Tooth problems

majorwally

Well obviously I'm no expert, but I would have thought there WAS an less "medieval" method than a posidrive
It's 2015, we have more knowledge and technology than we could ever dream about and yet here we are still loosening teeth with a posidrive and pulling them with pliers.

We have face transplants, heart transplants are the norm, liver and kidney, and talk of brain transplants in the near future, but here we still are butchering people's mouths.
Laughable really.

I just don't think it's good enough!
500 years of dentistry and still "medieval"

Sorry if it's upset you, but that's how I feel.

Toothsmith

The 'posidrive' was most probably a luxator - and is one of the least traumatic ways to take a tooth out when it works!

But as Welshdent said - it can be a very unpredictable thing, and if you have a bad one, then you have a bad one!

I'm sorry you had a bad experience with this one - but from what you've written, it sounds like the dentist you had did his best, and when things weren't going to plan, he had the good sense to get someone else in rather than bashing on regardless.

Incidentally - if you want to see how it was done in medieval times - google 'tooth extraction key' and look at the images.

welshdent

it doesn't upset me but if you can help them come up with an easier way to do it all dentists would be all ears. I hate taking teeth out. Its not a personally offensive thing to say to dentists so long as you understand we are doing the best we can and thats the only way to actually physically do it. As TS said, a luxator is a less traumatic way to do it and I use one routinely. That doesnt mean every single tooth I remove with it will be easy. Its more down to the make up of the individual than the techniques we employ unfortunately. I still dont know how it can be simplified though. I am afraid I dont know what a posidrive is however.

brook2jack

If you think taking a tooth out is medieval you should see a hip replacement, surgical hammers and chisels are bashing away. Any operation involving bone uses a lot of equipment a diy fan would recognise. The difference is tooth extraction is done on someone awake and there are very few surgical procedures, particularly involving bone, which are done on people whilst they are awake.

At the very start the dentist said he might want to send you to hospital to have the wisdom tooth out or "cut it out" himself. It sounds as though they ,accurately , assessed that this would be a difficult tooth to take out.

It is unfortunate but doing any sort of surgery , inside an awake patient can sometimes be very challenging.

Money_maker

Toothsmith wrote: »

Taking a tooth out is a perfectly valid, and sometimes the best, course of action.

It is wrong to advise someone to resist a certain treatment just because once upon a time, you feel it was the wrong thing to be done for you.

But it is absolutely correct for that person to seek a second opinion to be sure that this is the correct course of treatment if they have any doubt about the conclusion of their dentist. Once the tooth is out it's out.

Incidentally, I actually have my tooth and never realised the roots were so long, thick or solid. It's absolutely enormous.

asajj

If you are not an expert on the area, it is not really reasonable to provide advice on something just because you have experienced it.
Those things can be dangerous - like people starting to drink carrot juice and refusing to get proper cancer treatment because someone said it worked for them.
As human beings, we like to avoid painful, long-winded treatments in my opinion so tend to believe that doctors are wrong or they don't know their jobs well enough (or dentists).