My biggest regret in life so far (dental health related):

[Home_Slice]

In 2019 I went on this "health bender", I got caught up in this BS idea of chemicals infecting my body, and decided to have three old mercury-amalgam fillings drilled out of my back teeth.

I got it done, two were fine, the dentist fucked up one though, but ultimately it recovered fairly okay.

But the one she fucked up, she had to completely reshape the tooth, and as a result food started to get lodged between it and the next tooth.

Now typically I went to the dentist occasionally, every few years, and always got the same feedback: "your teeth are great, keep looking after them, no problems at all".

Then, a few years after getting this tooth reshaped, I drop in like I normally do for a checkup and cleaning.

Holy crap, I have this motherfuckin' golf ball sized cavity in the side of the tooth that got re-shaped, molar tooth right at the back.

"It seems food has been getting trapped here", the dentist gives it.

The way the dentist reshaped it, caused this to happen.

Basically I fucked my own teeth, then allowed one of them to rot inadvertantly.

The last three months I've been in consistent dental pain after getting this golf-ball of a cavity filled, cause it was so close to the nerve, but the dentist said the pain will settle down after a few months.
The alternate being to get the tooth removed and get an implant, or get a root canal and crown, both of which would positively drain the little life savings I have.

..........

Cliff notes:
- I regret replacing my mercury amalgam fillings for white resin. Mercury absorption is total BS, don't believe these hippy fuckheads telling you it's leaking into your body.
- I regret subsequently sticking to my once-every-four-year dental health screening
- I have a choice to either live in pain for months and hope the tooth recovers, or go poor and hope a root canal treatment works and doesn't become infected.
- FML.

I'm kind of a perfectionist, and a little OCD, so this fuckery has positively made me lose it.
The above is by FAR the biggest regret (or series of regrets) I have.

 

[AFanNotAFighter]

'mercury amalgam fillings'

Never heard of that. Are they like silver fillings? I still have a few of those from when I was a kid in the 70s.

Some of them are still hanging tough but a few have flaked/chipped off the past several years and been replaced with modern fillings which look like porcelain.

 

[BlankaPresident]

You must have a near perfect life if the biggest regret of yours is a half rotten tooth.

 

[Pittie Petey]

You must have a near perfect life if the biggest regret of yours is a half rotten tooth.

He's a drunk stumble bum that gets beat up by hobo's over pocket change, perfect isnt the word I'd use to describe it

 

[CrimsonFan]

Tell them to pull the tooth.

No implants, no crowns, just get rid of it. Should be a couple hundred bucks.

They'll try and convince you that you need to do all this expensive stuff, but at the end of the day it's possible to just pull a tooth and move on. I've done it.

 

[Home_Slice]

'mercury amalgam fillings'

Never heard of that. Are they like silver fillings? I still have a few of those from when I was a kid in the 70s.

Some of them are still hanging tough but a few have flaked/chipped off the past several years and been replaced with modern fillings which look like porcelain.

Yes, silver fillings.

If they're placed properly they typically last a lifetime.

I had one deep in the crevasse of a molar and getting it removed fucked up the tooth.

Dental pain is no joke.

 

[Home_Slice]

You must have a near perfect life if the biggest regret of yours is a half rotten tooth.

Negligence that may cost thousands to correct.

It's definitely the most expensive and painful mistake I've ever made.

Nothing has ever made me question my own judgement and decision making more than this fuck up.

 

[Mujeriego]

In 2019 I went on this "health bender", I got caught up in this BS idea of chemicals infecting my body, and decided to have three old mercury-amalgam fillings drilled out of my back teeth.

I got it done, two were fine, the dentist fucked up one though, but ultimately it recovered fairly okay.

But the one she fucked up, she had to completely reshape the tooth, and as a result food started to get lodged between it and the next tooth.

Now typically I went to the dentist occasionally, every few years, and always got the same feedback: "your teeth are great, keep looking after them, no problems at all".

Then, a few years after getting this tooth reshaped, I drop in like I normally do for a checkup and cleaning.

Holy crap, I have this motherfuckin' golf ball sized cavity in the side of the tooth that got re-shaped, molar tooth right at the back.

"It seems food has been getting trapped here", the dentist gives it.

The way the dentist reshaped it, caused this to happen.

Basically I fucked my own teeth, then allowed one of them to rot inadvertantly.

The last three months I've been in consistent dental pain after getting this golf-ball of a cavity filled, cause it was so close to the nerve, but the dentist said the pain will settle down after a few months.
The alternate being to get the tooth removed and get an implant, or get a root canal and crown, both of which would positively drain the little life savings I have.

..........

Cliff notes:
- I regret replacing my mercury amalgam fillings for white resin. Mercury absorption is total BS, don't believe these hippy fuckheads telling you it's leaking into your body.
- I regret subsequently sticking to my once-every-four-year dental health screening
- I have a choice to either live in pain for months and hope the tooth recovers, or go poor and hope a root canal treatment works and doesn't become infected.
- FML.

I'm kind of a perfectionist, and a little OCD, so this fuckery has positively made me lose it.
The above is by FAR the biggest regret (or series of regrets) I have.

I didnt go to the dentist for 12 years.
Went in last month and just had plaque behind my teeth and no cavities. All good to go. But I brush 2-3 times a day and floss.

My fat friend, didnt go for 12 years either, and I'm pretty sure he rarely brushed his teeth. Because he had to get like 24-28 of his teeth removed due to advance periodontist.
So he had to drop around 60k for implants.
He's 36, which is way too young for that to be happening.

So I think youll be alright.

 

[Pittie Petey]

I didnt go to the dentist for 12 years.
Went in last month and just had plaque behind my teeth and no cavities. All good to go. But I brush 2-3 times a day and floss.

My fat friend, didnt go for 12 years either, and I'm pretty sure he rarely brushed his teeth. Because he had to get like 24-28 of his teeth removed due to advance periodontist.
So he had to drop around 60k for implants.
He's 36, which is way too young for that to be happening.

So I think youll be alright.

Unless hes fat, like your friend

 

[Mujeriego]

Unless hes fat, like your friend

His girlfriend one day looked at his ear and went "Whoa thats alot of earwax"
She pulled out chunks of brown and yellow ear wax, just horrendous amounts.
That was like 4 years ago.

Its safe to say that he probably isnt the most hygienic person in the world. While she was cleaning it out he even said "Ive never cleaned my ears", in a way like he didnt know that would happen.

 

[Cajun]

In 2019 I went on this "health bender", I got caught up in this BS idea of chemicals infecting my body, and decided to have three old mercury-amalgam fillings drilled out of my back teeth.

I got it done, two were fine, the dentist fucked up one though, but ultimately it recovered fairly okay.

But the one she fucked up, she had to completely reshape the tooth, and as a result food started to get lodged between it and the next tooth.

Now typically I went to the dentist occasionally, every few years, and always got the same feedback: "your teeth are great, keep looking after them, no problems at all".

Then, a few years after getting this tooth reshaped, I drop in like I normally do for a checkup and cleaning.

Holy crap, I have this motherfuckin' golf ball sized cavity in the side of the tooth that got re-shaped, molar tooth right at the back.

"It seems food has been getting trapped here", the dentist gives it.

The way the dentist reshaped it, caused this to happen.

Basically I fucked my own teeth, then allowed one of them to rot inadvertantly.

The last three months I've been in consistent dental pain after getting this golf-ball of a cavity filled, cause it was so close to the nerve, but the dentist said the pain will settle down after a few months.
The alternate being to get the tooth removed and get an implant, or get a root canal and crown, both of which would positively drain the little life savings I have.

..........

Cliff notes:
- I regret replacing my mercury amalgam fillings for white resin. Mercury absorption is total BS, don't believe these hippy fuckheads telling you it's leaking into your body.
- I regret subsequently sticking to my once-every-four-year dental health screening
- I have a choice to either live in pain for months and hope the tooth recovers, or go poor and hope a root canal treatment works and doesn't become infected.
- FML.

I'm kind of a perfectionist, and a little OCD, so this fuckery has positively made me lose it.
The above is by FAR the biggest regret (or series of regrets) I have.

Its either the options you say or pull the tooth imo.

 

[Renard]

Mercury amalgam isn't a lifetime filling. It's about 20 years maximum. Even if your hygiene is ideal, the mouth is a humid environment constantly shifting pH, overtime the filling corrodes and loses material, gaps form and the bacteria get in. All 3 would have needed to be replaced either way.

Also, do nothing. I would wait it out at least 6 months to a year. You don't want to lose a tooth, and you don't want a root canal either.

 

[IIIIIIII]

going to the dentist is for sure important. though i don't think it's necessary to go more than once a year. if you brush and floss daily, you'll be fine.

 

[Other]

Burn pits

 

[Thepaintbucket]

I had a bunch of mercury-amalgam fillings from the 90s and those teeth eventually needed to be redone. Infact one of them cracked and that led to a rotted out tooth, followed by a crown and that left over tooth stub cracked a few years after. Boy I'm sure my dentist loved getting my money!

Tooth filing wear in general can greatly be diminished by eating hard stuff imo.

If I had to do it all over again definitely gold fillings. Don't listen to those dentists if they are trying to give you that composite shit. Hell it's so hard to trust them these days, because every dentist goes straight to crowns because they can make a lot of money instead of trying to save the tooth

 

[GSP_37]

How is cavity golf ball sized when tooth isn't anywhere near golf ball sized?

 

[GSP_37]

going to the dentist is for sure important. though i don't think it's necessary to go more than once a year. if you brush and floss daily, you'll be fine.

I once wondered if it would be better to go more frequently than twice a year if it's water jets instead of full blown metal pick etc.

 

[Home_Slice]

Mercury amalgam isn't a lifetime filling. It's about 20 years maximum. Even if your hygiene is ideal, the mouth is a humid environment constantly shifting pH, overtime the filling corrodes and loses material, gaps form and the bacteria get in. All 3 would have needed to be replaced either way.

Also, do nothing. I would wait it out at least 6 months to a year. You don't want to lose a tooth, and you don't want a root canal either.

That's where I'm at at the moment.

When it rotted and I had it filled, the dentist fucked up the filling a little.

He didn't get the margins correct so it was trapping food and that needed correction, and he left a lesion on the buccal (cheek) surface which caused temperature sensitivity and that needed to be drilled out and filled again after (thankfully the clinic did those follow ups for free, but with their senior dentist, not the dipstick that messed up the initial filling).

So it gradually beginning to feel better, but it's still trapping food, maybe they can shave down a part of it to correct that.

I'll wait as long as I can and hopefully I'll be able to avoid both an extraction or root canal......... cause both would positively suck.

 

[Home_Slice]

Also, years ago on this forum someone recommended to use a water flosser (this was after I had the silver fillings changed in 2019).

I thought, "that's just another gadget, won't bother".

If I had done that, I wouldn't be where I'm at now, cause I've started using one the last few days and it is the most effective tooth treatment to get rid of stuck food particles between the teeth........ by far.

Way better, easier and more efficient than floss.

I'm absolutely kicking myself I didn't start water flossing in a more timely manner......... but at least hopefully it will prevent further decay in future.

.........

It's a fun component to add into ones dental routine also, water floss, brush, mouth wash, tongue scrap. Feels like I'm really keeping my teeth in great shape now.

 

[Home_Slice]

If I had to do it all over again definitely gold fillings. Don't listen to those dentists if they are trying to give you that composite shit. Hell it's so hard to trust them these days, because every dentist goes straight to crowns because they can make a lot of money instead of trying to save the tooth

No doubt.

Finding a dentist one can trust is a huge issue, I've learned.

Trust them to do the work correctly.

Trust them not to give you bad advice, try and force unnecessary work on you, etc etc.

No dentist wants to admit they fucked up, and I've found they'll somehow justify their mistakes.

Doing research on dentists and getting a second opinion should absolutely be embraced.

They're essentially surgeons of the teeth, and as we know, there's good/competent surgeons, and guys who just don't have the steady hands and expertise to do the job perfectly......... which when it comes to surgery, is how it needs to be done.