Posted on 08/21/2007 5:22:27 PM PDT by Coleus
Opening King Tut's tomb brought to light treasures and curses hidden for thousands of years. One of the lat ter still haunts us -- the curse of King Tut's tooth. Tut, like many teenagers, needed a tooth extraction, in his case, an impacted wisdom tooth. Sadly, ancient Egyptian dentistry was unable to help the boy-pharaoh, as extractions were done only on very loose teeth, by the gentle touch of fingers. Even forceps (pliers) were probably not employed until long after Tut died. Astonishingly, modern dental extraction procedures are still mired in the technology of the an cient world. Recently, I was struck by the curse of Tut. I needed a tooth removed. Having taken lidocaine, I was fully conscious during the brutal and traumatic removal process. I became a time traveler, passing through star gates and winding up in ancient Egypt. Pliers still pull teeth!
In this age of high technology, what, if anything, is being done to modernize the practice of tooth ex traction? For scientists, inventors or entrepreneurs who would bring tooth extraction into the 21st century, there awaits a fortune aptly described as the Treasure of King Tut's Tooth. I sought those adventurers exploring the frontiers of knowledge to learn if the curse of Tut could be expiated.
I first ventured to the promising field of biomedical engineering, contacting Professor Arthur Ritter, director of the Stevens Institute of Technology biomedical engineering program. Numerous dentists had told me disconcerting tales of hav ing to place a knee on a patient's chest to gain sufficient leverage and force to perform a recalcitrant extraction. So Ritter and I discussed robotic extractors. Could we develop a machine with suffi cient power and torque forces to perform difficult tooth removals?
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
I’m really hoping for a thread about gross and horrible wisdom tooth extractions. I grew up hearing about how my grandmother’s dear old brother died from sepsis after a botched wisdom tooth extraction. Mine were pretty easy. My husband lost the ability to whistle and says that they hit an artery and it shot blood clear to the ceiling. Let’s hear them.
(Gasp!)
Man, what a whiner.
Hmm I had a shot, was numbed and you only feel pressure not pain. What’s the harm in using pliers? A machine wouldn’t have the dentist’s feel for what he is doing.
I’ve had two wisdom extractions (lowers, then uppers) - general anesthetic in both cases. Great post-op painkillers, too.
First one, they shattered the teeth and then dug them out. Second one, they came out reasonably easy. Impacted in both cases.
When they had to dig out my lowers (1 and 16), I was swollen up for a couple weeks. No swelling on 17 and 32.
Ditto, I’ve had a couple of teeth pulled and all I felt was the pressure and the physical pulling of my head. No pain during or after.
When I was a kid, my parents used an old drunken dentist who filled cavities without the use of Novocaine. Now that was an experience I didn’t like.
Sorry, I’m outta this thread.
Erm... I had all 4 extracted under anesthetic. Don’t remember much other than I had to be driven home. Otherwise... not much of a trouble, really.
Of couse, maybe the dentist was just a sadist. Who knows.
What’s the harm in using pliers?
Baaah, in the old days we used to use vise-grips and a car mirror after having walked three miles in the snow just to find a car with a mirror.
Seriesly, I remember boot camp dentistry, we were crammed into a cattle car and on our way to dental, when we got out
there were two guys at the bus stop with blood running out of their mouths and moaning in pain, it did not bode well for the future as I was soon to find out.
Dentists are God’s way of telling us to brush our teeth......or else.
My grandfather told me that it wasn’t uncommon for people to die from wizzie removal during the 20s and 30s. He was a dentist who graduated in 1919. No penicillin ya know! Poor anesthetics like ether. Injectable anesthesia was very crude and not reliable or very safe.
I have removed thousands of wizzies and never lost a patient....so far.
It’s a technique that cannot be done any other way than by human touch. It’s really not all that hard to do as long as the doctor is willing to make a big enough hole for the tooth to pass through.
Modern analgesics, and anesthetics, and sedatives, and antibiotics make the procedure relatively safe and comfortable.
I had mine done, they gave me two pills to take before I got there. I remember taking the pills and waking up at home minus 4 teeth, nothing in between.
Yeah, my wisdom teeth were so intimidating the Marines decided to just remove the two molars in front of them to give them room....!!!
I can.
If the patient is as dead as King Tut.
Only needed one Tylenol at home.
Only needed one Tylenol at home.
Two words: General anaesthesia.
Then, they could use pliers, a drill press, a bench vise and a weed-whacker, but you won’t see, feel, hear, smell or remember it.
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