pulling teeth

[Walter Bright]

Nick Sabalausky wrote:
> Good to know. In my case though, it's a wisdom tooth and, I would say that 
> it's chipped, but it would be more accurate to say that half of it is gone, 
> and what remains has two sharp edges (Kinda like a two-pronged fork pointing 
> into the gums). It's not really causing much pain, but I do conciously try 
> to chew on the other side (unnatural for me) because if I were to bite down 
> on something the wrong way, then it would hurt like hell. Plus two dentists 
> have already said it should go.

My dentist told me they can now grind off the rotten top of a tooth and add a 
new one attached to the original root. He told me that because one of my molars 
has a growing crack in it. It's not a crisis now, but it will be.

Wisdom teeth can be hard to work on because they're so far back. Dentists have a 
tendency to just pull them out rather than try to save them.

I'd ask your dentist if he can just grind off the sharp edges, add a bit of 
epoxy (they use epoxy now to fill cavities), and keep the root in place. Or 
maybe do a crown.

 > The first one did wanted me to get all the
 > wisdoms out. But the second one just said the one needed it and that the
 > other three didn't matter either way.

Never go back to that first one. I'd question the judgment of the 2nd in saying 
it "didn't matter" if they were pulled. I switched dentists when that one greedy 
jerk wanted to pull my wisdom teeth, and found one that shared my views on 
preserving the natural teeth as much as possible.