Your Memories Are Stored In Your Teeth
One more reason for me to worry about my continuing avoidance of the dentist: "new research shows that good oral care can prevent heart disease, diabetes and even dementia." Sigh. Okay, give it to me, Science.
Scientists at the University of Kentucky in America put people aged between 75 and 90 through a test in which they were asked to recall 10 words they had been presented with five minutes earlier. All the participants, who repeated the test over three consecutive years, were from similar educational backgrounds, but there was variation in their results. People with fewer teeth scored lower than those with more teeth in the first test – and their scores declined far quicker thereafter.
I mean, okay, whatever, I'm already going to get heart disease from all the bacon, but Alzheimer's? I guess I will have to start smoking and talking on my cell phone more frequently to counteract the whole thing. Because there's no way you're getting me into that chair, you SADISTS.
I call bullshit. The people with teeth were getting the answers beamed to them through their implants.
Balk–Dentistry has much improved since you were last in that chair some 25 years ago. I went back after a long hiatus and was pleasantly surprised.
Sedation dentistry would produce some nice meandering posts from Balk, I think.
25 years ago? How old do you think Balk is?
More like 125 years ago. Balk, you know that dentists are not barbers now, right?
@kneetoe: the leeches are farm-raised now.
@scroll lock: The leeches are an improvement. I remember when they used to bleed you by repeatedly stabbing your gums with that sharp (but not TOO sharp) curved thingy.
@deepomega: I was trying to be nice.
@kneetoe: oft times they remove a good bit of the rust from the sharp thingy before they drive it below your tender gumline.
@scroll_lock: That's not rust, it's blood from the last patient.
@kneetoe: the one who died from the painful infection caused by the hygienist's reused latex gloves or the one who keeled over when the drill went berserk and bore a hole up into the frontal lobe?
My granny died at 94 with all her own teeth and she was crazy as a loon. Sweet story, actually: on granny's last trip to the ER, the admitting nurse told her, "We'll take your teeth now, ma'am." Granny responded, "The fuckyou will."
Having just spent the last 4 hours instructing Dentists of the future on the finer points of intraoral photographic documentation, let me just say the following: get out of my head, Science! …You too, Balk!
They are cutting out my wisdom teeth on Monday; I hope I don't forget you awl :|
Some time ago (think decades!) I was told mine needed to be removed. My brother was told the same thing on the same day. This made me think, "hmmmm." So I ignored the situation, and I've never had a problem. Therefore you don't need yours out either.
To be honest, I am just pissed that I had to pay 95$ for the panoramic x-ray, so I said to hell with it, take them all and make it count. Also, I really need a day off of work. Scaring my sister into thinking I got fat will just be a bonus. BTW what is your take on graduate school?
Graduate school is a GREAT way to get out of work.
OK, kneetoe, now I'm kinda pissed that I could've avoided pain, post-anesthesia freak-out, looking fat and a massive gum infection.
Garge, grad school is kind of like work but you have to think harder and you are poor.
Re: graduate school. If it's in the sciences or engineering, go for it. I spent nearly ten years in various graduate schools (ask me about my many degrees!) and I loved every minute of it. But if you're in the humanities: forget it. There are no faculty jobs waiting for you and you will be bitter forever.
@Bittersweet: Sorry. As for graduate school, NO ONE WILL EVER ASK FOR YOUR TRANSCRIPT. So go out there and enjoy yourself (but, right, with no money).
As a graduate student who just had a wisdom tooth removed last week, I have many things to say to you!
First, about wisdom tooth removal: Recovery takes awhile. You shouldn't smoke or use a straw for at least two days and possibly more like a week. Lay in a supply of mushy foods that do not require chewing or jaw work. Do the damn saltwater rinses after every mushy meal. Even after several days, smiling will hurt. Talking will hurt. Chewing will hurt. Research dry sockets and work hard to avoid them.
About grad school – whatever you do, do not work full time while attending grad school full time. It is possible to do in theory, but you will hate yourself and not fully experience grad school, which is important. I liked grad school a lot, though if you're doing it so you can go into teaching, yeah, probably a bad idea right now. If you're doing it because the "M.A." on your resume will get you better jobs in your field, I would say go for it, provided whatever line of work you are in is not slowly collapsing on itself.
Best of luck on all of the above.
@garge: See, you weren't even considering grad school before, but now it looks pretty good, at least as compared to wisdom teeth removal.
Everything cherrispryte said about avoiding dry socket is true.
You guys are so great, offering advice to my quip. I am demurring the absolute least lucrative field to pursue the second-least, which shall remain nameless because there are many practitioners on this forum who would castigate my tomfoolery. At least poverty becomes me; or rather, my friends already call me Little Dorrit and I don't think they are being mean.
Thanks for the socket tips, cherri. They made me nauseated, but I better get that out now, in case I make an inadvertent suctionish gesture while retching.
Grad school is terrible (I'm in the process of getting a PhD), but it beats an equally terrible job hands down. And I like the learning part.
Oral surgery is nice because it gives you an excuse to eat a lot of ice cream. Just be sure you're taking the preventative antibiotics they typically give you to avoid things like dry socket, and you'll be fine (after a solid week spent high on codeine).
Man! So I had all four wisdom teeth out in one go, and I'm pretty convinced that a huge part of it is getting a good dentist. E.g. one who doesn't want to put you under and can get your teeth out in one piece if at all possible. I was fine two days later!
What is with the obsession with anthropomorphizing teeth for children?
Not to mention the bizarreness of putting little pieces of bone under a pillow for a supernatural entity to swap for gold in the dead of night.
My grandmother used to pop out her dentures to make my cousins and me squeal and giggle as kids.
Part of becoming an adult is looking back on your childhood at events that make you more comfortable with your own quirks and idiosyncrasies.
Instead of getting coal in our stockings at Christmas, the worst out of my two brothers and I would get my late grandmother's dentures. Santa sucks.
Go. To. The. Dentist.
Also, get a good one. I'm now about to go for my 3rd root canal. On the same tooth.
@nic: For godsakes, that tooth's had a good run- yank it out and put a white lego in there.
What NicFit said. Regarding the grad school shpeel above – people ask me why I don't go to the on-campus dentist (we don't have a dental school or anything remotely close to it). And I just laugh and laugh. Cheap dentists are really expensive later. Don't learn that the hard way!
I'd like to know the correlation between Celts and dementia.