Lasers!
Long ago, in the time before I had dental insurance, I went to some hack in Alexandria. He found a cavity, and did the crappiest filling in the world - I could feel the seams, for heaven's sake.
Today I found out how crappy it was. My dentist of the last four years poked a hole in the filling to the cavity beneath. "Cavity?" you ask. "When you have a cavity, the dentist drills out all the decayed tooth and fills it. There is no "cavity" left under a filling."
You're right! Unless the dentist sucks and doesn't drill out all of the decayed part, in which case the tooth continues to rot under the filling! And unless it rots down to the root of the tooth, you won't know until it's either too late or a good dentist follows a hunch.
My dentist is good. My dentist did have to tell me that I'd need it redrilled and filled. I sighed and asked him if we could do it today, and he said sure. I told him to hang on, I'd tell my mate to wait for me. (Men do not willingly care for their own health. They marry mates who will make appointments and then force them to keep said appointments. Thus it was that my mate was settling in for his cleaning after mine was finished.) The dentist said, "Why? You'll be done before he is."
What? It was going to take twenty five minutes for the nasty needle of Novocaine to numb my jaw enough to work. I said so.
He cackled, and said, "You haven't seen my new toy!"
He had a LASER. A great big laser, that explodes droplets of water into atoms along with a bit of tooth. Sounds awful, right?
12:10, he finds the hole. 12:20, I'm in the chair. 12:30, he's instructing the assistant to hold the heat set instrument over my dental bondo.
1:10, I'm eating crunchy things.
No pain, so swelling, no numbness, no needles, no ANYTHING but a tooth that no longer has a crappy filling.
These are the days of miracle and wonder.
Today I found out how crappy it was. My dentist of the last four years poked a hole in the filling to the cavity beneath. "Cavity?" you ask. "When you have a cavity, the dentist drills out all the decayed tooth and fills it. There is no "cavity" left under a filling."
You're right! Unless the dentist sucks and doesn't drill out all of the decayed part, in which case the tooth continues to rot under the filling! And unless it rots down to the root of the tooth, you won't know until it's either too late or a good dentist follows a hunch.
My dentist is good. My dentist did have to tell me that I'd need it redrilled and filled. I sighed and asked him if we could do it today, and he said sure. I told him to hang on, I'd tell my mate to wait for me. (Men do not willingly care for their own health. They marry mates who will make appointments and then force them to keep said appointments. Thus it was that my mate was settling in for his cleaning after mine was finished.) The dentist said, "Why? You'll be done before he is."
What? It was going to take twenty five minutes for the nasty needle of Novocaine to numb my jaw enough to work. I said so.
He cackled, and said, "You haven't seen my new toy!"
He had a LASER. A great big laser, that explodes droplets of water into atoms along with a bit of tooth. Sounds awful, right?
12:10, he finds the hole. 12:20, I'm in the chair. 12:30, he's instructing the assistant to hold the heat set instrument over my dental bondo.
1:10, I'm eating crunchy things.
No pain, so swelling, no numbness, no needles, no ANYTHING but a tooth that no longer has a crappy filling.
These are the days of miracle and wonder.
posted by Sanya at 3:17 PM
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