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 ...
All but one of my wisdom teeth were pulled when I was a kid. The last one was a nasty horizontal impacted wisdom tooth which means bone had to be removed to get at it. I had it done this year at the age of 48. It never gave me any problem, but my Dentist Father-in-Law said not to wait till I got older because the the recovery could be longer.
I did not feel a thing because they put me to sleep. And it got me a day or two of pampering from my wife, until I recovered.
I had all 3 of my wisdom teeth extracted when I was 17. I thought it was much less uncomfortable than getting braces put on my teeth. I didn’t even bother using the prescription pain medicine after the first day.
I have all 4 of mine, but know how to make the tooth pain unnoticable.
Place a big toe in a vise and tighten slowly and inexorably during the procedure. The tooth pain will not be noticed.
back before anesthesia, they would fill the victim with large amounts of alcohol and then die him down and then have all his buddies make a huge amount of noise. Sounds like a party to me.
I could not afford the 150 dollar apiece fee at the time.The last one took three days because of the anomaly of the tooth.It also helps if you do it in the dark!
When I was a teen I had an operation on both feet. It was supposed to have been able to be done with local. After it was over the doctor said it took 25 times more than he had ever given anyone.
Post-op I was feeling sharp pain again in about an hour. He said with as much as he gave me, it with as much as he gave it should have been about 4 to 6 hours.
Next office visit he said he had checked with an anesthesiologist who said his experience showed about 2 to 5% of the patients he saw had metabolisms that seem to absorb it and process it out of their systems very fast.
All my dental stuff was painful every time except for one older dentist. After the first visit, he used to bring me in an 45 minutes early to start the injections. I always thanked him and he said it was rather unusual but not unknown. Just that most doctors/dentists don’t want to wait the time it takes.
Not a great way to be different than other people!
Bleeding from the nose could mean the sinus was opened. Sometimes happens when roots are in the sinus.
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