SILVIO LACCETTI
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 ...
An interesting and informative thread, such as this one, and the occasional “which pistol should I buy?” thread, nicely offset the Rudy-is-a-crossdresser and XYZ-is-a-RINO threads.
Several years ago I had all 4 wisdom teeth pulled on the same day. Pain meds/anesthesia/Novacaine don’t work all that well on me and my foreign (Saudi I think) dentist knew this and knew I was pretty tense. So he goes in to start yanking and says to me, “Don’t worry, Molly. My hands may be in your mouth but my eyes are all over your body.” What he meant was that he would be watching me for signs of pain/distress - but it came out so very wrong sounding.
Supposedly using the system the extractions can often usually be done BY FINGER PRESSURE and applied physics.
From the site: http://ogramsystem.com/ogram/index.html
"First and foremost, the Ogram System is an all new tooth removal protocol that abandons 90% of the current dental technique principles for routine tooth removal. Simply put, Ogram is an easy and stress free non-invasive tooth removal system for even the most complicated procedures. Only the Ogram System offers patients virtually no post operative bone loss after a non impacted extraction.
Atraumatic tooth removal can be a complex process. This can be greatly simplified by incorporating mechanical and physical engineering principles. Here dental development has come to a stop. Current exodontia technique is based on 19th century principles with no real advancement other than anesthesia and rotary devices yielding a high degree of surrounding tissue trauma. The use of unusual strength was also noted with extractions.
The principles of efficient motion in any surgery are based on the established truths of physics, geometry, and mathematical investigation as it relates to surrounding tissues. The combination of these principles and sound clinical judgment will result in optimal care for your patients and the reduction of valuable time.
Developed by a team of scientific professionals in Europe and in the United States the Ogram System is the first true exodontia protocol developed scientifically. The Ögram System is implemented in dental schools in Germany, France, Austria, Switzerland and expanding to other countries. It is the new standard for exodontia. The system gives the dentist the ability to remove almost all difficult, non-impacted teeth without the need of reflecting a flap, trenching, removal of facial cortical bone or strong instrument forces where normally these added procedures were necessary. Difficult extractions can usually be completed in less than 6 minutes of technique time and with no or very little surrounding tissue trauma. No other method has this distinction.”
I only found two dentists/exodontists in the U.S. on the Internet who say they are doing it.
One in Texas and one in California.
Sadly, not many doctors have want to or trained to do it. From my communications with someone on the staff they said I might find a tough time finding someone who does it.
I suppose that there is probably not enough money in it if someone can just do it with training and fingers. Really starts to make one think about the medical industry that surrounds other high buck medical procedures like.... cancer treatment.
After all if the money is in the drugs, radiation, cutting, and the pain that goes along with all that, why solve it any other way?
bump...
and a personal opinion that some dentists are GOOD Doctors that try
to make the maintainance of dental health a relatively low pain experience
(that’s MOST, not all, of the dentists I had in Oklahoma)...
And some are FREAKIN’ SADISTS that refuse to use analgesia in order
to max their bottom line.
Or to load up their personal stash of drugs.
(RE: my PAINFUL experience in Southern California; I said I’d pay for
more analgesia, but was told “you don’t need it”)
I suspect that was code for “I’m using all the painkillers that the
DEA will allow, so I’m not giving any to my patients”.
For anyone that waxes nostalgic for more primitive and natural times, I say only this: Anesthesia and modern dentistry.
Less trauma and overall pain and quicker recovery. I emailed with someone from the organizations site and they indicated that FEW dentists have attended the available training in the last few years... and it would probably be hard to find someone who does it.
He indicated it might be hard to find someone who does it. Now why wouldn't dentists, oral surgeons, and exodontists WANT to take the training and offer the service?
They can take them out painlessly by knocking you out...Unfortunately suffering will still follow.
Ok, now here’s the absolute truth. They took forever to come in. I was thirty before they finally broke all the way through the gum line. Probably 35 before they were up level with the rest of the molars and thus usable. Until then, they were tender and it hurt to bit down on them real hard. They are hard to clean with a tooth brush because they are so far back. The gums on them occasionally bleed because I do get lazy about brushing them from time to time. But the point is, they are 4 more grinders. I’d say they are valuable. Eventually, If I live long enough, I will begin losing teeth. Those 4 extra grinders will come in handy then.
Teeth continually shift around in your jaw. If your teeth are crowded and you suddenly lose a tooth, guess what? They will move around and fill in the gap left behind. I remember in my mid 20s, I had a conversation with a good buddy about wisdom tooth removal. His came in fine but his dentist wanted to pull them. I told him don’t do it. He did it. A year after yanking them, he had a big gap between his two front teeth. His teeth shifted back to fill the space left by the wisdom tooth removal. The result was a gap up front. My wisdom teeth crowd my front teeth slightly. If I had them yanked, I might see an improvement. But I still won’t do it.
I recently had to have a root canal on a hot molar, with a post and build-up for a crown. This was on a tooth that broke years ago after part of a large cavity from childhood fell out. The root canal was excruciating, with significant and lengthy nova injections unable to do a thing until the tooth was opened and what felt like a liter of additional nova was injected.
On the other hand, I had extractions when I was small, including of permanent teeth, to make room in the jaw to straighten my teeth with braces. All of them were done with simple nova injections, and other than the crunching and sensation of force they were by far the easiest dental procedures I’ve ever had done aside from basic cleaning.
I wouldn’t even want to consider something that tried to selectively spare gum tissue given the level of pain the tissue around a tooth can generate when injured, and I certainly wouldn’t want vibrations strong enough to obliterate a tooth being used on me given the possibility of any transmission of damaging vibrations through the bone and into the inner ear.
You think a little pain in a dentist’s chair and some swelling for a week after is bad, trying living with the sound of turbine engines in your ears 24/7 the rest of your life from damage to the delicate hairs of the inner ear.
That system is OK, but there isn’t enough evidence that it is any better than standard techniques. We are very much into evidence based practice nowadays.
Some dentists use lasers for extractions, but again, there just isn’t enough evidence to support that for routine use.
There is a new design of forceps, http://www.oneminuteextractions.com/
But most dentists I know think it’s way too expensive and probably not as good as the adds indicate.
Removing teeth isn’t a very fun thing for people to have done. But with the meds we have available today it’s not nearly as bad as in the past.
I worked my way thru dental school as a butcher. Please just don’t tell my patients.
When I was a kid, I did not get along with my orthodontist. We yelled at each other all the time. He was an idiot. One day, when I was finally old enough to drive myself to the orthodontist, I just quit going. About a year later, one saturday morning I woke up and decided to take my braces off. It took two days and a tiny pair of needlenose vicegrips. I got roughly 75 percent of them off my teeth and gave up. The remaining 25 percent would come off little by little over the next year or so whenever I got in the mood.
My mom used to do some of her own dental work. She did her own abscess once...left the dead tooth in place though. Awhile later the tooth fell out and she went to the dentist to have it cemented in place and a vernier put on it. It actually turned out pretty good.
“I’m gonna p*$$ alot of people off.
ALL of my wisdom teeth came in with no problems.”
Same here, and still have them all.
I’m 46 and shattered the outside of my first upper molar on the left side a month or so ago eating M&Ms of all things. But here is the story on that tooth. I work at a coal burning powerplant and about 20 years ago I was poking the slag taps on the bottom of the boiler. A 1/4 diameter glob of red hot slag flew out and hit that molar, actually stuck to it. I had to scrape it off the tooth burning my lip in the process. I’ve waited all these years for something to happen to that tooth. The dentist put a plastic cap on it for free, he says it will break off anyway, he kept murmuring, “beautiful teeth”, “beautiful teeth”.
Well all I can say is it is luck - or the fact that I never wash out the toothpaste when I brush my teeth.
Butchers have butcher paper. Lot’s of it in fact. Does that count?
I had an impacted wisdom tooth that would still try to grow occasionally, thus putting pressure on the tooth it butted into. It was not a big deal until I developed a cavity in said tooth. Then I had the worst pain of my life....including having 2 children with no anesthesia!!!
My dentist sent me to an oral surgeon and when I was seated and ready he said “may I put you to sleep?” I said “yes please” and was *gone*! This surgeon had a camera in the room so Mr G, sitting in the lobby waiting, could watch. He timed the surgeon, and even with 2 of 4 wisdom teeth impacted, he had them out and me waked up in 12 minutes.
I woke up saying “that wasn’t even a good nap”.
It was painful.but finances had a big play in it.Glad yours worked out.Sometimes it feels like another job!!
SILVIO LACCETTI
For some reason some people are very tough as far as getting Novocaine to work. Sadly I am one too. Last time the oral surgeon had to take out some broken teeth he could not get my jaw numb. I told him it takes a LONG time.
Finally he got pissed off (after like 18 shots) and had me come back the next day to be put to sleep. The CRNA had a tough time getting me to sleep! When I woke up the oral surgeon said it was better I went to sleep because the one tooth had an extra long root.
Another dentist had told me that in his 20 years had had only run into a few like me. He said often it is because the nerve runs deep through the jaw bone. Also some people are resistant to the effects of most of the ‘caines.
No wonder I never got numb at the dentist as a kid. Dental work was always painful. Always.
I can’t see his teeth, well, a little bit.. are they false?
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