Stella

Thanks for reminding me: relating to how people think wisdom teeth can make your other teeth crooked. If you look on a panoramic xray that shows all your teeth, they are actually all leaning a little towards the front. As you get older they lean over a little more, winding up with crowding in the front. most people with 'not enough room' for all their teeth (excluding wisdom teeth) and who had to have extractions of adult teeth and braces is because they were thumb-suckers or mouth breathers. The teeth are actually held in position by the cheeks and the tongue. If the mouth is held open the teeth (and whole arch) get pushed inwards by the cheeks, making the arch too small to accommodate all the teeth. Modern orthodontics involves widening the arch then straightening the teeth, instead of taking some teeth out and pulling the front teeth backwards. The extraction method can leave people with a very flat face. (complex stuff) If you have kids needing braces look for an orthodontist that does 'functional orthodontics' rather than extractions.

Southerrrngirl.... actually 1.5! I had this nutter come once, he had had all his teeth out a year prior and now wanted dentures made. Only he wanted them made to look like a vampire... (no he wasn't a goth, he looked like he had never paid any attention to soap or appearances) I tried to explain to him that while it is possible to to that, they would simply not be functional (dentures need to hold on by suction to the palate and tongue/cheek control, fangs would forever be dislodging them when eating/talking). He was undeterred and I suggested a second opinion from a denture tech and gave him his card. I then rang up the tech to apologise in advance! The .5 was from a girl who really wanted to have her canine teeth crowned with silver. She had done a lot of thinking and had the money to do it ($1000 each). I explained the best we could do was stainless steel or white gold, but they would both wind up looking quite black (shadows etc). I booked her in for a consultation but she never showed. I tried making temporary crowns as fangs (plastic) for Halloween, but it was rather difficult to do myself. Will try again one day...

LOL Ghaz! I once had a patient ask on the phone why wisdom teeth cause so much trouble. I told her about our shrinking heads etc etc. She (a schoolteacher) replied most matter-of-factly "I don't believe in evolution" I was stumped and responseless..... Later I REALLY REALLY wish that I had asked her how creationism explains them... I did always enjoy telling patients with no wisdom teeth (while looking at their xrays) that they were more evolved than the rest of us

The reason wisdom teeth cause so many problems is the last 10,000 on a much much softer diet than the previous..... even longer time. Yay for cooking and agriculture! Our skulls have shrunk about 2% every thousand years over that time, so there is less space for our last molars (what wisdom teeth are). They are often small, or in some cases or or more are absent, as they are being made redundant by evolution. Some people, like Barrie, have big heads and can fit them all in My wisdom teeth are (hopefully) stuck and will not come through. Mostly they come through in your late teens, less often in your early twenties. If your wisdom teeth appear to 'go up and down' they are actually a bit stuck. It is not the tooth moving, but the gum around it getting infected. This is because only a little bit of the tooth has come through and bacteria can get down around it and generally go nuts. If it gets really really infected it feels like toothache and you need to get them out. Usually the infections go away of their own accord, but they will come back and usually get worse each time. Wisdom teeth coming through properly will NOT cause any pain. Caryl, your doctor's kids are lucky, but it is not just luck. Almost all dental work is required due to neglect. I don't mean just not brushing your teeth ever, but not brushing long enough or flossing etc. To properly clean your teeth you need to brush gently (not scrub, this permanently wears away your gums) for two minutes. On average most people brush for 37 seconds.... I heard a good line re flossing: only floss the teeth you want to keep! :lol: Tis actually very true. Not flossing is like only brushing the cheek surfaces of your teeth and leaving the tongue-side dirty. With pregnancy the hormones can play havoc with your gums. They can wind up very bleedy and generally unhealthy. There is an old wives tale about tooth issues while pregnant but it is complete bollocks. However it is possible that you were stressed and grinding your teeth causing them to break (already weakened by having fillings). Needles: having seen a billion oral injections: if you EXPECT it will hurt, it WILL! The more you expect it to hurt, the more it will hurt, and so on. They are not pleasant, but seriously, that needle is so fine! I have certainly have had my fair share of dental needles, it is not fun, but my main problem is nervous laughter: last three times I have been in HYSTERICS while the needle is in me! After 4.5 years of dental assisting the ONLY other person I have ever seen do that was my mum......! (insanity is hereditary....)

Hello and welcome! Yeah trout aren't native and no you are not allowed to take them (mutter mutter evil pesky exotic fish more propected than natives that belong here mutter mutter) than again I won't tell if you won't Whereabouts do you go native fish hunting? I went spotlighting last night in the Turitea Stream beside the Massey entrance. Saw heaps of bullies (mostly common and Cran's but I am pretty sure there was a redfin or two), lots and lots of evil troutlets, two koura and two eels. It was very pleasing to see the eels, haven't seen any there is a while, though they were only tiddlers (circa 30cm). I tried to catch the second eel, gave it a damned good go, but I was astonished to learn that they have a reverse gear and can go as fast backwards as they can forwards!!! I decided that it thus deserved greater respect than the indignity of temporary capture, so I desisted... Interesting about the bullies nipping the goldfish. My first attempt at natives involved putting some small koaro in with my goldfish. One of them seemed to take a vendetta out on the goldfish and tore them to shreds...!

Totally. I recognise people by their teeth. I find I have conversations with peoples teeth (like how some people have conversations with your eyes or..... 'eyes'....). If something odd is there I get obsessive about trying to work out what it is (real or false? is it a crown? is that tooth dead therefore grey, or entirely rotten on the inside? etc etc etc...... And the funny thing is now my two best friends have found themselves doing it too! I need help....

Discusguru - 15 years is not bad going! But WHY did it need to come out? Most fail because later on they got decay or broke a cusp off an the patient avoided going back to get it fixed ('it didn't hurt') so it wasn't the fault of the root canal. Very frustrating seeing people waste their money and teeth that way. If it WAS the fault of the root canal then it probably would have caused problems earlier. Can and does happen. Most root-filled teeth are very fragile things. The inner core has been removed, most of the structure of the tooth is now filling and is therefore much much weaker. They really need a crown on them to hold them together properly. This should be done 6-12 months after the root-filling so you know the root filling has settled. Yes it is $1000 extra... Sadly most NZers would rather spend that on a TV than have fully-functioning aparatus for one of the most enjoyable and vital things we do: eat! A-town - good plan! (everyone under 18 years old gets free dental care. Great fun is telling some idiot that avoided the dentist throughout their teens that they need all their teeth out and dentures*, $3500 thank you very much!) (* youngest we did was 26 years old, saw a 22 year old with no teeth, top denture only, and my friendly local denture tech has done dentures for a 19 year old boy and a 18 year old girl. Children lose all their teeth too, due to parental neglect, but you can't do dentures on them as they are growing)

and even have them 'filtering' a bucket of water if they are going to be sitting around unplugged for more than an hour or so. just keeps all the bacteria breathing

hehehe dental assistants have a really sadistic love of blood and gore! Ironically dentists are not huge fans, and most hate taking teeth out (so many annoying things can go wrong). It is a full-on job, with little prospect of promotion apart from reception or practice manager, which I can't stand. BUT it is very interesting if you like medical science. You do not need prior experience and are trained on the job. You do need good organisational skills and will wind up with serious issues with cleanliness (if you are any good). Apparently the suicide rate thing was based on a poorly designed study in the 60's, was incorrect but oft-quoted. (can you tell I am desperately trying to avoid writing my book? is working rather well......sadly)

Hi Barrie, Yes I do remember and was wondering when you would turn up Thanks for the offer but I am studying here next year so moving is not an option. Also I am sick of dentists (though as you can tell I find the subject interesting... :oops: ) I still envy what your daughter earns!

Firefish, Bet your cats you put off going to the vet if they had a choice What tooth is it? (count from the front back) Basically if you CAN keep a tooth, DO. If the tooth is so far gone and would be a waste of money, your dentist will tell you that. If he barely mentioned having the tooth pulled then it is probably well worth saving. The only tooth you will not miss all that much is your very back tooth. All the others become places for food to get stuck, cheeks to be bitten and look pretty unsightly. However, yes having it pulled out is always an option. It is also permanent. (Think about how many years you plan on living, multiply that by 365 days, then multiply that by 3 meals per day. That is how many meals you will not have the use of that tooth for. Note snacks are excluded, factor in accordingly Also having one tooth out changes how you eat. The other side will get used more. Imagine a long table with ten legs. Take one leg out. Weaker but still works. Take another out. Dump piles of heavy books on it. At some point other legs will give way. Moral of the story is that if your teeth are heavily filled, taking one tooth out puts the rest at risk of breaking. Yes you can have sedation for anything Costs more and many dentists don't do it. But always a possibility somewhere.

:lol: boys and their one-up-manship! :lol: (isn't this forum great for random help on all sorts of unrelated topics? Very very useful)

The LCD screens in laptops are usually hopeless for a group to watch too. Angle issues. Maybe replace the telly for the caravan, and get a handheld Tetris to keep the kids entertained in the car

Yay for supportive partners! :bounce: (go give him a hug from us )

That depends on how bad you want it to get. (amazing how much pain people are willing to suffer through to avoid dental treatment that hurts much less, if at all!) There are two probable scenarios for what is happening: SCENARIO ONE: 1: Decay got deeper and deeper 2: It got close to or into the nerve which caused the first toothache 3: The nerve died and it didn't hurt 4: But meanwhile an abcess was forming at the base of the tooth 5: your immune system got low or similar and the abcess went from chronic to acute and now hurts like hell. SCENARIO TWO Is basically the same but it isn't always caused by decay. If there was an old deep filling or a crack in the tooth it can annoy the hell out of the nerve, but not enough for YOU to notice. Then the nerve dies and you get the joy of abcesses. THE FUTURE: The pain may go away again, like it did before. Toothaches can come and go like that, until it is so bad you BEG and BEG to be seen by a dentist, BUT because you are in so much pain the local anaesthetic can not work, and they send you off with some antibiotics and your misery. Or you can leave it and the decay eats away more and more of the tooth and a straightforward extraction turns into the digging extraction from hell. Or you could go and get the root canal done. No they are nothing like the bullshit horror stories you hear. They are long and boring and your jaw will get sore from holding your mouth open. But at least you get to keep the tooth. Or you could get the tooth pulled, and you will miss it. Just go do it now. It will be much easier in the long run Basically I am telling you the truth, but not putting a nice spin on it. I am not actually trying to make it sound worse to scare you. People think leaving these things is ok, because you avoid the inevitable. It isn't. Leaving things means the end result is MUCH MUCH MUCH WORSE than going now. Seriously, if you work in dental you get so tired of seeing massive issues caused by people who avoided going to the dentists when they knew they should.

Chilli - wobble.....? Depend.... NO they should be firmly attached to your skull. Loose teeth is a sign of serious breakdown of bone caused by gum disease caused by lack of proper care and attention. MOSTLY you see this on older people (40+ who have paid very little attention to their teeth). Sadly it is NOT reversible BUT it can be slowed or stopped by seeing your hygienist and really paying attention. Otherwise..... could be a few other things, either way, see a dentist sooner rather than later! (Sorry I could not make it sound better!) Adodge - The amount of drug given is based on the size and metabolism of the patient. A big person gets more etc. It is also usually given in small amounts and topped up during the procedure. Some patients are articulate and walk out of the surgery unaided, but still need to be watched. However they are usually kinda floppy after and may sleep for the next 12 hours or so. The memory loss is a great feature!

Three things: 1: It is commonly believed but impacted wisdom teeth are highly unlikely to cause your teeth to move. Think about it this way: there are seven teeth between your wisdom tooth and the midline between your front teeth... If they can't move they don't move. 2: If your teeth are sore when you wake there is a good chance your are grinding or clenching in your sleep. There is nothing you can do to stop this. Many, many people do it. Happens worse when stressed. You can wear down your teeth really badly and cause all sorts of problems later on. I do it too. Never realised until the last dentist I worked for. My cheeks always hurt and have muscle knots in them from clenching! I have a special mouthguard that I wear at night - I grind big holes in that but am not wearing down my teeth. It costs a bit to make one, but so does a full set of crowns if I wear my teeth away! Ask your dentist about this when you go next. 3: Please check your spelling. Your post is very hard to read.

and seriously, we get SOOOO many calls each day with people asking: "how much to have a tooth yanked?" "$XXX and you need to pay on the day" "oh" And yes, we think they are all idiots who refuse to take responsibility for their own lives! (wow, two months out of the job and I can still seethe about idiots!

Having worked for 8 different dentists, some closely, DO NOT base your selection on price! Many cheap ones are utter SHITE Many expensive ones are just out to empty your bank accounts and also do SHITE work. Get a bunch of recommendations. Go with what you feel comfortable with. Ask if they take digital xrays - much much more shows up on them!

Hi there, I used to be a dental assistant so actually know what I am talking about! (please don't listen to anyone else, there is so much mythinformation out there about teeeth) YES you can get it done at the hospital. Not sure if it winds up free or negligible. You need: 1: A community Services Card 2: A referral from your Dentist 3: A lot of time on your hands. Basically they refer you, then you go on their waiting list, then you wait and wait and wait and wait..... and wait and wait and then they call you up. You (usually?) can not get it done at the hospital without a community services card, UNLESS the dentist says you must have it done under general anaesthetic. HOWEVER You can have what is called 'concious sedation' It is an injection of some wonderful drugs that totally take your mind off it. Seriously we could cut all your limbs off and you wouldn't care. Most people sleep through it, BUT we can wake them up if need be (like "open wider, damn you!"). These drugs are a HELL of a lot safer than a GA, much much shorter recovery time, and there is an exceedingly fast antidote if so required. You probably will only remember walking into the room. Most have no idea how they got home or what happened in the chair However you need someone to look after you for the next 24 hours, can't drive, ought to have the next day off work, and costs a bundle. It can be done in the surgery and you can have it done as soon as you book in (no waiting lists) but it is usually done by an Oral Surgeon, who can be a little difficult to get in with at times, but a lot faster than the hospital. You need to book in first for a consultation with them, they check you and explain everything and give you consent stuff. You dentist may be able to refer you to make it faster. I can give the names of three oral surgeons I highly recommend, but they are in Palmy (we did get people coming from wangas to see us) IN THE MEANTIME: Antibiotics Savacol Mouthwash (from supermarket, tastes foul but effective) Keep brushing you teeth!!!! (you don't want to wind up with trenchmouth on top of this) DON'T put an asprin against it! Some people recommend this but asprin does NOT work topically, rather it will give you a nasty chemical burn. The combination pain-killers are good, esp panadiene etc. Panadol is a mild pain relief. Does that help? Hugs

Does the Federation Library have a copy? If not, they should

IS worth a watch A doco about NZ fish keepers, lots of different types (tropical, NATIVE, marine, corals only, big fish etc etc). Interviews with different individuals. Tis a few years old, but well worth a look. You may even recognise a few people I still think the big fish guy is a nutter. Pacu are supposed to eat *vegies*, not feeder goldfish.... sigh, some people just want TOUGH.

the silicone does have a lifespan, they usually say 10 years is not a worry. Personally with the distance it is being moved, I would fill it up in the garden and leave it overnight, just in case. Better a flood outside than in!

There is a bowhunters club that organises annual koi-kills in your area. Google them, should be able to make contact with someone who can help Death to evil exotic invasive pest fish! :bounce:

a bit like this then? (tis a banded) MrEd here also caught a banded with his bare hands at Lake Papaitonga. Apparently they can be 'tickled' like trout. Or sometimes you are just lucky Interesting, I had a fish with a similar injury. Was a small giant kokopu, post whitebait, maybe 7cm long. It was like the skin has been ripped off, again about 1cm, and showing just raw pink flesh underneath. It didn't seem very active, it was caught very easily (not by me, by PeteS) and I took it home just incase I could do something to save it. It looked like troutfood otherwise. Would you believe the wound was COMPLETELY GONE within a week? It was like a drawstring tightened around it and it just sealed over. A tiny dent, just a little bit darker than the skin, remained visible. It was 1mm wide at the maximum, the rest of the area looked like normal skin as if nothing had happened. Sadly that fish died recently, but he had got a lot bigger since he was caught. No idea why he died. It seems he was so slow when caught because, well, that was the sort of fish he was! A kind of retiring personality.... (I wouldn't have taken him from the wild if it wasn't for his injury) Kokopu get scraped easily, mine often have shredded skin and tooth-marks when they fight, but it NEVER goes deep, certainly nowhere near the flesh. Not even through the markings, which are quite deep. And the scrapes are always gone within 24 hours. You will find the same kokopu in the same pool night after night. I was at Nga Manu spotlighting with a friend and we saw two kokopu in two hollows under a bridge. They didn't like the lights but wouldn't leave. The next night we saw the same two in the same two hollows, and a third between them. A month later she visited again and was adamant she saw the same two kokopu! (they were distinctive sizes). Maybe you will have another chance when you have your camera along?