i'm thinking about writing a dental story. i'd love to hear everyone out there's nightmare stories, or good ones involving the dentist, if that's possible.
please, comment with any stories you have about your experiences with the (devil) dentist.
thanks!
:)
- Bethany James Leigh Shady
- Novelist, children's book author, freelance writer, and lover of the Shire.
47 comments:
When I was 15 I had some teeth removed so a brace could be fitted. It all went fine until I went home. As the anaesthetic wore off my mouth become more and more painful and I realised to my horror that I had been chewing away at the inside of my mouth for about three hours without realising... gross I know...
I had chewed a great big hunk of flesh from the inside of my cheek and it hurt like hell! Food tasted awful for weeks and it took ages to get better....I have hated dentists ever since...
2 stories:
1) when i was a little kid the X-Ray things they stick in your mouth gagged me and i totally threw up all over that lead vest. Not a highlight of my childhood.
2) once when i was an adult some saliva was collecting in the back of my throat so i decided to swallow, the big problem was that i was getting my teeth drilled at the time and i cannot swallow without clamping down my jaw. Needless to say, the drill went down a little farther than the dentist had intended. ouch.
I cracked the back out of the very last molar on the bottom right side a couple of years ago. The dentist filled it. It fell out about 6 months later. Had it filled again. Fell out again. Filled it a 3rd time. It fell out again yesterday. Guess I'll be calling the dentist for a 4th try!
When I was younger, I had every dental device known to man in my mouth at one point or another. When I was 11, they put in a pallet expander, which does pretty much what the name suggests. You have to turn it with a little key in the hole in the center of your device, which I had never done before. The nurse stuck the key in and turned- and it HURT. I started crying and she started crying too, not because she caused me pain, but because she LOST THE KEY. We found it stuck to her scrubs ten minutes later, but for a while we'd thought I had swallowed it.
When I was 18 I had a small tooth ache. I went to the dentist and he said it was a cavity. He scheduled me to come in the next day for a filling.
When I got there the next day he told me that it was slightly more serious than a simple cavity. I guess the x-rays showed that the root had been compromised. It was so bad that it spread to the root in the tooth next to it. I wound up having to get two emergency root canals right then and there. Good times.
On a side note to the story, I did not have a license at the time so my dad dropped me off at the dentist on his way to work. I arranged for my friend to come get me when I was done with everything but she forgot and never showed up to get me. So I had to walk home afterwards. Awesome!
My wisdom tooth had grown into my jaw and caused an abscess which then got infected. After weeks of complaining to my parents and them telling me I was crazy (I'm a little bit of a hypochondriac to be fair) I one day threw enough of a dramatic fit that they took me to the hospital. They told me I would have to go get emergency surgery to get the tooth pulled. Too bad I had finals and my prom the next week. So I took painkillers and waited til the week after to get both my bottom wisdom teeth pulled.
I go in, they gave me happy gas before they get started and I sat back and felt everything was FABULOUS. This was turning out to be the best dentists visit yet! Until I heard the scariest phrase... "NO NO NOT THAT ONE"
After everything is over and the gas starts wearing off my dentist comes back in and tells me he let his apprentice pull my tooth. Way to pull a bait and switch on me and allow your nephew or whoever practice on me like I'm some sort of My Sized Tooth Pulling Barbie sir. Needless to say I am no longer a fan of dental offices.
When I was little, I am very much afraid of the devil. I remember how one day my dad went to the dentist and I was very hurt. I was crying, shouting. I tied a rope on a chair as a psycho. I remember that all laughed. Until now, I do not like them. And you do not advise.
I've only had one root canal. I was about 23 and I woke up in the middle of the night in the worst pain EVER! My top lip was so swollen it stuck out to the end of my nose. I finally called the DDS emergency # about 5am and he met me at his office an hour later. It was one of my front teeth. It had some kind of abyss so he had to do a root canal - NO NOVOCAIN!!!!!! He said that I was in so much pain anyway, that it wouldn't hurt more and he wanted to help ASAP. Whatever. He was right, it didn't hurt any worse to do it without the Novocain, but damn! I had to go back 2 more times. Now I'm 50 and I've had the same DDS for 10 years and I love him. I'm no longer afraid to go, he's the GREATEST. I'm so thankful.
My husband and I have quite opposite teeth. I have never had a cavity where as he usually has one or 2 each time we visit the dentist. I tell him it is because of his constant pop drinking. It's like acid on your teeth. He ignores me. We usually book a day off and go to the dentist together since we share a car. Anyways, I am usually done pretty quick. A cleaning and a little check up is all I usually take. However I'm usually waiting for quite a while for him to be done. One time when I was sitting reading the magazine I could hear the dentist yelling! Sounding quite angry. Then I heard "You have to stop with the pop Jeremy!" I was excited someone else was telling him because I know I was not getting through.
I saw him leave the room with his head hung rather low, the dentist comes out behind him and all of a sudden I am getting totally scolded in front of a waiting room full of people about how I need to make him stop with the pop! I told her over and over I have been telling him for years, but she basically ignored that. It was rather embarrassing considering this is my husband were talking about here not a child! He eats what he eats, I don't spoon feed him sugar!
When we got in the car I asked him if he was happy that he got my in trouble. I asked him if he was going to stop. He said yes. Apparently she had shown him some rather disturbing photos of what his teeth were going to look like in 10 years if he didn't smarten up.
He did smarten up. I love how she instilled fear into him. That dentist was awesome.
Although I'd never had a fear of dentists I had never had a love of them either. That was before entering the office of Dr. Falcone in Princeton, NJ. First of all, his office is in a beautiful greenhouse - just getting to the door is a calming event. Then the office itself is an exercise in peace with gurgling fountains and beautiful music. It doesn't end with him either because when he referred me to an oral surgeon he sent me to Dr. Cubbage - cute, young and appropriately flirty. During my 10 years in Princeton I hardly went to the GP but I went to the dentist as much as possible.
Then I moved to Nashville and started seeing Tom Jones for my dental needs. The office of Tom Jones is in a very busy medical center with lots of cars and people. The music they play? 80's & 90's rock and pop. What a difference a few hundred miles makes!
I have too many (bad ones) to write about. Lets leave it with Satan himself is disguised as the devil (have you seen those tools?)
My horror is about my daughter, she had a cavity in a baby tooth and the dentist said it was pretty bad, and they saw the new tooth on the x ray-so they decided that it would be better to pull it instead of fill it. He told me that she would only need novacaine and they could easily pull it out.
(You are very daring asking for horror stories, given that you have been living your own dental horror story.)
He Lied,
he had to pull, pull, pull, it and the whole time my 9 year old screamed with 2 fists at her mouth. I felt like a mother tiger, by the time he got that tooth out I was enraged, yet cordial, I moved from her feet to her neck next to that chair, I was just about to grab his hands off of her as the tooth came out.
that was the worst experience i have ever had. It's amazing how seeing your children in pain can completely turn a person into a predator.
thanks for the tales, everyone! keep em coming!
My son had absesses on two molars a few years ago. After the fillings kept popping out the dentists decided to pull the teeth. I can relate with the woman who posted earlier, although I did not go back to the chair with him. I waited, in horror, in the waiting room (with many other people ind you) while my child screamed bloody murder for about 20 minutes, even with the gas!
My story isn't a horror story really, it's more of a "get back at the devil" story. I was about 12 and I was feeling fine (not really that fine.. it WAS the dentist!), at the dentist, laying in the chair, with the dentist and the hygenist poking in my mouth. Suddenly, out of nowhere, I threw up in my mouth! The look of absolute horror on their faces was priceless! SUCTION!!!
don't hate me, but I don't have any dentist horror stories. 2 of my uncles and 2 of my cousins are dentists. There have been times when there are other places I'd rather be, but I've never had a bad dental experience. sorry. On the other hand, I'd rather have a dozen root canals than go to the doctor (for a physical, when sick, or anything like that). No specific horror stories, I just HATE doctors & the whole invasion of my physical privacy & space thing I guess.
Yes, me too with the bad dental experiences. But not because of the Dentist. I have a great dentist but I also have a small mouth that aches for days after I've had work done from trying to keep my jaw open.
I have had an uncapped root canal for YEARS!
That is all.
xoxo
your beast
When I was a kid wa-a-a-ay back in the '60, before dentists wore surgical masks and latex gloves I had a dentist whose breath smelled of garlic and who had BIG, hairy hands (and by hairy I mean he had clumps of thick, black hair even on his fingers!) that he would cram into my little tiny mouth!! I use to have a sweet tooth and my brushing habits weren't all that great and I had defective enamel on my baby teeth so I had a lot of cavities. That bastard use to drill into my teeth with a slow drill. Not the fast whiny ones dentists use today. This was painfully slow that I'm not sure he didn't power it with his foot.. grind..grind..grind and he'd drill down to the pulp and wouldn't stop until he hit the sweet spot and I flinched and cried out in the chair. Then he knew he'd hit healthy tissue and stop drilling. I hated that man. I can clearly remember him dragging me across the waiting room floor. I can still see my fingernails scraping along the carpet, trying to find something to hang on to so he wouldn't put me in that chair. The memory haunts me; the image of my fingernails dragging across that carpet, seeking some small purchase where I could secure a decent grip to save my life from that monster dentist. The whole thing is/was Stephen King-ish or something out of one of those "Saw" movies the way I was tortured in that chair.
Thankfully, my current dentist, who looks a bit like Sting so that helps, says things like "Man, your teeth are white!!" and "I wish I had your teeth!". If you had to caricature the two dentists, the dentist I had as a kid would have horns and a a pointy tail and carry a pitchfork and the dentist I have today would have wings and a halo.
About 5 years ago I was having a cleaning at the dentist's office. The hygenist, Grace, is an awesome lady, and she's been cleaning my teeth for years.
Anyway, she's cleaning away, poking around....when she says "My God! Are you ok?! Did you...I mean...My God!"
Turns out when she was poking around a part of my tooth just fell off. Like, 1/2 a tooth just broke off.
It didn't hurt, but I was so scared I passed out.
Apparently that tooth had a filling in it, and it had made the tooth start to crack, and bam - 1/2 a tooth, gone.
They had to put a crown on that tooth. From cleaning to crown in a matter of minutes. bleh.
To this day, when I go in for a cleaning, Grace gets all nervous.
How about the one where you go in to see Dr. Slaughter, yes, that is his name, and he extracts 4 impacted wisdom teeth at once. I woke up crying. yeah!
Or how about the lame office who is a preferred provider for your insurance and they don't bill your company, but want you to pay out of pocket and they ignore that fact they should be billing your insurance.
I've had the one also that was meant to be a filling redo screwed up by another dentist turn into a root canal.
I hate the dentist, I really do. It's nothing but physical and financial pain.
When I was 6, I went to the dentist and had my x-rays done. However, they thought that I should have the one x-ray that moves around your head, as I hadn't had that one yet. So there I am, sitting in my stool, looking at this huge machine with the lead vest on that was bigger than me. The machine starts to rotate around my head. It gets to around my ear and all of a sudden, I start feeling this pain on the TOP of my head. It gets worse and worse and I start to scream and cry. The nurses and dentist turn the machine off and come running into the room. It seemed that my barrette that was in my hair, got caught by the x-ray machine. As the machine was moving around my head, it started to rip chunks of hair out. Needless to say, I hate the x-ray machines.
I have had many bad experiences over the years from many different dentists, including a root canal and braces. Like Topanga I had a similar dentist in the sixties, maybe it was the same guy! LOL
My worst experience was from a dental surgeon. I had broken my upper canine tooth off below the gum line. He gave me novacaine, grabbed a hold of what was left of the tooth and was trying to yank it out. He had two assistants hold me down and he had to put his foot on the chair and pulled and pulled and it wouldn't come out. Then he cut down the gum and did the above all over again and it still wouldn't come out. After more novacaine he wrenched it back and forth, braced his knee on my shoulder and finally got it out. Needless to say, I was in pain for days after that! The only other way would have been for him to drill it into pieces and cut my gum more to get the root, so I chose the yank alternative!
But now, for the last 10 years, I have the BEST. She is in Pearl City and is so gentle that even kids love her! Maybe you should give her a try Bethany! She has done my veneers, crowns, and fixed several cracked teeth and I can say she is 99% painless in her work! Let me know if you want her name.
Hoku, maybe all dentists in the '60s were hairy-handed Neanderthals. Dentist have evolved since then?
When I was about 6 or 7 I kept having a lot of abscesses on the gum next to one of my molars. I missed a lot of school because the infection would make me physically ill, they were just that bad. My mother told the hairy-handed Neanderthal that she thought the tooth was what was causing the infection and that it should come out but for a couple of years, he refused. Finally, she insisted he pull the tooth and he finally did. I never had another abscess. But how pathetic that my mother had to be the one to tell him the tooth had to go. It was just a baby tooth anyhow. The orthodontist put a spacer in to hold that spot open for my adult tooth and I was never sick again.
When I was about 3 or 4 years old, I had to go to a dentist at the hospital (it was an emergency and the week end). I had an awful tooth ache and needed a tooth pulled out.
Now when I went to my normal dentist he and I used to joke about many things, and because my teeth were in a very bad state (I had no enamel on them)I went to the dentist quite often... One of my favorite jokes was that I didnt want any anaesthesia whenever I had to have a tooth pulled - but of course I always had anyway.
Of course, being such a young child I told this other dentist that I wanted the tooth pulled without anaesthesia... and he was very determined to do so !!! He totally ignored my mother when she said I NEEDED the anaesthesia and he just went ahead an pulled my tooth.. Now to make things a little worse, he couldnt find any forceps for children, so he used one for adults...
Now this was back in the mid 1970s, but I still remember it clearly.. need I tell you anything about the pain ?!
I lived in Santa Barbara, Ca in the late 70's to the early 90's. One day I got the worse tooth pain I have ever had. I called all the dentists in the greater SB area, only one was taking new patients and could get me in ASAP. A acuppressure only dentist, no novacaine. I believe that accupucture works so I way I go. In the chair my faith left me and I was ready to bolt. The dentist taught me to apply presure between the thumb and next finger on the opposite hand of the pain in my tooth. When you get the right place you will know, it hurts there. Also works for headaches. He did a complete filling, drilling and all and I had NO pain or swelling. Left the office not drooling. I went to him for years after that. He was really into stopping cavitys not just filling them. He taught me alot on good eating and tooth care.
This is less gory than just ongoing and annoying. During my last checkup X-rays were taken and the doctor decided that under a filling (that they had placed) a dark spot had appeared. That dark spot represented continued decay which meant drilling out the existing filling, drilling my tooth some more, and re-filling the tooth. Well, once they got back in there they couldn't find anything, took another look at the X-ray and realized "our bad-it was a shadow."
Sigh.....the tooth still aches.
A few hours after having my braces put on, I started feeling a scratching/poking sensation on the inside of my cheek. I knew braces would be uncomfortable and take some getting used to, so I assumed this was normal and tried to go on with my life. A week later I went for a check-up and was told that the wire running through my braces had snapped out of place, and that uncomfortable sensation I was trying to ignore was a sharp piece of wire digging itself into my cheek. Twenty years later, I still have scars on the inside of my mouth.
Also, I had a stubborn tooth pulled out when I was 10 and they kept me conscious for it. The sound of your tooth being ripped from your head can be re-created by taking several stalks of celery in your hands and twisting them like you're wringing out a cloth.
When I was 6 months pregnant with my twins I went in for a tooth cleaning. Every time they leaned me back to start scraping my teeth, I would pass out after 3 minutes or so. Apparently my "excess baggage" was pressing on my vena cava or some other major blood vessel in my body, stopping the blood flow to my brain. That visit took quite a while longer than anybody expected!
Fortunately I haven't had too many negative dental encounters, but I do have one memory to share.
When I was around 8 years old, I had an accident in which I fell from a stool in my kitchen and damaged my two front teeth. It wasn't until I was about 25, though, that one of them began to turn gray; the root had finally died. I went to the dentist for a root canal and crown. For some reason that I do not understand, even to this day (8 years later), the dentist decided he'd "see how I did without novocaine." I think I was supposed to find it reassuring that as soon as it began to hurt, he'd give me the lovely shots in my gums.
Yeah. Let me just say, never let yourself be a fun little experiment for your dentist and his curiosity about root canals performed without anesthesia. That hurt like a b*itch.
When Steve Martin kept freaking me out with sharp metal objects, and then showed me the image of a grizzly horse mouth.
Oh man! Long story shot my root canal took a year and couple of trips to the specialist as well. But my dentist BROKE OFF A PIECE of her instrument down in the root of my tooth and its STILL THERE. The specialist was unable to remove it. Yay! The specialist and the regular dentist fought for close to 6 months over who was going to pay for them attempting to get the piece of the instrument out (cause I certainly wasn't) and 362 days after my first appointment I finally got my permanent crown put on over my root canal. Fun times. Good luck with your story and your root canal! 8-)
joke my Dad told me: a woman was terrified going to the dentist. She went into his surgery shaking with fear and the dentist told her sit in the chair and relax, there was nothing to worry about. She waited till he was all set up for work, grabbed him by the balls and said 'I hope we're not going to hurt each other' (Dad tells it much better)
Greetings from Ireland, loving your blog.
When I was young, poor and had no medical/dental coverage, I had tooth abcess to the point that the jawbone was affected. Finally turned to my folks for some $$ and went to have the tooth pulled. Dentist wanted to 'save' it. Without going into detail, I think I managed to inflict an equivalent amount of pain on him by the time I jumped up out of the chair. Found a dentist who would extract and once it was out, affirmed that it was indeed NOT salvagable.
Avoided dentists for years after. Not a good thing, as oral hygiene goes.
Moved to HI and found a dentist here in Honolulu who is a saint! Not merely a skilled technician, but a genuinely nice guy.
I could hook you up.
Somehow, I lucked out in the world and got one of the greatest dentists on the planet. However, a couple of years ago, I had to get a molar drilled and filled. After administering Novocaine and waiting the usual time for my face to go numb, he started the drilling... apparently it wasn't enough anesthetic, so he went to giving me another injection. He forgot to tell me that he was going to stab me in the roof of my mouth, so as soon as he did, I managed to spasm and deal a swift fisted blow to his male assistant's crotch. Strangely enough, I was able to keep my head still in the midst of this, so mine was more mental horror. The assistant, however fared far worse.
Hi, just stumbled on to your blog, saw this and felt compelled to comment! :)
I've also had a root canal done so I feel your pain! My worst experience though was when I was having my wisdom teeth removed. It was supposed to take 45 minutes, I was there for 3 hours (stubborn teeth apparently. who knew). The dentist battled and battled, the poor guy worked up such a sweat. I was in HK at the time and the dentist didn't know I understood a bit of Cantonese - I nearly cried when he turned to the dental nurse and said in an unnecessarily dramatic way "nurse, I'm going to need the super big pliers. would you please get out from the back room. poor thing, this is going to hurt".
He was right! Argh!
Hi Beth, I know of a very gentle dentist there in Honolulu who my children and I completely trust. He's very gentle, knowledgeable, and is up to date on his equipment (had the latest technology tools in there when I last saw him). If you would like his name and number, contact me and I will give them to you. We had a very bad experience with an "old school" dentist whom I thought would be good... and I dreaded the damage I did to my daughter emotionally after taking her to that one. When I found the one I want to recommend to you , I was very relieved as he is very much like the dentist we left here (where we move to there --HI--and back here too--military moves) and our kids looked forward to seeing him (both the one here and there). Hope I haven't confused you....
I had a wisdom tooth extracted by a retired-Navy-dentist-turned-regular-ol-civilian-dentist. It took him over an hour of cutting, prying, chipping, drilling, and using his full body-weight to get some leverage to try to pop the tooth out. I thought for sure my jaw would rip off. Finally, the tooth was out - in multiple jagged and bloody pieces. He gave me some stitches, packed my mouth with gauze, and told me not to use a straw.
I did as he said...no straws. But the following night I was in agonizing pain, my jaw was swollen and I could barely open my mouth. My husband called the dentist's emergency number, but he was out of town (sheesh!) and I was referred to another dentist. He saw me first thing in the morning. Turns out I not only had dry-socket, but the first dentist sewed the inside of my cheek over the gaping hole where my tooth once was. Yeah, that second dentist was horrified at his techniques. Anyway, I recovered (whew!). A few years later when I had my remaining wisdom teeth pulled, I chose an oral surgeon. He removed all 3 impacted teeth in like 5 minutes. No stitches, no dry-socket. Crazy!
When I was a kid I hated the dentist with the intensity of a thousand suns. I had so many cavities that the dentist gave up filling them and just put silver caps on them. My brother told me I should be able to get radio stations if I touched the caps together in just the right way. I believed my brother in ALL things, so, I spent the better part of a week contorting my jaw, shutting my eyes to listen (why I had to close my eyes, I do not know) and then repeating the process. Finally my Dad said, "What in the name of God are you DOING?" I told him I was trying to tune in KIOA 940 and he gave me the look. Every kid knows the look, it's the one your parents give you when they realize that the hole in the top of your head that's supposed to close shortly after birth has actually gotten bigger. Anyway, I stopped after that.
The worst part of the dentist visit was the enormous gauge needles that were used for the novocaine shots. Basically the size of chopsticks that had been whittled down to a dull point on one end. He would start pushing the needle in and I swear I thought it was going to come out somewhere behind my ear. When he was done he'd toss it in a stainless steel pan full of alcohol to be used again.
I didn't have the hairy knuckle guy, I had a guy who made this strange harrrummmm sound about every 30 seconds. And, he smelled funny, funny like I would smell later in life after I had drunk several gin and tonics.
Did anyone else have to chew those strange red pellets that turned your teeth red where you had not brushed properly? We had to do that at school. All of us looked like we'd been snacking on red crayons. And, they tasted horrible.
Amazingly enough, I didn't have a single cavity as an adult for over 20 years. I went to the dentist maybe twice in that time period. Recently I was eating a Milk-Dud and half of one of my back molars fell out. After wincing my way through meals for a couple of months my sister insisted on me seeing her dentist. This guy turned out to be an absolute gem. He totally 'got' my fear and made sure I was securely wrapped in the arms of a tranquilizer prior to doing any work. He put this great stuff on my tooth and kind of sculpted it into place, it was fascinating. I couldn't believe it when he showed me the needle on the syringe that contained the novocaine. It was like the diameter of an eyelash. I couldn't get over it. Many things have changed in dentristy, including that you don't have to SPIT in that freakishly small sink anymore, they just suction you out! How cool is that! No more trying to get rid of that endless drool of spit. Unfortunately, the sensation of numbness hasn't changed and the feeling that you look like they guy who co-piloted the Millenium Falcon with Billy Dee Williams in The Empire Strikes Back. But, it's a LOT better than when I was a kid.
P.S. I still think our childhood dentist paid for his Buick Electra 225 with the proceeds from my dental work.
aight about 2 weeks ago they said they're taking my 4 wisdom teeth out at UCLA cause i'm dirty and must go there for my poorman health ins. well they took one...just one...and told me when i woke up that the top two would remain forever cause they're not going anywhere and the second had a nerve wrapped around it and there was a very good chance i'd be numb on that side for the rest of my life if they took it out. bad thing is they took out one, and that side is now numb. should i sue UCLA? i mean they did a pretty decent job and gave me percocet at my drugged request and i still have a ton after i switched to ibuprofen. baaaaaah, damn you numb cheek.
hahaha! tim, you're hilarious.
I just recently had one of my upper left teeth yanked - first time being awake. The needle in the gum after they'd given me a swab was completely okay - it was the first of my fears, but the rest was pretty awful.
There was only half of the tooth left, so the dentist pulls out his trusty tiny set of pliers and pulls...and pulls. Darn it if the rest of my tooth and gum aren't quite healthy and giving him the runaround!
So eventually, the tooth cracks off, which doesn't hurt, except that the feeling of split bone jars my entire head and I can feel it throughout my skull and down into the lower bones of my toes.
Then...it happens again.
Now, there is no tooth left to grab on to. No trouble - he pulls out his trusty, hideous noise making drill, and proceeds to drill into what was left of my tooth in order to make a space that the plier can grab on to.
What came out of my mouth was basically just the roots.
True tale!
I got a root canal 5 years ago. The novocaine wasn't working, and I could still feel him drilling. One, two, three....SEVEN shots later and still not numb, Dr. Arrogant asked me if I was high. Apparently, the drug has no effect on you if you are on cocaine. Yes, that's what I do in the morning. Wake up, have a bowl of cocaine and Cheerios and drive to the dentist.
1.
When I was 18 I was going to have all of my wisdom teeth removed on my parent's insurance's dime. I was scheduled to go in for 2 at a time- so I would still have 1 side of my mouth I could eat on. They were not at all coming in and I think they were below the bone. The dentist decided not to refer me to a surgeon and was going to do it in his office with a few shots of novacane or whatever. I was NOT put under. So he started on the first tooth and it was extremely difficult for him to get out. They kept yelling at me to open my mouth wider. Umm..sorry I was a 100 lb 5'2 kid- everything was small including my mouth. It seemed like he had both fists in there. I couldn't breath because my nose was already stuffed up. He ended up having to break the tooth into pieces and pull it out that way. I could CLEARLY feel little pieces of broken tooth falling down the back of my throat. Which he kept telling me was all in my imagination. No- it was not! He ended up only doing the one tooth because it was so traumatic and difficult. I ended up getting a dry socket. It was so painful. I never went back to get any of the other teeth done. In my late 20's one of the other teeth grew in and it was a very simple matter of just having it pulled out. No pain, took 5 minutes. The original Dentist said I HAD to have them out because it was going to be so horrible if they came in. Liar. I still have 2 wisdom teeth that have never come in, ever dentist I go to now asks if I ever had braces because my teeth are so straight. I never did, and the wisdom teeth never caused any issues.
2.
When I was 13 the I told the dental hygenist I was allergic to flouride so they would stop putting that stupid tray in my mouth. They never checked with my mom and they stopped doing it after that. The reason I had to lie to the hygenist. They were about to use Banana Fudge flouride in that tray. The thought today still makes me gag.
Oy, horror stories. After I had braces, my teeth had *issues* mainly because the ortho cracked the enamel on every tooth I had braces on and therefore I developed problems around each "crack." The worst (first worst?) had to be when I went to the dentist after I lost a crown. I'd had a root canal that went great because they knocked me the hell out (my fear of dentists trumps my fear of anesthesia). Well, they did it "wrong." The crown kept falling out because the space beneath it was infected. Badly. They hadn't gotten out all the bad bits and they had also left "debris" in the socket. I had to go to an entirely different dentist and my mom pay out of pocket--*after* bad-dentist called her lazy and poor in front of a room full of patients and called me a fat little terrorist for crying in pain (wtf?). Later, I had a dentist perform an unnecessary root canal and years after that, a dentist spend four (FOUR) hours on a "routine cleaning" because she wanted to lecture me about my particular religious and faith choices--to top it off, she refused to use novocaine on me and she used latex gloves even after I told her, the assistant and anyone who'd listen I have a sensitivity. Plus side: I have had a VERY good dental experience. In college I lived in Baton Rouge and within walking distance to a great dentist... she was so sweet and understanding of my phobia that I even drove four hours to go there after I graduated.
Hey Bethany,
I am a dental hygienist so have a bunch of experiences from the other perspective - what if you wrote the story so the reader first thought it was being described from the patient's perspective but you eventually discover it is from the practitioner's perspective (the sound of the drill hitting the tooth, the spluttering and blood pooling in the back of the mouth, the patient jerking abruptly out of the chair etc). I have a lot of compassion for my patients, but you would not believe how sissy-fied we have become. I now work in a practice with leather chairs, TV screens, nitrous, very plush office we try & cater to every whim of the patient, but some patients have such an attitude that they are doing me this huge favour by allowing me to scrape the crap off their teeth while they refuse to stay open or only open ever so slightly, and get frustrated with me if I hover in front of their view of the television!
As for some of the weirdest/scariest things I have encountered so far, I used to work for a dentist who was an absolute butcher, so have experienced the stress of having to tell the patient he had done a root canal on the wrong tooth, or he started drilling on a kid he thought he gave anesthesia to and hadn't (he was doing a pulpotomy - a root canal for baby teeth). He also once did such a bad job on a root canal he perforated the root sideways so when he filled it with the rubber material (called gutta percha) it created a huge bright orange bubble under the gums so when the patient smiled there was an orange lump above their front tooth - he made no effort to fix it until I told the patient their rights and they complained to him until he decided to pull the tooth and make a very unnatural looking bridge in the front. I worked for him for a year before I decided that unemployment was better than working for this guy.
I also once had a freaky scenario where a patient opened his mouth and he had black HAIRS on his inner cheek. It was very disturbing and I went and discreetly excused myself and told our dentist - he told me that the patient had a hunting accident many years before and had been shot in the face. He had massive reconstructive surgery in his jaw and face, and they had taken a skin graft from his thigh to substitute for the oral tissues - only for some reason they used skin with hair follicles that started to grow once he was healed up. That was kind of wacky.
If you need any help with the technical aspects (proper dental terminology etc), I'd be happy to help. My email is bianca.rdh@gmail.com
Good luck with your story!
i had my wisdom teeth out a month back and they hit a nerve or something. couldnt feel my bottom lip for two weeks. but i think the worst part was that after the surgery in the recovery room i woke up to the sound of my own snoring. im wondering if i snored all through surgery. i may be small and cute but i cant breathe right to save my life.
well this post is old but i have a funny story anyway :)
its actually my cousin. she went to the dentist when she was little to get a filling done, and she remembers that he had the WORST BREATH POSSIBLE. like you know those people whose breath seriously smells like poop? yeah.
so he did the filling but it didn't stick right or something so for the past 12 years whenever the filling shifted she could taste the smell of that dentists BREATH! HAHAHAHAHA!!!!! poor thing :)
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