Dental Nightmare

I mentioned that I would go ahead and do a whole rant on my dental nightmare. I’m going to do that, now. Unfortunately, I can only speculate how different things might be today if I hadn’t gone through all of this, but I suspect that I would have substantially less problems.

The first time I was ever in a dentist’s office was when I was roughly 3 years old. In my opinion, a 3 year old child has no business in a dentist’s chair unless we’re talking about a child with severe baby bottle mouth, or some other nightmare. Normal kids with normal teeth have no business in a dentist’s chair. Period. I don’t care what the American Dental (We Need To Protect Our Capitalist Bottom Line) Associate would like you to believe, normal 3 yr old children don’t need dentists.

My mother had taught me no real dental hygiene yet by that age, which is kind of weird considering she would become so obsessed with my dental appearance. Naturally, the dentist when poking around in my mouth with sharp metal objects, poking holes in my tooth enamel where there were no previous holes.

It was around that time that the dentist became rather concerned about my over bite. Now, I had a moderate over bite back then. Nothing too major, nothing that would make me look like a monster, just an overbite. But, from that moment on, my mother became absolutely obsessed with my dental appearance. So much so that I actually believe she got pleasure from my resulting physical pain.

When I was 8 years old, she hauled me into an oral surgeon’s office, had 6 people hold me down on a flat bed, gas me with ether and needlessly yank 4 teeth out of my head. They were all 4 of my bicuspids and were in no way causing me any real grief. She did it because the quack orthodontist she had been consulting told her that all 4 of my bicuspids needed to be removed to make room in my mouth for my teeth. This turned out to be bullshit, by the way.

From that time on, my time at the dentist or orthodontist’s offices were filled with pain, a lot of physical torture and wrenching on my jaws which have caused me permanent jaw damage and bullshit.

When I was ten, the ortho put spacers in between all of my teeth. This was to space them out in mouth. I remind you that they were only mildly crooked, nothing major and nothing ridiculous. Imagine having a constant, 3 week tooth ache all over your mouth and eating nothing but soup. That is what those 3 weeks were like for a 10 yr old me. After that, Mr. Quack Ass cemented metal brackets around all 4 of my back molars with little hinges on them. That was where the headgear would hook into my mouth and push the back teeth farther back in my jaw. I had to wear headgear for 10 solid months when I wasn’t eating.

What I didn’t know at the time was that the cement Mr. Quack used was a very old type and didn’t have a savory reputation. It actually caused acid wear on the enamel on teeth and was later discontinued, although no other ortho in my area still used it at the time Quack was using it.

Following that 10 months was when they decided to put the old style, full metal band braces on my teeth. Most other orthos were using the newer metal type they use today that don’t have metal bands on them, but not Mr. Quack. He still used full bands. I actually had a metal band running through the middle of each tooth, all the way around it, on every single tooth.

For 4 years.

Each one of those bands was cemented onto my tooth with the shitty, enamel eating cement.

Fast forward 3 years. One year before I’m to get those off my teeth. I’ve been in the office, having an asshole wrench my jaw around for 4 solid years already by that time, and I’m starting to get migraines and jaw pain. Not one person took me seriously that I would get a headache after eating or that my jaw ached at the hinges.

Once I got my braces off my teeth……the damage started to make itself readily apparent.

All of the enamel on all 8 of my back teeth was eaten away where the band was. Left in it’s place was an orangeish, yellow band of damage. The 4 HOLES in my gum line where all my bicuspids were yanked from were still visible! And, remember that over bite I told you about? The one the headgear and back teeth movement was supposed to fix? Yeah, I have an even worse one, now. My over bite is INCREDIBLE now. So much so that I have actually knocked my two front teeth off alignment with my bottom front teeth and pushed them farther out!

I don’t want this to get too long, so I’ll get into the permanent damage.

As a result of all of that I have to visit a dentist almost quarterly, now. I have permanent TMJ which was what was causing me the headaches and jaw joint pain. I get up every morning and have to massage my jaw at the joints to be able to open them. I have constant tinnitus from the TMJ.

In addition to that, I have lost 4 of the 8 of my back molars. I no longer have any of my 12 year molars in my head. Every single one has had to be removed due to damage from orthodontics. Three of them cracked off to the root and the fourth one had a hole going right through the side straight through to the other side where the band had been. The other 4 molars are living on borrowed time. All 4 of them have old fashioned amalgam fillings in them, and all 4 of them are cracking away.

My two front teeth are chipping away in the same spots the bands on my teeth were. No where else, just where the bands had been placed. Remember those 4 holes from my bicuspids? Yeah, those are still visible.

Now on to my bottom teeth. The ones in the front. They’re all mildly loose. Upon xraying me, the dentist here informed me that my roots had actually retracted by 50%, some of them more due to constant movement too early, and that some of my my front teeth are not even surrounded by bone! He told me that this was due to rushed orthodontic procedures. He has recommended that I have most, if not all, of my teeth pulled and to either get implants or dentures.

I’m only 41 years old.

I honestly do believe my mother got some kind of charge out of the pain I endured during those 6 or so years. She wouldn’t hear any kind of complaint from me about the pain I was in, and still doesn’t give a rat’s flying ass. The funny part is that she was so concerned that my teeth weren’t perfect, yet was too cheap to spring for a good, reputable orthodontist. She used the cheapest Quack in town.

The only one of my children that has ever been to a dentist is Zen. He has to go because the enamel on his teeth is almost nonexistent and he grinds them. He will have them all out this summer because I’m afraid they will abscess.

Neither Mouth nor Mouse has EVER been to a dentist. They haven’t needed it. Mouth’s teeth are straight, white and he has no problems whatsoever. Mouse’s teeth are straight, less white than Mouth’s but still not bad by any standard, but I think he is starting to get a cavity. So, his first time at the dentist will be in May and it will be at age 15.

That’s how one should go about dentists, in my opinion. People should go to doctors when they need them. You shouldn’t be sitting in a doctor’s office every year for no good reason. That’s the way I feel about dentists. You go to one when you need one. Sitting in their offices, allowing them to puncture your tooth enamel with sharp metal objects every year is ridiculous.

I have a lot more dental work coming my way, however. If I had the money, I’d yank them all and have done with it.

Thanks, Mom.