Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

The GOP is a fucking disgrace.

Everybody saw this coming.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Come on, man.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

This blog will pay for itself.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

This fight is for everything.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Let’s finish the job.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

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Reader Interactions

92Comments

  1. 1.

    geg6

    Jeebus, John. How long does it take your dentist to make a permanent crown?

    I never had a temporary for more than a week.

    Edited to add: Is it the crown that hurts or the gums/jaw underneath? If it’s not the actual crown itself hurting you (and I don’t know how it could, you shouldn’t have any nerves there), you may have an infection.

  3. 3.

    Rosalita

    Because they drilled the old tooth down to a nub. I’ve been through this three times. I had to keep a temporary for three months once because they wanted to be sure I didn’t need a root canal. fun times.

  5. 5.

    cleek

    Explain to me why I had this put in when my old tooth didn’t hurt at all?

    because you had a new cavity, but you had so many other fillings on that same tooth that the dentist was afraid doing another filling would weaken the tooth too much ?

  6. 6.

    geg6

    @Rosalita:

    I thought he had a root canal. Am I wrong?

    If he had a root canal, he doesn’t have any nerves there.

    None of my temporary crowns after root canals ever hurt, with the exception of the one that got infected.

  8. 8.

    MattR

    This post is not helping me. I really need to go to the dentist. It has been way too long. And I am terrified of what he is going to find. But I know putting it off is not the answer either. I think pharmaceuticals might be required.

  9. 9.

    Ryan S

    I had a root canal about 18months ago and it still hurts sometimes. Don’t be fooled a crown/root canal is not like a normal tooth it’ll never be the same.

  12. 12.

    geg6

    @MattR:

    I can relate. I’ve had so much dental work over the years and I know, just absolutely know, that it is all going to be for naught and they are going to tell me that it’s denture time.

    Arrrrrrrgh! Damn my awful British bad teeth genes!

  14. 14.

    licensed to kill time

    I don’t know why you had to have that crown when your old tooth didn’t hurt. If I was cynical I’d say because the dentist needed some more moolah, more charitably because he saw problems down the road and was trying to give you the lesser pain now to avoid bigger pain later, and to save the tooth for your old age.

    In any case you have my sympathy because there is nothing more aggravating than tooth pain. It’s the only time I have ever contemplated self-decapitation.

  16. 16.

    Don

    I had a similar shit experience with my crown, except then it kept twinging when I bit down for about, oh, a year.

    Your pain is likely just a result of all the prodding and yanking and, I’m sorry to say, will probably continue for a few weeks after your crown is installed. It sucks, and I’ll warn you now – dentists seem to not want to numb you up for crown install because they want you to be able to bite down and check the fit and actually be able to feel it.

    My solution to dental pain, which I am embarassed to say it took me till age 39 to figure out, is that I always take a few advil about a half hour before I go to the dentist. Maybe people without shitty gums don’t find even a cleaning uncomfortable but it makes a world of difference for me. I’d suggest you do it before you go for the crown fitting.

    Now my crown pain continued for so long after because of a hairline fracture in the cracked tooth the crown went on. Or so my new dentist speculates. Since the only way to deal with it was to either (a) wait and see or (2) get a root canal I opted to wait and see and EVENTUALLY the discomfort subsided.

    I hope for your sake that you don’t have a similar issue, but I don’t think you’re going to be able to know till the perm is on and has had a few weeks to settle.

  17. 17.

    SteveinSC

    @geg6: Well that’s not much of an endorsement. I had a friend that went to a dentist to have a tooth pulled, I think, and the thing became so infected they had to cut a hole in his cheek to get at the thing before it rotted his whole jaw off. He still had this easy-to-see cheek scar 40 years later. I’ve got a tooth that my quack dentist says has a dying nerve. The bitch hurts most of the time, but mostly when anything hot of cold touches it. That nerve is taking longer to die than a Puccini heroine.

  18. 18.

    Ash Can

    @MattR: There are dentists around who use pharmaceuticals on their nervous patients. Look around; there may be one in your neck of the woods and it may be the solution.

  19. 19.

    Rosalita

    @geg6:

    Fortunately I never had to have any root canals so I can’t share any experience there. I thought John was just getting a crown.

  20. 20.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    Temporary crowns hurt because dentists don’t necessarily align them properly with your bite, being temporary. So your entire mouth is off and hurts like heck. Have a mojito.

  21. 21.

    Corner Stone

    @MattR: It’s not going to get any better. That I think we can agree on.
    No matter how much you brush, floss, mouthwash or drink lots of clear alcohol.

  22. 22.

    Mnemosyne

    @MattR:

    I will say this as a dental phobic who put off going for 10 years — go. Get a recommendation from someone you trust, bring you iPod to listen to, ask your GP for some Valium to take beforehand if you’re really freaked out. You really don’t want to end up like I did, with two root canals, four crowns, and quite a few cavities that needed filling.

    Though apparently the very best thing you can do really is flossing. I didn’t have a single cavity when I went in for my last visit, and the only thing I changed in my routine was flossing. You don’t even have to do an awesome job and dig everything out — even just getting the floss between your teeth helps a lot.

  23. 23.

    Corner Stone

    All the people saying a temp crown is ok to hurt are wrong.
    If it still hurts then it is not correct.
    Make an appointment, go back and tell them. Or make an appointment with a diff dentist. Either way, this isn’t acceptable.

  25. 25.

    Corner Stone

    @Cheryl from Maryland:

    Temporary crowns hurt because dentists don’t necessarily align them properly with your bite, being temporary.

    This is wrong. I couldn’t bite down after my last temp crown, went back next afternoon and they resolved.
    World of difference between Tue evening and Wed afternoon.

  26. 26.

    Mnemosyne

    Also, too, if you have sensitive gums (like me), the area around the root canaled tooth can still hurt and communicate to your brain as though it’s the tooth that hurts. (I think it’s called referred pain?) It’s weird, but it does happen sometimes.

    I had to have my first root canal re-done by an endodontist because it turned out that my roots are in an S-shape and I needed the guy with the special equipment who could see all the way down into them. That was fun. For the second root canal, my dentist sent me straight to the endodontist rather than try to do it himself again.

  29. 29.

    General Stuck

    Pull the sumbitch Cole, what kind of hillbilly are you. You got plenty more teeth where that one came from. You only need 3 or 4 to chew with, at the minimum. big puzzy.

    While I am against the death penalty on principle, I support it on a case by case basis for fucking dentists.

  32. 32.

    MattR

    Thanks for the advice/nudging everyone. Probably should have mentioned that my uncle is a dentist so I definitely know I need to take care of it. But procrastination is easy.

    @licensed to kill time: I’m gonna have to go with kidney stones as more annoying, especially the first time when you don’t know what it is.

    (EDIT: Oh, and I know my problem is that I drink may too much soda. And dammit I don’t wanna change that)

  33. 33.

    SteveinSC

    @General Stuck: I’ve never been “fucked” by a dentist, but I have been screwed by plenty of them. And by the way, you don’t even need 3 or 4. That is why grits were invented.

  34. 34.

    Ryan S

    I did complain to the dentist and they told me it can take as long as 2 years to calm down. Perhaps some back story will help.

    I went in for what me and the dentist thought was a unremarkable cavity. When the dentist was drilling he abruptly said “Oh Shit” and left the room. The next thing i know I had a accidental pulp exposure and had to have the canal. They told me it wouldn’t be a problem because the tooth wasn’t in bad condition no signs of infection and was given.

    I think i might have a sensitivity to the metal rods or something because every once and a while my gums become inflamed around the crown. I also have an autoimmune disorder so that could also affect it. I’m not sure all I know is that its never been the same since when I bite down hard it can hurt and sometimes I swear it moves around on me.

  35. 35.

    CanadaGoose

    @MattR:

    Take it from someone who’s been there:

    Find a dentist that specializes in scaredy-cats. They exist in every city. If you’re not in a city, find a dentist who specializes in kids. They’re very gentle and careful and soothing.

    Many, many dentists — particularly young ones — know that some patients are really terrified. I was. They know to give you good drugs and to be kind. You want a dentist who really truly doesn’t want to hurt you and if she does (accidentally) feels really truly bad about it.

    Now I live in a small town in Canada and collect Social Security and go to a kids’ dentist. I’m not thrilled about seeing him but I’m not fearful either. (Not much anyway.)

  36. 36.

    Mnemosyne

    @MattR:

    Did you actually have to go to your uncle as your dentist when you were a kid? I did, and that kinda messed me up, because you don’t feel comfortable telling a relative, “Ow, that hurts!” Especially when you’re a kid.

    On the other hand, some of the fillings he put in 30+ years ago are still going strong, so at least he wasn’t a bad dentist.

  37. 37.

    FormerSwingVoter

    I’m going to join the growing chorus of “crowns don’t hurt”. Something’s wrong.

    Maybe keeping dental pain a secret from your dentist isn’t the brightest idea? I mean, you might want to try asking his office about it just in case? I guess?

  39. 39.

    gnomedad

    @Corner Stone:

    If it still hurts there is something wrong. Call them and make an appt.

    Seconded. I’ve had some misadventures with crowns, but my dentist is totally intolerant of post-procedure discomfort. If it still hurts, somethings wrong.

    Oh, and there’s a “dental implants in Hungary” ad on top. Dental tourism now?

  41. 41.

    Tulip

    OT (though it does fit in nicely with random bitching) to the dental pain, but Megatron’s TD being called back was a travesty.

    I just recently had two crowns installed. One tooth broke and they did another one at the same time because I have issues with going to the dentist, which I think harkens back to when I was 6 and my mom’s BF dropped me off at the dentist office and left me. Wherein I bit the dentist who ushered me into the waiting room, unattended, until my mom came to pick me up. Things were different when I was 6. :)

    Anyway, on/under one of the crowns I had horrible jaw pain which led the dentist to say I needed a root canal instead of a crown (after I’d paid for the bleeping crown), instead of going to a the specialist I couldn’t afford, I started woofing down generic Tylenol and then it just stopped. The temp crown is gone so I only have a nub, I’m saving up to get a replacement crown… but moral of this story is the pain should go away if there is no infection. Even is there are problems with the nerves.

  42. 42.

    Alice Blue

    Are you in real pain or is the tooth merely sensitive? Last time I had a crown, I babied that side of my mouth–I didi’t chew on that side as much, and it helped. But if you’re in pain you need to call your dentist.

    @MattR: Listen to Mnemosyne. I put off going to the dentist for seven years in the 80s and I had to have several crowns, numerous cavities filled, and a small bridge in my upper left jaw. I was as frightened as you are, but I found a compassionate dentist that I trusted (and that I still see). Ever since then I have had my teeth checked and cleaned every six months and I’ve never had anything more than one small cavity. I was lucky enough to have dental insurance, but if you don’t most dentists will work out a payment plan with you.

  43. 43.

    JohnR

    Eh, it’s character-building. God knows in these Heathenish times, when Steelers fans are freely allowed to freely parade their Filthy Eastern Terrible Towels in their Filthy Eastern Ways like a bunch of Filthy Eastern Worshippers of Kaili or something (you’re not wearing a large, unfamiliar ring, by any chance are you? We’re missing ours..), some of us could use a little more character.

    That does sound a little overboard, though – I’d also recommend you call up the dentist and very politely (since you have to go back) ask him what the Hell is going on.

  44. 44.

    Mnemosyne

    @Ryan S:

    Honestly, that sounds like it may be referred pain from the gum or jaw that feels like it’s coming from the tooth. There are a whole lot of nerves hanging around in that area other than the roots that can get pissed off and start hurting.

    /pedant

  45. 45.

    FormerSwingVoter

    I’ve never been “fucked” by a dentist

    What? Haven’t you ever gone under for some procedure or another, then woken up to find that your shirt is mysteriously untucked?

  47. 47.

    Maude

    The temp crown shouldn’t hurt, not when it was first put on and not now.
    I’d go to a different dentist. Something is wrong.
    Tell the nice woman at the dentist office that you are in pain.

  48. 48.

    jibeaux

    @MattR:

    The sugary drinks will kill you every time. Coke zero, perhaps? I went from zero cavities throughout childhood and my mother’s diligent oversight to needing about, oh, maybe ten fillings when I graduated from college and got some dental insurance. Southern sweet tea is what did me in.

    Ditto on the flossing solving an awful lot of problems, though, and I find the trick is, because flossing sucks and is boring, to multitask it. Yes, it’s probably very gross to floss while watching TV or waiting for a stop light or just in an off moment in the office, but I don’t care (I do have an office door), it gets it over with without taking up time I’d prefer to be wasting some other way, like with you guys.

  49. 49.

    MattR

    @Mnemosyne: He pulled a couple of baby teeth (I have vague memories of my parents enjoying my reaction to nitrous oxide) but nothing major. I had other oral surgery when I was younger since one tooth did not have enough room and was growing towards teh back of my mouth instead of breaking the skin and coming down, but I actually think my fear of dentists is indirectly related to my allergies. I developed nasal polyps that really affected my breathing to the point where I was not able to just breathe out of my nose. I always needed to get some extra air through the mouth. (I still have to remind myself while brushing my teeth that I can breathe through my nose at the same time) That made keeping my mouth open for an extended period of time very uncomfortable and made the dentist appointment/teeth cleaning that much more annoying.

    @Alice Blue: Luckily, insurance/money is not the issue. Just my weak will :)

  50. 50.

    WaterGirl

    John, they same thing happened to me this summer and I hope my story will give you some hope.

    They gave me the temporary and mentioned in passing that it “might be a little sensitive to heat and cold for a couple of days”. But was a nightmare for the entire 3 weeks + 1 day that I had the temporary. Even taking 4 advil every 4 hours didn’t cut the pain, and it really wore me down.

    Then I went in for the permanent crown and they told me “it will be sensitive to heat and cold for months, maybe even a year” but that it would eventually pass. After the first day, though, I had no pain at all with the permanent crown. So maybe there are better days ahead for you soon!

  51. 51.

    Martin

    Stuck raises an important point. You’re from WV. 42% of mountaineers aged 65 and older have zero natural teeth left. You guys lead the nation by a mile in this category (only 13% here in the fruits and nuts state).

    You’re not getting any younger. Don’t put it off to the last minute. WV is #1!

  52. 52.

    numbskull

    Explain to me why I had this put in when my old tooth didn’t hurt at all?

    Can’t believe we’re 45 in and nobody has the obvious explanation:

    Your dentist has a boat payment due.

  53. 53.

    MattR

    @jibeaux: I was thinking about flossing while refreshing this site waiting for someone to make a witty comment, but I don’t think that leaves enough time. Point taken though.

  57. 57.

    gnomedad

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I floss everyday and have done so for years. It really is supposed to make a difference.

    When I was growing up in the 60’s, floss was something I found in my grandmother’s bathroom. I didn’t even know what it was for, but it seemed kinda creepy. No one ever told me to floss. I’m sure my dental life would have been very different if someone had.

  58. 58.

    licensed to kill time

    People love to tell their dentist stories, so here’s a couple of mine.

    I had a sadist for a dentist when I was a kid who used to pinch my arm hard when I squirmed and cried, then hiss in my ear that “It doesn’t hurt!”. When I told my mom about this years later she was appalled and asked me why I didn’t tell her. I said I thought that was just what dentists did. He set me up for a lifelong fear of dentists.

    Another dentist who did a very long root canal procedure (multiple visits) would wave the little tools he used under my nose and say “Smell that?” I guess he wanted to share the wealth of what he had to smell all day long. Thanks, doc.

    I still get massive nerve attacks before I go to the dentist and I find it really helps me to take the pain meds before I go, and I’m not talkin’ Advil either. The whole experience is far more pleasant through a codeine haze. Ditto on the iPod to drown out those horrible sounds.

    Now I need a drink. I’ve freaked myself out.

  59. 59.

    MattR

    @Omnes Omnibus: That is what my uncle always said (and so did my mother) but for some reason it never took with me. The other thing my uncle emphathisized was the cascading effect of jaw problems. And that is one of the other things I need to get checked out. Something is not quite right when I chew something tough on the right side of my mouth.

    @licensed to kill time: Oh god that is bad. I actually liked both my dentist and orthodontist growing up. Unfortunately I don’t live in that area anymore and the dentist has long since retired.

  60. 60.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @gnomedad: Yeah, I’ve had good luck-a combination of good genes, good dentists (and good dental insurance), and parents who forced good habits on me.

  62. 62.

    SFOtter

    I just got back from a trip to my dentist in Mexico. Gum surgery, crown lengthening and a porcelain crown; $600. Companies aren’t the only ones that can outsource. And I got a trip to Mexico too.

  63. 63.

    Mnemosyne

    @MattR:

    Yeah, I can see where the whole “not being able to breathe” might make you a little reluctant to see the dentist. ;-)

    If your dentist is any good, s/he should have signals that you set up before they start working. With my dentist, it’s left hand for pain, right hand for needing a break. It definitely makes me feel more secure knowing that if my left hand so much as twitches, he stops what he’s doing to make sure I’m okay.

  64. 64.

    Randy P

    I too once thought that dental work shouldn’t hurt, and the dentist can fix it.

    I complained to my dentist in my last checkup that I had extreme cold sensitivity on one tooth. They found out that it was their most recent filling that was cold sensitive. The recommendation? Shrugs all around. “Sometimes that just happens. It will probably go away in a couple of weeks”.

    It hasn’t yet. I’ve gotten to where I have to consciously avoid letting something cold touch that tooth, including when I’m drinking, or avoid biting hard on that tooth.

    Is this just an age thing? (I’m 52). Do I get to look forward to unfixable tooth pain now?

  65. 65.

    nancydarling

    I’m a retired dental hygienist and I am appalled that some of you don’t go to the dentist regularly. If it is always a bad experience for you, you need to find a new dentist. If I were looking for a dentist in a new area, I would call all the specialists (perio, pedo, endo, oral surgery) and ask for their recommendation. The same names will start cropping up and pick from one of those. Tell them you are fussy about the quality of work, you need nitrous oxide, and you are a white knuckler when in the chair so you need someone with good hands and a lot of empathy.
    My ex and I have a small fortune invested in our mouths—or it would be a small fortune if paying full price all those years. Our two kids, age 44 and 32 have the most beautiful teeth, perfect occlusion, and no cavities ever. The only thing I’ve ever received a discount on, and they didn’t need it! We were not super fanatic about diet although they rarely drank sodas. Fissure sealants done properly are a god send as fissures can be so deep that they will need fillings soon after eruption if not sealed.
    Also I brushed their teeth every night until they were 6 years old and they did the AM brushing.

    It is better to brush once a day VERY thoroughly (I’m talking several minutes) than to brush three or four times a day. Once plaque is removed from your teeth, it takes about 24 hours to reorganize into the colonies on your teeth and below your gums. I used to scoop a currette full of plaque on my kid patients, show it to them and tell them “This is 50,000 bacteria and they are all going to the bathroom on your teeth at the same time”.

    Living in small town NW Arkansas, it is painful to see some of the mouths here. I don’t know which is worse, the bad teeth or the obesity. Thank God, we have made a start on health care reform. Maybe by 2110 we will have some sort of national dental insurance.

  66. 66.

    Linda Featheringill

    OT, to me:

    I hate days like today, when I absolutely did the best that I could and I know it wasn’t enough but there isn’t one god damn thing I can do about so shoot me.

    And that’s where we are today.

  67. 67.

    wobbly

    Floss and brush after every time you eat!

    True story, I had my first ever toothache a couple of years ago.
    Hurt worse than childbirth! Called my dentist, he took me in and yanked it, and solemnly warned me that UNLESS I QUIT SMOKING I would suffer bone loss and the next door neighbors of that back tooth would have to come out as well.

    I still smoke, and I’m not proud of that, BUT I carry dental floss and tooth brush/tooth paste everywhere I go. And I use them after every meal, every snack, and I really don’t care if my fellow travelers in the ladies’ room don’t like to see me
    flossing.

    It’s three years on now and I haven’t suffered bone loss. My teeth are stronger than ever. Not the whitest and brightest, mind you, but sound.

  68. 68.

    Patty K

    Someone as smart as you shouldn’t have to ask: You shouldn’t have done it. A friend of mine used to try to talk me into estrogen replacement therapy. It involves a small chance of an increase in heart trouble but guards against cancer, she said, or was it the other way around. In any event, I was feeling fine and had no interest in incurring the slightest risk of anything and since then my poor friend has had grievous problems that I am sure go right back to that ridiculous therapy.

  69. 69.

    Martin

    @nancydarling: To offer some props here – a great hygienist makes a world of difference. If your hygienist is good, you go more regularly, you listen to what she says, and the only time you see the dentist is when he comes in for the random 17 second poking with the sharp doohickey each year.

    I could almost care less who my dentist is – the hygienist is where I expect my dental care to end.

  70. 70.

    You Don't Say

    I have four or five crowns and in my experience that temporary ones always hurt and the permanent ones never do.

    Anyone have suggestions for an inexpensive laptop? Need a new laptop but really can’t afford too much. I am not hard on laptops, no games, no huge files, so I can get by with little. Any suggestions? TIA.

  71. 71.

    General Stuck

    I had braces when I was little, which likely jaundiced my opinion of dentists a tad. These were the old type braces, when you went in for the weekly tuneup, the dentist pulled out a pair of plier type thingy, and went to work like a cowboy tightening up a barbed wire fence.

    That experience may be why it takes me a full half hour to an hour when I brush, to reduce the likely hood of visiting dentists for anything but a pull. I do go in about every ten years and have the works done. Deep cleaning and all.

    But I still brush like a fanatic, and use tooth picks after every time I eat anything, so my teeth are in pretty good shape, minus three of them. One of which was an offer to root canal, that I declined with extreme prejudice.

  72. 72.

    CalD

    Explain to me why I had this put in when my old tooth didn’t hurt at all?

    Basically after they remove the nerves and fill the root canal(s), the tooth is dead. It’s not being nourished anymore and it dries out and becomes brittle over time. Also the big hole they made in it to do all that stuff doesn’t exactly do wonders for its structural integrity and mechanical strength.

    If you didn’t do the crown you’d end up biting down on something sooner or later and breaking the tooth (voice of experience). Then you might be looking at an implant and if you think the root canal sucked…

    That reminds me, I need to call my dentist and schedule a crown prep myself.

  73. 73.

    Dr. Psycho

    I used to have a dentist who believed firmly in hammering those crowns in so they wouldn’t ever come loose. They’d hurt for days afterward, but they did stay in real good.

    But two weeks is not normal.

  74. 74.

    merrinc

    @trollhattan:

    [Republican candidate bad mouths the godless Girl Scouts]

    Well, he’s obviously a wingnut but he is partially right. Girl Scouts do allow atheists and homosexuals to join unlike the narrow-minded, bigoted Boy Scouts so that’s a plus in my book – and it’s why my daughter will some day have her Gold Award and my son quit Boy Scouts before earning his Eagle. (He was tired of having religion shoved down his throat and told that his gay uncle is an immoral person.)

  75. 75.

    Older

    Dr Psycho, it’s the permanent crowns that some dentists hammer into place. Temporaries are just kind of tin cans made to fit by having a lot of some kind of dental filler inside.

    But either way, the pain is almost certainly from a bad bite.

    John, you tell them it hurts, you go back in, they have you bite on some of the Special Dental Carbon Paper, and then they see where the problem is and they fix it. Why are you putting up with this for such a long time? And, yes, why is it taking so long for the permanent crown to come back from the lab? Two weeks is really too long.

  77. 77.

    RobertB

    I’ve had a bunch of crowns – some hurt, some don’t. Follow the recommendations that are upthread – make sure that your dentist has the bite fixed. They can do it for temporaries as well, and it’ll take 10 minutes, if that.

    If you’re getting molar crowns, get the gold ones. They don’t cost any more than the porcelain ones, won’t break like a porcelain one will, and look pimp to boot.

    edit: @Older – mine always take 2 weeks, if not more. I was convinced that they were shopping the work off to India or something, but the dentist swore that they were made locally. Not that that evil sadist wouldn’t lie.

  78. 78.

    TrishB

    @You Don’t Say: Check out New Egg, they generally have some good deals going on. My sister’s family recently got 3 netbooks and one full sized laptop for under a grand. I think the laptop was just under $300.

  80. 80.

    Resident Firebagger

    Ya you might not have a very good dentist. It happens. When I was a kid for a time I actually saw a dentist who wasn’t, you know, a real dentist. He’d just see you and say everything was A-OK. By the time my folks caught onto that one, I’d piled up a dozen cavities or so.

    Now, when I can afford to go, I see a guy who’s in my fantasy football league. He’s kind of a dipshit who still thinks George W. Bush is awesome. But you know what? He’s a top-notch dentist. I’ve been to enough that I know. The crown he gave me is a work of art. Could probably go Galt if he wanted to.

    Long story short, no matter how much it sucks, take care of your teeth.

  81. 81.

    HyperIon

    @wobbly wrote : It’s three years on now and I haven’t suffered bone loss. My teeth are stronger than ever. Not the whitest and brightest, mind you, but sound.

    Oh, good.
    After you die of lung cancer, you’ll look so nice at the viewing.

  83. 83.

    Corner Stone

    @Cheryl from Maryland: Sure thing. If you want to come to Houston for that kind of thing.
    But I will tell you I found him after asking about a dozen colleagues who they used. Not only did 90% say his name but each one said something like, “And I love him”. Never heard a bad word against him in 6 or so years now.
    I got a temp crown and after the numbness wore off I realized I could close my teeth together but not really put pressure on that side. Felt kind of like a tight or binding sensation on the gum line. Not really bad but at the line of discomfort/painful when I bit down.
    I called his office the next morning, they said, “Sure, can you come in at 2:00?” I went, he did a couple bite samples, a little grind, a little rinse and 15 minutes later I was outta there feeling like a daisy.

    Point being, I could have lived with it for a week or so til the perm was ready, but why should I?
    If it hurts then tell someone. Because it is not right.

  85. 85.

    quaint irene

    Explain to me why I had this put in when my old tooth didn’t hurt at all?

    To help the economy?

  86. 86.

    Brittany Guy

    You need a crown so your tooth won’t rot out and then you would need a root canal that would really hurt.

    Suck it up and stop being a pussy over a little bitty owie. Use drugs and whiskey to help with the pain.

  88. 88.

    Lincolnshire Poacher

    Maybe you have a dead tooth? My brother had a filling and weeks later it hurt worse than before. They said it was “dead” and referred him to specialist.

  89. 89.

    Paula

    John, something is wrong. Go back to the eds and if he doesn’t fix it, change doctors. I have had two root canals and I had no pain with either procedure.

  90. 90.

    asiangrrlMN

    @MattR: I didn’t go for many years. I finally went when I broke a tooth eating popcorn. For years after, every visit, there was something wrong with my teeth. A second root canal. Two crowns. Cavities that needed to be refilled. In the last two years, I finally have a clean bill of health. You know what made the difference? An electric toothbrush (I use it three times a day) and flossing twice a day.

    By the way (and I have said this before), none of the dental work I’ve had done (including the removal of four wisdom teeth) can hold a candle to the pain I experienced at the hands of a sadistic dental hygienist who made me cry every time she scraped my teeth clean. The root canals were a snap compared to that bitch.

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