Dental History, Past & Present

As some of you may know, I have a major dental fetish. So I'd like to know, are you willing to share your past dental history, as well as any dental works your planning to have in the future?

Which procedure did you have done / planning to have done? Which tooth/teeth did you have the procedure done on /planning to have the procedure done on?

Real life dental stories are a huge turn on.

I have a rather simple personal dental history. I have had occlusal sealants on my premolars and molars as a child and my third molars were extracted under local anesthesia. I also had a sub-epithelial connective tissue gum graft on my lower left canine and first premolar to augment an area of gum recession I had there. They took a piece of connective tissue from my palate and sutured it into a recipient bed that was created at the gumline of the two involved teeth. I no longer have any recession there. I get regular periodontal cleanings every 3-4 months. My parents got me off to a good start going to a good dentist as a child. I plan on keeping all my teeth until I'm dead. It turned out that I met my periodontist when he was a resident at Columbia at the same time I was doing my MSN there and my father in law was one of his attendings. I have seen the same periodontist for 25 years,

On occasion I do surgical assisting for my father in law who is a periodontist if an assistant is out sick on a busy day. We have done some really neat procedures involving osseous surgery, gum grafting, guided bone regeneration, bone grafting-ridge splitting, lateral augmentations, implants and sub-antral bone augmentations (sinus lifts). They were all a lot of fun for me! It's different working in the close quarters of the mouth compared to the relatively big spaces in orthopedic, abdominal and thoracic surgery.

I have no issues sharing my personal dental history.

As a teenager I had braces for 2 years. After I completed orthodontic treatment I did not see any type of dentist or dental specialist until I had my own job with dental insurance. This was a period of about 5 to 6 years. During that time my oral hygiene routine was poor at best and my diet was equally horrible. Lots of soda, sweets, simple carbs and what not. I was terrible to my mouth and body in general during this time. Around the time I was 20 I got a job with full benefits so I scheduled a physical and an initial consultation with a dentist. The physical didn't go so bad, needed to lose some weight but I could deal with that. The dental exam was a train wreck.

The diagnosis was Early Periodontal Disease, excessive calculus build up, and 12 cavities. A periodontal exam showed generalized 4 and 5 mm pockets and gingival recession but I was fortunate in that bone less was extremely minimal and the bone level still appeared to be even. A treatment plan was made, I would have two scaling and root planing appointments followed by a final scaling session to ensure everything was thoroughly cleaned up. Once the gums healed up we would start filling the cavities. I elected to have it done in two appointments. We would do the 7 on the right first and 5 on the left second. The subject of my wisdom teeth came up. All 4 wisdom teeth had cavities and the two lower ones had extensive decay. The teeth were fully erupted, functional and not causing any real pain other than sensitivity because they had been badly decayed. I wanted them to be saved if possible but extracted if anything more than a filling was needed.

The scaling and root planing was brutal. I was given a topical numbing agent for both sessions. The right was done first then the left. Each appointment was about 2 hours. Heavy use of the ultrasonic at the start of the appointment to clear the aggressive calculus buildup and then hand scaling to finish debriding the root surfaces and smooth them to allow the gingiva to reattach to the tooth. I bled a lot, I paid dearly for my poor oral hygiene during those appointments. My gums were swollen, tender and ached terribly for days after the appointment. All I could handle was soft foods. The second appointment was more of the same. The third appointment wasn't nearly as bad. The scaling wasn't as aggressive and was focused on just picking up anything that might have been left behind in my swolen gums. The hygienist told me I was ready for fillings and the appointment was made to start filling my cavities.

The first appointment for cavity fillings was for the 7 on the right side. The teeth worked on were the 2nd pre-molar, 1st molar, 2nd molar and 3rd molar on the lower right and the 1st molar, 2nd molar and 3rd molar on the upper right. Initial diagnosis was pit and fissure cavities all around with the exception of the lower right wisdom teeth which two large patches of decay that had extended the interproximal area. Up until this point in my life I had never had a cavity filled. I wasn't prepared for anything. I had several shots to get me numbed up. After waiting about fifteen minutes and checking to see if I was adequately numb the dentist fired up her drill and began clearing the decay. The lone pre-molar was quick and the 1st molars on the upper and lower weren't bad either. The 2nd molars is where the trouble started. As the dentist began working into those teeth she commented that the decay had spread deep into the tooth and there was a lot of decalcification present. She switched from a high speed handpiece to a low speed one. The change of sensation was unusual and frightened me initially.. As she got deeper into the tooth I would get jolts of pain. She finished those two and then began the upper 3rd molar. That one was quick as well as the decay had not penetrated into the dentin too much. Next up was the trouble maker, the lower right wisdom tooth. She drilled for what I perceived was an eternity. The decay was extensive according to her. She ended up drilling away about half of the tooth but still had enough left to place a large filling. My mouth was loaded up with matrix bands and the filling process began. This seemed pretty awkward from my perspective but went pretty quickly. Once the dentist was satisfied she pulled everything out and checked my bite. I was sent home with another appointment for the left.

The appointment for the left wasn't nearly as bad as the right. I had the lower left 1st, 2nd and 3rd molars filled and the upper left 1st and 2nd molars. Everything but the lower left 3rd molar did not have a lot of decay but that 3rd molar again was in bad shape. Not as much tooth lost as the right but a lot again. The filling procedure was much quicker as there was only tooth with interproximal decay and after that they checked my bite. After having all the fillings done my teeth ached and were sensitive to pretty much everything for about a month. For the first two years I was on three month recalls while I established a better oral hygiene routine and started flossing. I ended up need three more fillings during that time. The upper left 3rd molar, the upper left 1st pre-molar and the lower left 2nd pre-molar.

I eventually got my periodontal condition stable and was able to get my pocket depths down to 3's and 4's with minimal bleeding so I was moved to a 4 month recall. The dentist and her staff were instrumental in helping me establish a better oral care routine and getting me on the right track. When they dropped my insurance I was devastated. I had used them for 8 years and spent a year trying to find a new dentist on the plan my company was using. I had my records transferred over and she was extremely uninterested in maintaining my periodontal disease. She convinced me I only needed to come in every 6 months to see her hygienist and everything would be fine. I stayed with her practice for almost 4 years before I had enough. My mouth felt terrible after leaving their office and I was noticing that my gums were becoming puffy and inflamed. My oral hygiene routine was also not as good as it had been during this time due to work stress. I decided to go to a local dental school and get an impartial 3rd party opinion at this point. The student working with my diagnosed with me moderate periodontal disease after review x-rays and probing depths. The 5mm pockets were back and I had what she called impacted calculus left behind by poor clinical work from the hygienist who had been treating me. I had scaling and root planing performed on my whole mouth and started 3 month recalls with the dental school for a year until I found my current dentist. She agreed with the diagnosis from the school and recommended I continue with 3 month recalls and if I felt comfortable to continue using the dental school for the additional cleanings I need which I plan to do.

She performed my most recent dental work. I had to a small fracture on the lower 3rd molar repaired and she also fixed a poor contact between my lower left 3rd molar and 2nd molar that was causing food impactiona and aggravating the gums in that area.

TLDR, Braces, 15 composite fillings and moderate periodontal disease that's currently under maintenance with 3 month recalls.

Am I proud of all that? No, I want to keep my teeth in my head but I'm will to do whatever it takes to accomplish that. My neglect caused this mess and now I have to deal with it. Do I enjoy the chair time? Absolutely but I don't actively neglect my teeth to get it.

My pediatric dentist was a huge jerk. I hated him. So once I was old enough to elect not to go to the dentist I stopped. I went about 5 years without going before I started to get a worsening toothache that eventually I couldn't ignore any more. My parents' dentist had a daughter who had only been a dentist a year or two but was taking on new patients at his practice, so I scheduled an appointment with her. She did an initial exam and the x-rays indicated I needed multiple fillings, mostly on my molars. I was scheduled for a few weeks in a row in the evening. My appointments started around 6PM, and I was usually the only patient there, and parts of the office were already dark. Her assistant would walk me back the very back room where they did the more intense procedures, and I'd climb in to the chair that faced the very back corner of the building . . . I always felt a bit trapped back there. Her assistant would put a bib thing on and start the gas and then the dentist would come in soon after and start administering the shots. They learned quickly that I had a difficult time keeping my mouth open, so they usually used on of those contraptions to hold my mouth open pretty early (not sure if that is a gag or not). Anyway, at each of these appointments she would drill and drill. It was very intense, especially for someone with mild dental phobia and had avoided going for years. The worst of the nights I was probably there 2 1/2 hours. But she was a great dentist. She did a great job, and made it as comfortable for me as she could.

I tend to move around a bit, geographically, and had to find another dentist in a different city. She recommended a deep cleaning, which I didn't even know existed. So I was scheduled consecutive days to get each side of my mouth deep cleaned. Since then I've maybe had one cavity. Both that dentist and the one I have now want me to explore a gum grafting procedure as I've had some gum loss to overbrushing but just haven't been able to convince myself to go through with it. Even with pretty decent dental insurance seems like it would set me back over $1,000. I figure I'll have more issues as time goes on because both my parents have poor dental health.

I’ve fascinated with disabled friends who require assistance even as adults with tooth brushing.