A bit OT

[WA1GFZ]

Why do dentists want to yank every wisdom tooth on the planet?
My Son is 13 and they just started on him and he is still growing about 1/4 inch a month.

[KL7OF]

$$$$$$$$$$$$

[Ed/KB1HYS]

Probably the same reason Every Kid needs braces too...  Like he said, $$$$$

My dentist actually told ME that I needed braces (the latest gimmic plastic thing) I'm 43!

I laughed...

[K5WLF]

I'm getting full dentures and just after my dentist pulled the last natural tooth from my mouth, I took great pleasure in telling him, "There, now you'll never be able to hurt me again".

73,
ldb
K5WLF

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Bone fragments, nerve endings, improper fit, gum infection, his bill, can all provide the ability for him to inflict continued hurt.

You want real hurt, get an implant or two. The bill will cause you to run out screaming in pain. 

[WA3VJB]

The next revenue stream coming to your favorite dentist is:  TMJ.

temporomandibular joint

[W1UJR]

Get an impacted wisdom tooth and you'll know why!  

I had one right before the 2000 Dayton Hamvention, the most pain I have ever been in, and that includes a broken leg.
Nothing like tooth pain. People will pay or do almost anything to get rid of the pain. When teaching service writers I use the dentist's business model as an analogy to illustrate the idea of not removing "pain" until a "solution", i.e. price, is agreed upon.

So I could attend Dayton, all of my wisdom teeth were drained and yanked the same day, under just Novocain, they could not knock me out as I had eaten breakfast. I have interesting memories of being under a light edge of nitrous, hearing the crunching and then loud snaps in my mouth. Always amazed how crude dentistry really is when you pull back the curtain. No different than in the 1800s when they gave you whiskey, a leather strap to bite on and the doc used pliers, just more dressed up now. You'd think that some high tech super duper laser zapper computer robot thing would be doing the work, but its just good old pliers, leverage and elbow grease that get the work done.

With that said, I'm mighty glad that dentistry, at least in this country, has been largely removed from the do it yourself realm. 

[Ed/KB1HYS]

Funny, I never thought about the Pain/money association... makes good sense though.


Uncle Sam Pulled my Wisdom teeth, there's no dentist like an Army dentist... at one point he had a knee on my chest.

[WD8BIL]

I said no. We'll pull'em ifn they hurt.

Like Ben Franklin is credited with saying;
"If it works don't fix it!"

I still have 2 wisdom teeth at 54 that work quite well.

[The Slab Bacon]

I had 4 of them pulled close to 30 years ago. (2 impact, and infected) My dentist WAS an army dentist. I told him "its gonna hurt you more than its gonna hurt me"
he listened and understood what I meant.

Countless fillings, crowns and root canals, I still have most of my OEM teeth. at 54 I just aint ready yet to tale them out and "soak them in a glass" every night!!   

the most painful part of it is that piercing pain in your lower end when you get the bill!!   


                                                          the Slab Bacon

[WB2EMS]

Ah Wisdom teeth. Bruce I had a situation similar to yours. I had two that were needing to come out and told them to do all 4 at once as they were going to be issues later. Novacaine and other stuff doesn't work on me as well as it should, so I was a lot more 'with it' during the process than I should have been. I knew I was in trouble when they brought out the leather strap and put it across my arms and chest and cranked me down tight into the chair! I recall the knee on the chest, and also the hammer and chisel used to break the teeth into halves for 'easier' extraction. Quite an experience and glad I had it done all at once as it would take wild horses to get me back in the chair for that again. It wasn't the most pain I've experienced, kidney stones still are the winner there, but a close second.

That being said, after the experience with those, and a tooth infection over a holiday trip, I give thanks for modern medications. Can you imagine  either of those in the 1870's with no pain medication (other than whiskey) and no antibiotics? Gives me the shivers just to think of it...

[WA1GFZ]

Bud,
That is exactly my response to the bimbo trying to sell us on the idea.
I still have all four. 3 out and one on its side...and giant. I figure my lowers are a good 5/8 inch front to back. I was sitting in the waiting room a few months ago and heard the same sales pitch given to another kid. You pay someone to maintain the teeth not yank them. Crap I'd have the one in front of it removed since it has a filling.
A friend ended up with a big dimple on the side of his face when they yanked his teeth.

[W2PFY]

I still have my wisdom teeth.

The dentist was amassed and set up a test between me and a bear.

It turns out that I am smarter than the average bear because I have my wisdom teeth

[k6hsg]

 I think that the problem with wisdom teeth is that most people have a mouth that is to small for all of their teeth.  I have noticed that the percentage of big mouths seems to be quite a bit larger here on Amfone than in the general population so you guys are probably ok in keeping your wisdom teeth.
 When I went into the Navy in 1957 They looked in your mouth and pulled anything that looked like a problem.  For some reason we west coasters kept all of our teeth but the guys from the south lost them in bunches.  It was probably the water they were drinking when growing up.
 The reason that the tooth brush isn't called a teeth brush is that it was invented in Arkansas.
 When it came time to get out of the Navy in 1960 they filled a couple which left me with an everlasting fear of Dentists.
Ten years later a third molar came in and broke the back off of the second molar and I went over to Loma Linda dental school to have the broken second molar pulled.  They would do it for free as part of student training.
 They said no on pulling it but pulled the wisdom tooth and sent me off to a high priced dentist to have the second molar crowned.
I later had the other three pulled by an oral surgeon and just before I went under I could hear a bone saw start up some where near by.
Forty years later I still have it and am glad that I can chew my food on both sides of my mouth.
 My dad, raised in Missouri, had false teeth when he was in his 50's and after watching him try to use them for 15 years I am glad that I still have all of my origionals -1 that my mother had pulled in trying to compensate for to many teeth in a small mouth.
 When my son had his teeth straightened I also had mine done which is another story.
73, John
Bona, Missouri
 
 

[WA1GFZ]

Maybe in the old days you lost a few along the way so your mouth was never full.
Heck my OM had all but 2 when he checked out at 82. I had one pulled as a kid because it came in beside another. I have 2 under the skin. one in front way down so if all else fails I might have 1 fang. I had a dirt bag dentist as a kid. He would zing a tooth with the drill to have a filling to do on your next visit. He had 2 sons who lived near us both candy A$$.

[W1ATR]

Let him get rid of the damn things if he thinks they could be a problem Frank. I never had mine out and a few years back, one erupted  thru inside gumline and caused a huge and super painful infection followed by an abscess. For a week or so prior to surgery, I couldn't eat, and couldn't drink anything that was even slightly different from body temperature. I couldn't smoke, so I had myself covered with nicotine patches like they were boy scout badges, and I think I had to actually make a mental effort at one point not to put a barrel up to my temple because the damn pain was making me insane. I always took good care of my teeth and still do, but after going thru that hell, I'm extra careful now.

Just my .02 on that, but I'm tellin ya man, it was just so sickeningly miserable that I had to relay it here.


     

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Back in my 20's, whenever I had a tooth ache, I always rinsed with Jack Daniels and/or Wild Turkey. Tooth ache use to go away, I think.

[W2PFY]

Back in my 20's

 

I think

You that old and can still think