Saturday, March 11, 2006

I am back! :D

I am back online, finally. Darn Telstra. I didn't believe the newspaper when someone said it took Telstra 2 months to get his phone connected and his daughter almost die from falling off the horse coz he couldn't call for ambulance (his property has no mobile phone coverage). You would expect a better service in developed country but hell no even third world countries are doing better. Telstra even has the nerve to remove public payphones because they're not making money. Sheesh. Can you imagine a country without public phones??? Thanks a lot to the government for privatising the country's only communication company responsible for connecting phones. Atrocious.


Sometimes I really wonder how some ppl can let their oral health deteriorate to the point of no return. I saw Mrs P few weeks ago. She was complaining about her tooth moving when she eats. When I took a look I almost fainted. There it was, the poor 27 hanging for it's dear life by the root tips. Mrs P could have easily done the extraction herself with her fingers (but to appear more professional I resisted the urge to pull it out with my fingers and used the forcepts instead :p).


There was no bone support at all. The next time I see Mrs P she'll probably be complaing about the loose 26.


Look at the gunk around the tooth. It's a crime to let your teeth get to this stage. Ppl always think oh it's a back tooth it doesn't matter nobody can see it. Yeah, sure, just wait till you lose all your posterior teeth and see how much it'll affect your facial feature. Your lower jaw'll move forward and upward as you lose posterior support. Try doing that in front of the mirror, don't forget to throw in a few wrinkles too. I do my best to re-educate them but there's only so much I can do. Sadly, some ppl just don't care.

8 Comments:

Blogger Flatfeet said...

Darling, sometimes I just don;t understand that some people can just leave their problem to the point where there's no return. I wonder if they are expecting their fellow pracitioners to 'wave their magic wands' and perform miracles.

11/3/06 9:46 pm  
Blogger Dr. Mommy, D.D.S. said...

welcome back, DDU, i missed your updates!

marvelous photos! i gotta bring my digital camera to the office, i've had some pretty interesting cases lately (see my mid-feb post about the guy who drilled his own tooth). was this person married? could you imagine actually kissing a mouth that infested with microbes??? blech! i can say this to you 'cuz you and other docs who read your blog probably think this from time to time (it's only human nature), but man, is it hard to fight the urge to say this to people's faces. it's a real challenge convincing people that periodontal problems are very serious and even have dire systemic consequences. "if it doesn't hurt, there's no problem" blah blah blah. then they come to me with the tooth in their hands or flapping in the breeze, wondering what happened and THEN complain about how much a bridge or implant costs and insurance doesn't cover it.

sorry for the rant, i'm feeling a tad unappreciated today ;-)

wait a second, didn't anyone else tell her she had perio problems before she saw you??? talk about supervised neglect...

12/3/06 11:41 am  
Blogger vagus said...

man. was just looking at your blog after our chat. was a tad hungry, since it's summertime back home.
but after looking at your pictures, i'm not hungry anymore. and you're talking about a man who's had his fair share of being exposed to gross bodily products.

12/3/06 3:03 pm  
Blogger Piffles said...

shit. i better go see a dentist pronto. you've got me worried.

14/3/06 5:54 pm  
Blogger Rachel said...

hi welcome back!! I agree that people need to take more responsiblity for their own health and stop blaming their parents, their children (everytime i fall pregnant I lose a tooth), not getting fluoride earlier etc. for thier poor oral hygiene!

That was a great post and very educational. I hope that lots of the general public read it and get educated about perio disease.

Doc mommy, I have met lots of patients whom I have urged to see a periodontist or they will lose all their teeth but they don't seem to care. Alot of people have a "live for today" attitude.

btw DDU, I got a new dentistry blog which will be n1tr0us.blogspot.com I have not used my real name on it so I appreciate if you don't mention it since alot of my patients actually know I have a blog (Cowra is a VERY SMALL country town, even when I didn't tell anyone, someone found it and started telling everyone). If I start putting up clinical cases, people whill try to guess who is it etc. Thanking you in advance. Hope we can bounce ideas off each other

14/3/06 6:55 pm  
Blogger Dentist Down Under said...

flatfeet: They don't care because it doesn't cause any pain. Bah! I saw this woman with whole mouth of decay and she came in because she had a small chipped on her front teeth. I told her she needs to get her other teeth fixed before it's too late and she said what for they don't hurt and nobody can see them. Jesus christ.

dr. mommy, d.d.s: I totally agree with you! I feel sorry for her husband. How can he stand kissing a mouth like that! YUCK! PUKE! But then again he probably has a mouth like that too Eeeeeeeew! Some of my patients said they don't come in as often as they should because of the cost but it actually costs heaps more when they wait till they start getting pain. I kept telling them that but they don't believe me. Hmph. She said her previous dentist told her to rinse with Savacol (chlorhexidine), that caused the brown stains around her teeth. I think what she probably did was rinse and not brush. Yuck!

vagus_n: That's not the worst I've seen. :p

piffles: Be afraid be very afraid

rachel: Yes! They blame everyone else except themselves! I even had this patient who insisted it's something in the water. DUH! I just went to your site, that's a good idea. :D

rob: Haha one of my patient's tooth was so lose he took it out with his fingers and he just came to me to make sure nothing was left behind. Scary!

17/3/06 12:28 am  
Blogger Dr Oz bloke said...

Man that's bad.

I can't understand why in Singapore so many patients go to see the medical doctor for dental problems. I mean what can I really do right?

Antibiotics? Analgesia? That's about it.

As a side note, overheard....

Patient : So how long does it cost to pull out a tooth?
Dentist : About $100?
Patient : How long does the procedure take?
Dentist : Oh it's quick. Less than 5 minutes!
Patient : $100 for a 5 minute job? That's daylight robbery!
Dentist : Err..if time is the problem for you, I could always pull out your tooth slowly. Would you prefer that?

17/3/06 7:03 pm  
Blogger Dentist Down Under said...

dr oz bloke: LOL you are not alone, the medical docs here are facing the same problem as you are. ;p One guy went to his medical GP because he had some weird growth on his tongue, the GP thought he had cancer and sent him off to the surgeon who chopped off half of his tongue but the growth kept coming back and they just kept chopping and chopping until one day he had toothache and went to the dentist. The dentist saw his tongue and said oh you've lichen planus. :/

18/3/06 8:55 am  

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