Hello People,
Where do I start from? I have had so many questions from people, as to their dental questions, one of the most intriguing ones I will talk about here is the many people who say “ I go to the dentist with a problem and I come back with more problems than I had the first time”.
I can understand their “frustration” especially when their teeth were “perfect” except for the one they brought to be sorted, but the truth is, most times, these issues that didn’t hurt before you went into the dentist’s chair, are just waiting to be discovered.
I’ll share a story of an individual who had not visited the dentist before, this was obvious, judging from the state and quantity of the calculus in his mouth- I’ll save you from trying to imagine the sight of it, but don’t worry about me, I had to get used to it besides, it’s all in a day’s job.
But anyway, this individual had all his calculus taken out, when the dentist finished, he asked that when are they putting back the “filling” they just removed, because we knew he didn’t really understand what just happened, the dentist explained that what she took out was a mass of germs that would cause him more serious issues in the future, if it hadn’t been removed, because, calculus, also known as plaque, covered the surfaces of this individual’s teeth…that is some poor oral hygiene we don’t want to find ourselves in…Mouth odour, gum disease amongst others can result from this sort of oral hygiene. The patient testified to feeling fresh in the mouth and good after a very tedious scaling and polishing session, but he was happy and healthier for just trying out the dentist, so were we… to save another smile.
Now, this individual might have had any other dental problems underlying apart from the calculus we took out, luckily, he didn’t, so he was let go feeling all good and happy – so you see, it’s not all the time the dentist “looks” for or “poke his/her nose” for what you think is non existent.
The dentist is trained to check the mouth for all dental abnormalities when you go for a check up, inform you and treat accordingly. Appropriate urgent treatment will be given to get you out of pain, which is the situation most people find themselves in when they go to the dentist- when pain arrives and won’t go away!!!
So, the dentist finding something else wrong with another teeth is not vindictive, it’s for your own good, because only a dentist can see what you cannot see in your mouth and treat it before you come back again, in agonising pain…You wouldn’t want that, would you?
You can share your experiences by emailing erin@erinmagazine.org, comments and suggestions are welcome too.
Erin.