darkoshi | Entries tagged with teeth

I need my upper wisdom teeth removed because of cavities and issues with adjacent teeth. For any of you with experience in getting wisdom teeth extracted as an adult, would you recommend full, partial, or no sedation during the procedure? Even if there's no pain, I'm worried the sensations will bother me. I don't really want to be unconscious, and not able to recall what happened. But it would be easier, I suppose. I just don't know.

I still haven't had time yet to schedule a consult with an oral surgeon, so I don't know what they will recommend. I should probably have taken that appointment for late November when I had the chance.

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I lost weight due to the tooth problems I've had since August.
After Halloween, I came down with a stomach bug which didn't help.
I now weigh less than even I think I should. I'm trying to eat more to make up for it. Eating more is a chore; it isn't fun. I should find some big vegan pizzas to order rather than trying to fill up on cookies.

My face has changed. My cheekbones look and feel more pronounced.
The small depressions on the sides of my face, above the cheekbones and behind the eyebrow ridges, are also more pronounced. It low-level freaks me out every time I touch the sides of my face and feel the changes.

It is called "temple hollowing" and apparently also a normal part of aging. Searching on that term returns plastic surgery websites offering filler injections.

The antibiotics I had to take after the root canal (or the stress?) caused tiny pimples along the edges of my face, which still haven't cleared up. They're not visible but I feel them too.

I sorta worry that the root canal may not have even fixed my tooth problems. Maybe I won't even be able to get a temp crown in 2 weeks, and will instead need more work done first. Or maybe I'll get a crown and then find out I need more work done. Maybe it would need to be removed.. but that's why my normal dentist likes to wait 2 weeks before doing a crown, to make sure the root canal was successful.

Ever since the throbbing pain started, I no longer noticed any sharp pains. But I haven't been chewing on that side of the mouth either.

In the first days after the root canal, I still got the throbbing pain a few times, which worried me but from what I read was normal.

But now it's been five days. After sipping a mostly melted milkshake, I still get pains.. mostly along the right gumlines. It's a delayed sensitivity to the cold. If it were only due to gum recession (I don't have gingivitis), I'd expect it to be on the left side too. And I don't know why would it feel so much worse now than it did in the past.
Gah.

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By the way! You know when you see diagrams of molars, how they show 2 roots? But then sometimes you see 3-D models with 4 roots? (Or am I imagining that?)

According to what I've read now, the number of roots varies among teeth and among people! Bottom molars normally have 2 roots, but they are wide ones. One root can have more than one canal in it. (Maybe because the roots are really multiple fused roots is what I'm thinking.)

How many roots and root canals does a tooth have?

How many roots and canals your dentist actually finds, and therefore must ultimately treat when performing its endodontic therapy, can vary, even substantially, from what is considered “normal.”

In fact, the only valid axiom that can be given about this subject is that every tooth has at least one root and each root always contains at least one canal.

How Many Roots Does a Molar Typically Have?

Upper molars, also known as maxillary molars, have three roots. ...

Lower molars, or mandibular molars, have two roots. ... The mesial root often has two canals, while the distal root usually has one or two canals.

Wisdom teeth, or third molars, are known for their variable root structures. They can have a single fused root, two roots, or up to four roots, and their shapes can be unpredictable, sometimes curling or splaying.

Some molars may have supernumerary roots, which are extra roots beyond the typical number. These additional roots are often found in mandibular molars, especially third molars. Conversely, root fusion can occur, where two or more roots join, resulting in fewer distinct roots. Root fusion is more common in maxillary molars, particularly second molars, and can lead to complex internal canal systems.

I'd been having sporadic sharp tooth pains while eating for the last year. They were very brief and didn't bother me much. My dentist didn't find the source but believed it could be a micro-fracture. I couldn't tell what tooth it was coming from, other than it being on the right side, and wasn't even certain if it was an upper or lower tooth.

But I had one filling in a molar, and that tooth was suspect. A few weeks ago, I got a very bad toothache; a deep dull throbbing with pain along the gum lines. It lasted a long time. On subsequent days, the pain wasn't as strong but returned on a regular basis half an hour to an hour after eating. It was odd in that it didn't hurt while eating, only later.

In retrospect, I wonder if the pain I sometimes get along my gum lines wasn't due only to gum recession, but possibly due to this tooth already having a problem for a long time.

So last week I got a root canal. The temporary filling has a rough surface which annoys my tongue.

I have to take two different antibiotic tablets 3 times a day for 10 days. The amoxicillin, I can swallow with water. The other, metronidazole, is uncoated with a rough surface. The first tablet I took nearly caught in my throat. Since then I've been crushing those tablets. The endodontist said I probably wouldn't want to crush it as it has a very bitter taste, but that it would be okay to do.

I tried mixing the metronidazole powder with orange juice. That tasted ok. Then I read that citrus juice might reduce its efficacy, so I tried it with unsweetened applesauce. That was awful. Since then I've mixed it with chocolate oatmilk, which ends up tasting like unsweetened cocoa. It's not very bad (especially if I add sugar), but I dislike having to do this routine 3 times a day and will be glad when it is over.

I'm also eating only soft food which doesn't need to be chewed, to avoid dislodging the temp filling. I've heard many stories of temp fillings coming out and even of the tooth cracking when that happens. Trying to avoid that.

At first I tried chewing only on the other side, but noticed how easy it is to stop paying attention and start chewing on both sides.

So. Oatmeal. Applesauce. Yogurt. Probiotic drinks, to help counter the antibiotics' effect on my gut flora. Mashed potatoes, mashed beans. Tofu. Hummus, baba ganoush. Smooth peanut butter. Ice cream, though it isn't very enjoyable right now. Pudding. Little cakes. I'm hungry. I'll be glad when I can finally eat corn chips again. My first appointment for getting a temporary crown is in two weeks. A video I watched on the process makes that part look worse than the root canal.

Getting the root canal itself wasn't bad. The dental assistant put a thick spacer between my teeth on the other side, which pushed my jaws distressingly apart. She also put a rubber sheet around the tooth which made it hard to breathe. I started to feel panic, but the endodontist moved the spacer to where it wasn't so bad, and cut away some of the sheet. Then the worst part was the continual feeling of phlegm in my throat, and lingering worries that I couldn't breathe well. The injections and the drilling didn't bother me.

It was interesting that it felt like an upper tooth was being drilled as well as the bottom tooth. But I had previously read about how that is due to the nerves: Why It's So Hard to Tell Which Tooth Has the Ache.

During the procedure, my legs and torso trembled and vibrated, which was strange. It felt as if my body was trembling with fear, even though I wasn't afraid. It must have been a side-effect of the anesthetic:
Why do I shake at the dentist?

One common phenomenon that patients may experience at the dentist is shaking or trembling. This involuntary shaking of the hands or body can be unsettling, but it is actually a relatively common side effect of local anesthesia.

Silver Diamine Fluoride

Silver diamine fluoride (SDF) is a liquid substance used to help prevent tooth cavities (or caries) from forming, growing, or spreading to other teeth. ...
SDF was first approved for use in Japan more than 80 years ago. SDF was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2014 for use in the United States.
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It’s sold in some stores for home use, but it’s most commonly and safely used in dental clinics.
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SDF is most commonly used on areas affected by cavities. Research shows that SDF can be just as helpful when used as a preventive measure by being applied to healthy tooth surfaces.

Research also suggests that dentists don’t need to treat cavities with fillings or tooth surface modification before using SDF.

Traditionally, many dentists have used a fluoride varnish to help stop cavity development. SDF has proven to be much more successful at reducing cavity growth than varnish. SDF also requires fewer treatments over time.

There’s no set number of applications required for SDF to work. Most dentists only apply SDF once per year. Varnishes often need to be applied four or more times per year.

UCSF Protocol for Caries Arrest Using Silver Diamine Fluoride: Rationale, Indications, and Consent (2016)
Figure 3 outlines the application procedure. It indicates the SDF is applied to the teeth with a microsponge, allowed to sit and be absorbed for a minute or so, then rinsed off.

The main drawback I read is that it stains the cavity a dark color.

Atraumatic restorative treatment

Atraumatic restorative treatment (ART) is a method for cleaning out tooth decay (dental caries) from teeth using only hand instruments (dental hatchet and spoon-excavator) and placing a filling. It does not use rotary dental instruments (dental drills) to prepare the tooth and can be performed in settings with no access to dental equipment. No drilling or local anaesthetic injections are required.
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Although ART was initially developed in response to the needs of populations with less access to dental care, it had similar outcomes to more invasive treatments (local anaesthetic and drilling the tooth with dental bur). This means that it is suitable for use in any type of setting (from deprived communities to dental clinics) and it has been widely adopted into mainstream care.

Thirteen Acidic Fruits And How They Affect Your Teeth

Wow, grapes are as acidic as grapefruit. Maybe that is why my teeth and gums were irritated this week, after me eating green grapes that I had bought.

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My teeth have erosion along the gumline.

For a while in the past, I used a Tom's of Maine (brand) children's anticavity fluoride mouth rinse ("Silly Strawberry" flavor) after brushing my teeth in the evening, hoping that would help fortify my tooth enamel and make my teeth less sensitive. I think I mixed the mouth rinse half and half with water to cut down on the sweetness, but other than that the flavor was nice.

After using that bottle up, I tried a different brand - TheraBreath for Kids "Anti Cavity Oral Rinse", "Gorilla Grape" flavor. OMG, that one was WAY sweeter than the other one. Even cut down with water, it was still very sweet. So I never used much of that bottle.

Both brands are sweetened with xylitol which is good for your teeth. But still, I don't like a sweet taste in my mouth when I go to bed, and rinsing out the mouth rinse with water negates some of the benefit of the fluoride. (Yes, I know many people think fluoride is actually bad for you, but considering that I've only had one cavity so far in my life, I'm still of the opinion that it works well for me.)

So this year I bought another bottle of the Tom's of Maine rinse. But I was surprised to see from its ingredient list that it contains actual fruit juices (strawberry, pineapple, orange, lemon, mango) rather than (or in addition to) fruit flavor. All those fruits are acidic, and I was surprised that any company would put acids into a mouth rinse, when acid is bad for teeth. Then I saw that the TheraBreath includes citric acid in its ingredients too.

I wondered if the amount of juice and acid was low enough not to make much impact, or if other ingredients in the mouth rinses counteracted the acidity of the juice.

I tested the Tom's mouth rinse by pouring a small amount of it into a glass and adding baking soda. It fizzed! I tried the same thing with the TheraBreath and Qiao's old Listerine. They all got somewhat cloudy when the baking soda dropped in. But the TheraBreath and Listerine did not fizz. Only Tom's of Maine produced visible bubbles.

Acidic Mouthwashes Are Eroding Your Teeth - lists the pH of various popular mouthwashes. Per this list, Tom's of Maine is the worst, but Listerine isn't good either.

The erosive effects of some mouthrinses on enamel

Mouthwash Is Bad For You: 4 Better Alternatives

The high dose ibuprofen didn't have a noticeable effect on my teeth/bite issue. But I still think it could possibly be due to tense muscles; that still makes sense to me. So I will wait and see a while longer.

The ibuprofen didn't have any noticeable effect on my stiff fingers/hands issue either. I suspect that ibuprofen just doesn't work well on me; maybe it's something genetic.

The ibuprofen did cause my ankles to swell, however. I could barely see the ankle bumps on the inner side of my feet anymore. Oddly, that didn't happen until the day after I stopped taking it. It probably would have happened whether I continued taking it or not. It took 4 days for my ankles to go back to normal.

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I burned Linux Mint onto a DVD, to try out on my old laptop. It takes quite a while to start up, but runs pretty good once it's up. I think I'll install it to the hard drive. I'm wondering if there's a special way I ought to do that, to be able to try out and/or install other O/S's too.

My brother left 3 computers boxed up amongst his stuff in the garage. He said I could get rid of them after clearing off the hard drives. They're over 9 years old, with WinXP. For the 2 I've looked at so far, I had to replace the motherboard button batteries, so they would even boot. I learned some things about IDE hard drive cables and connections in the process. I'm going to put Linux on one of those computers too, so my sister and niece can use it while they are at my place.

I spoke to my regular dentist, who thinks the problem with my bite / occlusion may be due to the lateral pterygoid muscles having tensed up. Considering that I can't see any difference when comparing old photos of my teeth to how they look now, and how suddenly this problem came on, that seems reasonable. He prescribed me prescription strength ibuprofen - 800mg 4 times a day (which is the very max recommended amount for an adult), for one week. It may improve things by reducing any inflammation that may be present.

I was afraid that the Rx pills would be too large for me to easily swallow, so I got the OTC ones instead which are 200mg each and small. So I've been taking 4 of those, 4 times a day.

I've been taking them since yesterday, and haven't noticed any difference so far. If anything, my jaw muscles feel more tense/sore, but I think that is from the dentist having pressed on them yesterday to see if I felt any soreness (I didn't yesterday). My shoulder muscles also feel tense now.

If it is tense muscles, maybe it is a side effect of not getting enough sleep. Though I'd have thought the problem would have gotten better during my vacation if that were the case.

In preparation for making an orthodontist appointment, I've been researching braces and Invisalign.

I also looked into the Smile Direct club, which seems like Invisalign, but without an in-person orthodontist overseeing your treatment. From some things I read & watched, it may be more likely to result in problems with your bite. Something I hadn't realized before was that to give crowded teeth more room, they may be pushed outwards as part of the treatment. But if you push your upper teeth outwards, for instance, you may also need to push your lower teeth outwards too, depending on how good or not-so-good your bite was to begin with.

At first, Invisalign sounded like the obvious choice. I don't want anything glued to my teeth. I don't want metal and wires in my mouth*. I want to be able to floss my teeth like normal. And it sounds like Invisalign generally takes half the time to correct teeth as braces do. Plus, you don't need to have appointments as often, etc.

*I had my teeth wired shut once for about 6 weeks, for a fractured jaw to heal. It was awful. But most of the awfulness was in how it pressed my teeth together so tightly, and in not being able to brush the insides of my teeth. The wires were probably unpleasant, but that's not the part I remember.

With Invisalign, every time after you eat, you're supposed to brush your teeth and the aligners. At first, that seemed like a minor thing. But the more I think about it, the harder it sounds. I'm used to eating whenever I want, and I snack a lot in the evenings. Having to remove the aligners, brush my teeth and the aligners, and put the aligners in each time would be a hassle. And having toothpaste aftertaste in my mouth each time... meh. Some people say it made them eat less, and they lost weight. I don't need to lose weight though, and I worry about being hungry and not being able to fall asleep.

Secondly, I'm not sure I'd like the feeling of the plastic aligners against my tongue. With braces, the metal would at least only be on the outside of my teeth, so shouldn't bother me as much. My mouth should feel normal from the inside.

With Invisalign, sometimes they have to put "attachments" on the teeth, which may be as bad or worse than the glue of metal braces. I doubt I would need that, but until I speak to some orthodontists, I won't know.

So now I'm leaning towards metal braces possibly being the better option.

A while back while squirting toothpaste onto my toothbrush, a tiny bit of it splashed into my eye (don't ask me how). It burned for a moment, then was ok.

A few weeks ago, while filing away some papers, the corner of one sheet of paper hit my eyeball (don't ask me how). It hurt like hell. Worrying that I've got a severe injury always makes it worse, too. I kept thinking that my eyeball must have gotten a paper-cut. After some minutes, I was able to look in a mirror (with difficulty) to verify there was (probably) no shard of paper still stuck in there. The eye kept tearing up, so I had to press a washcloth against it for a couple of hours to soak up the tears, as well as to block the ambient light which was painfully bright.

The incident with my eye happened 40 minutes before a scheduled Spectrum appointment, for my intermittent connectivity problem (which since that last appointment has not recurred, hurrah!) That was the 4th appointment for the same problem; the 3rd time was not the charm. I didn't want to cancel the appointment. So when the tech came, and for most of the time he was here, I kept holding the washcloth against my eye. The tech was unperturbed.

After a few hours the pain was mostly gone and my vision seemed normal. For the next few days, the eye ached only slightly and sporadically. Then it felt completely normal again.

Last week, toothpaste accidentally spritzed into my eye again. This time, it hurt quite bad, and continued to hurt badly for 10 to 15 minutes even after rinsing out my eye as well as I could. It was the same eye which had the paper-cut. Maybe the cut wasn't completely healed after all, and the toothpaste irritated it again. This in spite of it being the wintergreen-flavored toothpaste which is fairly mild. The peppermint and spearmint flavors are too strong for me; they make my mouth burn.

One of the pages I found while searching on "toothpaste in eye" mentioned that most toothpastes shouldn't be dangerous to the eye... except perhaps if it's one of the whitening kinds with silica, as those are more abrasive. I thought to myself, well I know mine doesn't have silica. I purposely don't buy that kind, because their whitening power comes from sanding off the outer layer of tooth enamel. I'm trying to increase my amount of tooth enamel, not decrease it.

But yesterday I happened to look at the ingredient list on the toothpaste tube. Surprisingly, the main inactive ingredient after water was "hydrated silica". I could have sworn it used to be calcium carbonate. Did they change the ingredients?

Then I remembered that I have a small box full of empty toothpaste tubes. They can't be put with the regular recyclables, but there's a place - TerraCycle that takes them for recycling, if I ever accumulate enough of them to make it worthwhile to send them.

So I checked the box, and found an older tube, which indeed has a slightly different ingredient list. Both the old and new tubes mention "whitening" on the front, but somehow I'd never paid attention to that.

(OLD) Inactive ingredients: glycerin, water, calcium carbonate, hydrated silica, xylitol, carrageenan, natural flavor (wintergreen oil and other natural flavor), sodium lauryl sulfate, sodium bicarbonate, zinc citrate.

(NEW) Inactive ingredients: water, hydrated silica, sorbitol, xylitol, glycerin, natural flavor (wintergreen oil and other natural flavor), sodium lauryl sulfate, zinc citrate, xanthan gum, titanium dioxide, carrageenan.

The Tom's of Maine (my toothpaste brand) website says:

In our Antiplaque Tartar Control & Whitening flavors, the hydrated silica we use is milled to produce a slightly larger particle size (an average particle size of 10 microns, versus 8 microns, on average, in our children's and Wintermint flavors). This makes it a better cleaner, so that it can help to remove stains that have formed on teeth.

So at least the silica in my toothpaste is small-sized. If it were only that, I might continue using it. But with this new propensity for splashing into my eye, I'll be looking for an alternative. (Is it unreasonable to think that brushing one's teeth or doing paperwork shouldn't require wearing safety goggles?) Now when I brush my teeth, I've started holding the tube at arm's length and pointing it away from me.

All About Whitening Toothpastes - has a chart comparing the abrasiveness of different brands of toothpaste.
Setting the record straight about toothpaste abrasivity - says there's no difference in tooth-wear, as long as the toothpaste is under 250 RDA. I don't quite believe that.