[JMP300z]

From my other post.

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OoOKKKkKKK a lot of dental phobias, needlephobias and missconceptions.

As a 2nd yr dental student who has already been operating on patients I feel qualified to answer some questions. I will open up another thread for it.

As for the needles, procedures and what not. You should not experience serious pain while at the dentist (pressure, uncomfortableness etc). If you are, they arent giving you the right/enough injections. The injections should not be painful (with the exception of the greater palatine, and naso palatine injections), if they are, the dentist is injecting TOO fast, injecting intraosseous, spiking a nerve, not drying the area and applying topical anesthetic etc. Its mostly mental. As a class we gave each other a [censored] ton of shots b4 going to patients. Just imagine the shakiest f'n hands youve ever seen...it didnt hurt. Dont fear the needle (though it is pretty big and we do bury the thing sometimes). Most of the injections given (at least in the max arcH) however are infiltration type where the needle enters only a few mm. You will prob experience some soreness afterwards due to tissue trauma and generally keepin your mouth open for a while w/ pressure and stuff depending on the procedure. The dentist wil prescribe you something if your a big pussy.

Oh yah, to all you who dont go to the dentist, youll suffer more later. A carious lesion discovered early is a mild procedure that can be treated in many non invasive ways. Given time, it can penetrate the enamel, into the dentin of the tooth, spread around and reach the pulp. At certain stages, the restorations become more extensive, until were looking at large amalgam's/composites, inlays or crowns. The closer the decay is to the vital structures of the tooth (the pulp, consisting of nerves/bloodvessels), the greater the risk of it causing an infection that will spread down the root/nerve of the tooth into the underlying tissues/bone and cause an abscess. This means rootcanal. When you get a rootcanal, you have to have a crown too. If the infection reaches the nerve of the tooth, you will have pain...im not talkin like how a stubbed my toe, im talking so much f'n pain you wont be able to sleep or think or anytyhing. My dad is an endodontist, that means he does rootcanals all day, he deals with people in pain and then relieves them of the pain. Its incredible how much pain these people are in that theyll wake him up in the middle of the night, but they were so afraid of him that they waited until things got real bad. Then when the procedure is over, you should see how thankful people are (even after being gouged for a ton of money).

Crowns + rootcanals= $$$$$ lots of money. Depending on your region and the tooth involved, but I can tell you my dad charges 1200$ for a rt canal and a crown can run you just as much. So your looking at 2k $ procedures for something that started out as a sub 200$ filling that you were afraid to get fixed. That may seem extreme but im trying to make a point.

Oh yah, and El D....ORAL SURGEONS MAKE A KILLING! I dont know who told you otherwise but the ones in my area are f'n loaded. Poppin wisdom teeth at several thousand a pop?! Doing several a day?? They dont make much anymore doin the big procedures like oral maxilofacial surgeries, trauma etc but they certainly are doing well. Def one of the top speciatlies. You have to be top in your class to get into oral surgery and go to school another 4-6 yrs (some places get an md/dmd), noone would do this if oral surgeons werent making piles and piles of money, a lot.

Most people have no idea how hard dental school is (godawful 4 yrs, id give anything to have it as easy as my med student roommate right now), how well trained most dentists are, how hard dentistry is (it is microsurgery for sure, working in fractions of mm's with a high speed diamond or carbide drill), how shoddy the work most do is compared to what they were originally trained, and how much friggin money they make.

Answering all spec q's to the best of my ability in another thread.

Oh yah and good luck to the sorry soul who said they are applying to dental school. Its a great profession.

-JP

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