Are we losing our wisdom teeth?

[FurryFury]

Wow what horror stories DVS and Homburg. Yikes.

 

[00Syd]

I got mine out when I was 18 (or maybe it was when I was 19?) because they were growing in sideways (like, the tops facing my lips) instead of straight up. I went to sleep and woke up with no wisdom teeth, then I went home and watched TV and ate Jello for two days. It was a thuroughly enjoyable experience.

 

[DVS]

As I've said before, my dad was in the Army, so I was involved in the military's medical system from day one til my 18th birthday. Anyway, back then, military doctors were okay, but the dentists generally sucked. No offense to anyone what likes military dentistry, but the one sI went to sucked horribly.

When my wisdom teeth were coming in on the bottom, they hurt, ow. I wouldn't go though, as we were in Gemrany and I knew we had a visit to my mom's hometown coming up. I figured I could go to the local dentist and my folks could claim it under the military healthcare. As this was the case, my parents agreed.

We go back to my mom's dinky western PA hometown and I go to the dentist. He dopes me up good and solid and starts working on me. Once he'd numbed me good, he gets chatty. I hate that, but all dentists do it. My thinking is shut the fuck up and get it done, but the dentist wants to fuckin talk. He finds out that my dad was army and says, "Oh really? That how I got my start as a dentist. I was in the Navy."

Well, fuck me. Fly half a world away and go to a flyspeck town in bumfuck, PA to avoid military dentists, and what do I find but a retired military dentist.

Well, the tooth came out, and I was sent on my way numb as fuck. As the numb wears off, wow, my gums and cheek hurt. I go back to the dentist the next day only to be blown off. I went back again, as the pain got worse and I couldn't really talk. Got blown off again. I went back a third time, bleeding, and basically threatened violence if he did not at least take a look in my mouth.

He gets in there, and, wow, he'd sewn my gums to the inside of my cheek.

I still hate military dentists.

ow, ow, OW!

 

[Keroin]

LOL. I remember saying to my mom, when I was about 18, "Wow, I don't get it, I never used to be scared of going to the dentist but now I get really nervous. When I was a kid, I was so relaxed, I even remember falling asleep in the chair once, what happened to change that?"

Mom said, "Um, remember that orange juice they used to give you before your appointment? Well, it wasn't exactly orange juice."

They'd been secretly sedating me for years!! Yeesh.

(I sure miss that juice.)

 

[caela]

I answered that I had all of mine but that is a bit of a misnomer. All of mine came in just fine but the top ones were so far back that they were hard to take proper care of. Without my knowledge, since it never hurt, one of them went bad. When I moved, and thus started seeing a new dentist, he suggested that both the top ones come out because they were so far back they weren't actually doing me any good anyway. The bottom ones lines up with my upper morals quite nicely and had no problems so those he had me keep.

Went to the oral surgeon, got some local and some nitrous and 30 minutes later my friend that had driven me was taking me home. Had it done on a Friday morning and was back to work on Monday. Overall it was a very pleasant experience. Spent the weekend just lazing about with cotton stuck into the sockets (to avoid dry socket) except when I was eating ice cream.

 

[graceanne]

LOL. I remember saying to my mom, when I was about 18, "Wow, I don't get it, I never used to be scared of going to the dentist but now I get really nervous. When I was a kid, I was so relaxed, I even remember falling asleep in the chair once, what happened to change that?"

Mom said, "Um, remember that orange juice they used to give you before your appointment? Well, it wasn't exactly orange juice."

They'd been secretly sedating me for years!! Yeesh.

(I sure miss that juice.)

LOL!

I want orange juice!

 

[DVS]

...The orthodontist x-ray'd my mouth and was astonished that my wisdom teeth looked like they were going to come in straight, with no problems. He suggested leaving them be unless they became a problem, and my parents agreed.

... My last dentist said I should be a tooth model.

...It was a thuroughly enjoyable experience.

...Overall it was a very pleasant experience.

No horror stories? What is it? All you guys trying to pick a fight or something?:caning:

 

[rida]

My one and only horror story is my first memory of a dentist visit.

I was probably about 7 or 8 and I don't remember why we went to the dentist.
He pulled out one of my back baby tooth without any anesthesia ...

When they told me I had to go back for a follow up on the drive back home, I tried to get off the moving car. Needless to say I did not go back to that dentist ever again! And it took me years before I went back to see one.

Luckily when I went back, I found a very good one: he was big and looked more like a butcher than a doctor but he was really good and gentle, and did a very good job of curing me of my fear in spite of having to go see him for many years and getting many more teeth pulled.

 

[YourCaptor]

I found out some more stuff about teeth.

Our early mammal ancestors had a dental formula of 3.1.4.3

However great apes have lost a lot of teeth through time, all modern great apes having the dental formula of 2.1.2.3

So it seems rather natural for it to be moving towards 2.1.2.2, cuting gout the wisdom teeth.

Why don't we need that many teeth? Well, theory is we ape teeth are generally specialized for eating fruits. So there you go, your mouth is changing for maximum fruit consumption.

 

[CurlyKat]

No horror stories? What is it? All you guys trying to pick a fight or something?:caning:

My only horror story is from a cleaning. The hygenist was being rather messy with all of the stuff and slinging it all over the back of my mouth. I stopped her and told her she was kind of gagging me with it, but she didn't listen. I almost threw up all over her. Didn't, but almost.

And yes, it was a traumatic experience. I try to avoid throwing up on people if I can, and she almost made me break that vow.