won’t be false to you.”
Words of wisdom. Soupy Sales 1965.
As the daughter of a dentist I grew up helping him at the office and even assisting him at the age of 13-15. (yes, I was forced into child labor against my will, just kidding, I loved it) I could tell some pretty gross stories but I won't. I had 4 wisdom teeth out at 18 and all I can say is GENERAL ANISTHESIA! There is no way I would do anything else. If you don't want to be put out, try laughing gas or valium and have little fun. :)
I figured I’d find you here (giggle)
I’ve had far more extractions than I care to think about. Don’t ask how many.
Only a couple were truly painful. The next to last one was the worst I’ve ever experienced.....and I can take a lot of pain.
I’m a patient at the UNC (Chapel Hill, NC) School of Advanced General Dentistry. Great care, great prices, all by young dentists attending a post-grad (and optional) program overseen by old-head, grey-haired senior dentists/professors. They’re wonderful.
So I had an appt. with my latest young ‘resident’, but that first meeting turned into an emergency extraction. I had what is known in the parlance as a “hot tooth” and was in some damned serious pain. The tooth in question had been root canal-ed twice......but damned if it didn’t just have to go.
They called downstairs and got me into a similar program....the oral surgery folks...immediately. I take the elevator down, in agonizing pain. I get a grad student who was a Pakistani woman who had been a dentist in her home country for years. She numbs me for the extraction but it was insufficient. Next thing I know, that wench is HANGING from my hot tooth trying to pull it out. Yes, her entire body weight. I felt every last bit of it. Never experienced that type of pain in my life.
I let her do it....God knows why.......and finally (after a lot of cracking noises and horrific pain) she yanks the offending tooth from my mouth. I breathe a deep sigh of relief, totally exhausted. Hurt like holy hell.
They weren’t through. A youngish professor comes in, looks at my x-rays, sees that there was infection in the jawbone under the tooth, and proceeds to dig it out. No numbing. Can’t numb infected tissue. He actually says to ‘em “let’s torture him as little as possible” and proceeds to dig into the ‘hole’ left from the extraction to pull out infected tissue.
I swear, to this day, that my hand/fingerprints are permanently embedded into the arms of that f**king dentist’s chair on that floor of Brauer Hall, UNC.
To this day I don’t know how I kept from decking the sumbitch. All I know is that I drove home and dropped into bed, totally exhausted.
"Is it safe?"
My wisdom teeth romoval was brutal and very physical...... knee in the chest, etc. But, at the time, it wasn’t too painful. That came later, and believe me, it came.
I think part of the "fear and dread" factor has to do with the sights, sounds and pressure, not the pain, which can be dealt with.
I was somewhat taken aback that my dentist sent me to a specialist for a molar extraction. Geez, how complicated could it be? Well, I was ok with the shot and waiting for the painkiller to kick in...until the doc took the cloth off his instruments. Those instruments looked like he could change a tire on a semi. It was not really painful but very intimidating.
I had 3 impacted wisdom teeth that need surgery back in ‘77.
They said they wanted to put me under. I said, “Can’t you do it to me while I’m awake.” They said, “Son, the things we’re gonna do to you, you don’t want to know about.”
So I went under. It took me a while to wake up. I didn’t want to...I rather liked being in restful half-consciousness. So it was just like in the movies with the nurse slapping me around to bring me out of it.
Finally I woke up enough to get off the table.
“So, who’s picking you up to take you home?”
“Um...nobody. I walked here, and I’ll be walking back. It’s only a couple of miles.”
“Son, you’re in no condition to walk anywhere. Call someone to take you home.”
“Well, the thing is, Doc, I’m new in town...just arrived a month ago and I don’t know anybody.”
They insisted that I leave in a taxi, which I did, although I couldn’t really afford it.
I bled for the next three days, with wads of blood-soaked gauze in my mouth, packed tight over my ex-molars.
When I went back, I asked them what they did to me. They said that my teeth were impacted so tightly that they couldn’t extract them with pliers — they had to use a chisel and hammer to break the tooth in half and pull it out in pieces!
Is that gross and horrible enough for you?
I guess it’d be better now, on the whole. 1977 and 2007 are worlds away in dental technology.
Can somebody recommend a dentist that will do that for me, free?
Ya’ see, I served 20-plus years in the Corps, and when I signed up, was promised free medical and dental care when I retired.
Well, I retired 17 years ago; my medical care is not free (need Tri-Care which costs me a bunch of dough), and the dental care is not an option.
Semper Fidelis,
fontman
At eighteen; a teenage girl BTW, I had a severely impacted upper wisdom tooth pulled with nothing more than a shot of Novocain. The dentist said, “You’re going to feel some pressure.” and as quickly as I could mumble, “how much pressure?” it was all over. I didn’t have to take more than an aspirin afterward and I even went to work that same evening.
He should talk to some woman who gave birth to an eight pound baby after eighteen hours of hard labor then get back to us on “I was fully conscious during the brutal and traumatic removal process.”
Silvio Laccetti is a whoose!
My brother, a dentist(gasp) pulled mine in dental school....took him 3 hours.....
The staff had given me a huge shot of vallium.....
I laughed most of the time....
There is nothing they can do to your mouth that is pain free.....including cleaning....
Man-up or let em rot.....but no whining please.....
I had an infected molar extracted around a year ago. After a couple of shots and a few minutes the Dentist came in and asked if the tooth was dead. I told him it was not even slightly.
After six shots and around 30 minutes, the shots had done absolutely nothing. I finally told the Dentist to go ahead and pull it anyway. He said no, he would get it deadened and thankfully the next couple of shots did finally work. He had real trouble getting it out but fnally did.
Not a very pleasant experinece but absolutely necessary as anti-biotics were not even affecting it and I was quite ill.
That was my thought also.
ALL of my wisdom teeth came in with no problems.
I did have one pulled a couple years ago because it had chipped and it was cheaper to yank than it was to fix.
That’s a great story, actually. No room at my cranial/oral Inn for two more. Not even close. Even if they could have passed the gumline, they’d have come in at 45 degrees.
We simply don’t need them anymore. I like to credit agriculture and ranching over millenia.
Painless i promise !
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