Uncommon but I am sure it happens. There are scumbags in every profession and unfortunately dentistry is not immune. It is very important that you trust your dentist, it is like going to a fruit stand and asking "how much fruit do I need?". You must be sure that your dentist has your best interest at heart. There are too many good dentists out there to go to one you don't trust.

Wisdom teeth can have a dramatic effect on your bite and can cause crowding of all your teeth over time. Cost would be impossible to estimate without looking at your specific case as it may require just a few extractions or full orthodontics.

Assuming you are a healthy adult you should be using a fluoridated tooth paste. There is a lot of bad information out there about fluoride. The 'truth' is the benefits of fluoride FAR outway the risks.

Thanks for the information and expeditious response. I was hoping that since it didn't happen for so long it wouldn't be that.

Looks like ima get some weight reduction!

What do you think of The Dentist and The Dentist 2?

Thanks for the thread. Where in Washington is your practice? (If you care to answer that.)

Does using a Sonicare toothbrush make a significant difference over a regular brush? Will it buy me a little more leeway if I don't floss as much as I should?

Also, I can't use regular floss for the life of me. When I do floss, I use those little picks with a pre-cut length of floss. Any drawback to that?

A week ago during the evening I had a swelling behind my tooth #18, ie. the swelling was "above" tooth #17, which isn't showing in my mouth:



I couldn't close my mouth completely in that side without severe pain (couldn't get the upper teeth to touch the lower ones) and as a result mumbled a bit. It remained swollen through the night, but then suddenly disappeared before noon the next day (coincidently 5 mins before a job interview ). I have not had my wisdom teeth removed or anything. What could this be/something to be worried about?

I was told I need my wisdom teeth out a few years ago. My top ones seem pretty good but the bottom ones are hardly through and I'm almost 25 years old. I have a fear of getting put to sleep in hospital and I think the bottom ones would be hard to get taken out just in a dentist office..lots of cutting because there is not much to grab a hold of to pull them out.

Are they guarunteed to keep trying to come up and eventually give me a lot of pain or is it possible they can just stay like that and not bother me/stop coming up? I haven't had any problems with them yet and they have been like this for years. The only problems I had so far was the inside of my cheek kinda getting irritated because of the pointy part of the tooth, but that only happened like 3 times in past 4 years and was only irritated for a couple days at a time.

Did you used to be an elf in Santa's workshop?

Thoughts on 3% hydrogen peroxide solution as a regular use mouth wash? The ph is fairly neutral so I've read it doesn't damage the enamel, but it still has a weak whitening property.

Also how frequently do I really need to go to a dentist. I think I'm pretty fortunate in the teeth durability/natural oral hygene department as I've never had a cavity or tooth pain, but I don't think I've been to a dentist in 5 years or so out of laziness. Is very regular flossing, brushing, and mouthwashing enough to maintain a healthy mouth, or is seeing the dentist yearly a requirement regardless of how well you take care of yourself?

5 years?

Dude you should see a dentist. It's not so scary or expensive.

Im surprised nobody has asked this yet- but are there any important difference between kinds of commercial toothpastes (besides taste)?

One day I was in the store and and it struck me that there was a whole aisle of toothpaste and I started wondering if they were all the same. So i grabbed about 20 different tubes and started reading the packages, they all claimed to do slightly different stuff, but the active ingredient listed was the same in almost all of them.

So is there really any dental reason to choose one over another? What kind do you use at home?

At the very minimum, yes. Your hygenist and DDS have a view into your mouth that you never will and can spot developing things on your gums and tongue that you likely never would until its too late. Not including the xray to detect developing things that cannot be seen by the eye.

Yeah, I know. My uncle is a dentist and I don't mind going. In the transition from high school to college to adult my twice yearly cleanings got overlooked and when I went to get wisdom teeth out in 2007 they told me I have excellent teeth despite not having seen a dentist in the prior 2 years. Unfortunately my brain translated that to:

1. don't go to dentist
2. have perfect teeth
3. profit

I haven't been to a dentist in more than a decade.

ACT fluoride rinse or whatever, worth it? I usually do floss brush mouthwash act(act at night only)