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Why Are Human Teeth So Messed Up?

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Re: Why Are Human Teeth So Messed Up?

#151

Post by synicalx »

nickjj wrote: post #92
synicalx wrote: post #25

It always struck me as funny that if you want to get into Medicine you can either do the normal MD course that covers 95% of the body (obviously, you may be able to specialize much later on) OR you can do the other 5% as a Dentist (and again, you may chose to specialize later). Teeth suck, I'm hanging out for "I can't believe they're not teeth" implants so I can stop worrying about the damn things.

Having an implant takes a lot more maintenance than regular teeth and no one really knows the long-long term results (modern implants haven't been around long enough). While an implant may offer a much better quality of life vs having a severely poor tooth (or none at all), don't be fooled into thinking you just get one and then you're set for life. They are considered an excellent option in a lot of cases, but you s…

That's a problem with implants now, I'm hanging out for something that doesn't have those problems.

Re: Why Are Human Teeth So Messed Up?

#152

Post by emmelaich »

sattoshi wrote: post #86
skummetmaelk wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As usual, too much of anything is bad for you. Chewing gum all day leads to many other (severe) issues.

Don't chew all day = have one set of problems Chew all day = another set of problems We can't win, can we?

It's not so much the time as the toughness over time.

Have a steak or dense bread to exercise your jaws.

Or maybe beef jerky?

Re: Why Are Human Teeth So Messed Up?

#153

Post by emmelaich »

matt_morgan wrote: post #138
Sleeep wrote: post #118

Why does the author's wife think that chewing meat causes choking? This seems like a rather bizarre belief - does this have any basis in reality? If anything I'd think that learning to chew your food well from a young age would make you less likely to choke. (and more likely to moderate your food intake) It seem like the equivalent of "don't let them walk, they will just fall and get a concussion"

Do you have kids? Everybody thinks everything causes choking. People stop you on the street to tell you how to feed your toddlers. Grapes were particularly suspect in our neighborhood. People cut them in half, believing it was safer. You are right, I'm sure, about chewing being important to learn; and it would have to be a tiny piece in order for it to be hard to choke on it, anyway, so cutting it small certainly won…

Well, grapes do cause choking in young kids. Just the right size to wedge in the airway. But yeah I'm sure many warnings are overdone.

Re: Why Are Human Teeth So Messed Up?

#154

Post by jstanley »

synicalx wrote: post #150
jstanley wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have an "I can't believe it's not a tooth" implant, after I lost a front tooth when I crashed a tiny motorcycle. They drilled a hole in my jaw, beefed it up with a "cadaver bone" from a pig, threaded a titanium bolt into the hole, and then threaded a tooth-lookalike into the titanium bolt. The installation is a bit... industrial, but you'd never know it wasn't a real tooth. It cost £3,000 though.

Neato, from a 'user' perspective how is it? Does it feel or work any different to a usual tooth?

Just like a normal tooth, except the surrounding part of my mouth is a little "bulkier" at the back where the cadaver bone was placed.

No complaints at all.

Re: Why Are Human Teeth So Messed Up?

#155

Post by NTripleOne »

greggman wrote: post #48

I'm going to take this moment to rant at dentists! Going to the doctor they get the excuse that they rarely do anything that could possibly hurt. Dentists on the other hand are practically doing minor surgery every time you visit them. I know many of you will never have had any bad experiences at the dentist but I've had tons and what's extremely frustrating is many of them are preventable but dentists seem to have a…

Also, can get get less dentists that are condescending pricks? Like seriously, your job is to deal with this shit, deal with it, don't complain about it - that's my job and I'm not getting paid for it. You are, shut up.

Re: Why Are Human Teeth So Messed Up?

#156

Post by greggman »

freeflight wrote: post #91
greggman wrote: post #48

I'm going to take this moment to rant at dentists! Going to the doctor they get the excuse that they rarely do anything that could possibly hurt. Dentists on the other hand are practically doing minor surgery every time you visit them. I know many of you will never have had any bad experiences at the dentist but I've had tons and what's extremely frustrating is many of them are preventable but dentists seem to have a…

Sounds like a combination of you just getting unlucky and having very low pain tolerance. Personally I don't mind it hurting a bit sometimes, for smaller stuff I usually even opt out of the local anesthetics because I don't like running around with a mouth that feels like it's full of cotton. Those are medical procedures after all, they are not supposed to make you feel amazing (at least during the process) they are…

sorry but I hate this attitude. your comment of "I don't really mind, never did" makes it clear you think we're both experiencing the same amount of pain it's just that you're tougher.

let me assure you we are NOT going through the same amount of pain. if we were I am 1000% sure your attitude and reaction would be far different

Re: Why Are Human Teeth So Messed Up?

#157

Post by greggman »

hycaria wrote: post #75
greggman wrote: post #48

I'm going to take this moment to rant at dentists! Going to the doctor they get the excuse that they rarely do anything that could possibly hurt. Dentists on the other hand are practically doing minor surgery every time you visit them. I know many of you will never have had any bad experiences at the dentist but I've had tons and what's extremely frustrating is many of them are preventable but dentists seem to have a…

>Lukewarm water please. Cold helps vasoconstriction. Warm equals vasodilatation equals more bleeding, and increasing the bloodflow makes it easier for the bacteria that will eventually come through microlesions to go around etc. Things are in a specific way for a reason most of the time. > It felt like she was taking an ice pick and stabbing my gums. Yes because that's where calculus accumulates. It's not a pleasant…

expletive deleted

I've had my guns cleaned 50+ times in life. when I tell you it hurt I'm saying it hurt unlike any other time .

you're assuming all pain is the same, all procedures are the same , and that all people experience the same amount of pain for a given proceedure.

not cool. your attitude is actually part of the problem.

Re: Why Are Human Teeth So Messed Up?

#158

Post by nickjj »

synicalx wrote: post #151
nickjj wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having an implant takes a lot more maintenance than regular teeth and no one really knows the long-long term results (modern implants haven't been around long enough). While an implant may offer a much better quality of life vs having a severely poor tooth (or none at all), don't be fooled into thinking you just get one and then you're set for life. They are considered an excellent option in a lot of cases, but you s…

That's a problem with implants now , I'm hanging out for something that doesn't have those problems.

That's where it gets tricky.

Let's say something substantially better comes out 5 years from now.

Do you really want to be a guinea pig for that?

You may end up waiting 10 or 15 years after the new thing comes out just to make sure it's properly field tested and successful in a majority of people. Plus, you still don't know how long it will really last because there's no real world data.

Then there's the whole skill level of the surgeon placing the implant.

Some dentists take 2 day seminars to learn how to place implants, and are able to start doing them on real people afterwards. Do you really want that guy to do the job for you?

Because it's going to take 5+ years before anyone builds up enough experience to be even be in a spot to say "I'm really comfortable placing these things because I've seen it all".

Re: Why Are Human Teeth So Messed Up?

#159

Post by Felz »

erikpukinskis wrote: post #135
anon1253 wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a larger truth hidden in here: experts disagree. It was one of the things that took me by surprise when building Machine Learning systems, but it makes sense if you think about it. For all but the most trivial matters, it's the job of the expert to exercise personal judgement. It's why they're experts, not because they have a solid understanding of the "knowns", but because they have developed methods and int…

There is a corollary prediction: AIs will disagree. Too many people imagine AIs are somehow "perfectly rational" and therefore will never disagree, they'll just tap into a unified decision making engine and automatically integrate all of their knowledge. In order to integrate knowledge you need more knowledge. And in order to integrate that you need more still. It's turtles all the way down. If anything, AIs are at a…

Have you heard of Aumann's agreement theorem? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aumann's_agreement_theorem

Theoretically it means that two AI should be able to reach a consensus pretty quickly without needing to share a lot of information.

Unfortunately you need "honest, rational Bayesian agents with common priors" for this to work. Given that humans rarely agree with each other, it's interesting to think about where we fall short of that criteria.

Re: Why Are Human Teeth So Messed Up?

#160

Post by wahern »

greggman wrote: post #48

I'm going to take this moment to rant at dentists! Going to the doctor they get the excuse that they rarely do anything that could possibly hurt. Dentists on the other hand are practically doing minor surgery every time you visit them. I know many of you will never have had any bad experiences at the dentist but I've had tons and what's extremely frustrating is many of them are preventable but dentists seem to have a…

You might be relatively insensitive to lidocaine. For the past 15 years and 3 dentists, I've almost always had to get additional lidocaine, sometimes 2 or 3 rounds of injections over a 20 or 30 minute period, even for simple fillings. That time might be split between the initial injection and subsequent injections midway through the procedure. Occasionally the dentists (certainly at least my latest one) breaks out a special alternative, which is injected with a much bigger needle from a comically huge injector.

A few years earlier I had a horrible root canal experience. For years I thought there was a mix-up and they had just forgotten to numb me. I went through the procedure without complaining because I thought it was normal, but I was soaking wet afterward from the sweat. Now I realize it's probably just that I was insensitive to the lidocaine (or whatever they gave me), and they weren't paying attention or didn't care.

I don't usually ask for the additional injections. But sometimes the pain is lightening quick, incredibly intense, and I can involuntarily jerk.[1] Unlike that first dentist, the past three refuse to continue without numbing me more if they sense I'm uncomfortable. I feel bad because sometimes I spend more time in the chair sitting alone, waiting for the injections to soak through and taking up a valuable patient slot than for the procedure. And I'm also a little worried that I'll become increasingly insensitive to these injections.

One trick I've learned that I think helps a little is to take some ibuprofen an hour or two before the appointment.

[1] I handle constant, dull pain much better. Though for all my teeth problems I've never had serious tooth pain outside a dental visit.

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