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A patient came in today having spent a sleepless night enduring the pain of a toothache while waiting to seek treatment to rid him of his excruciating pain. Some have described the pain as the most severe pain after child birth.
He had previously had multiple extractions with no tooth replacement because he refuses to pay to look after his teeth. Although he would have huge cavities, he would normally wait until he was in pain before he sought a remedy. By that time, a small, easy to fix cavity has grown into a full blown acute inflammation of the tooth with nerve involvement and a costly and time consuming rehabilitation process.
We told him that because he has never had is extracted teeth replaced, it would be very difficult for him to have the replacement later on. We have seen patients who waited until all their teeth were extracted before they even considered having the worst of all options - dentures. They all complained of the horrid experience they went through to get used to their new dentures.
The lower dentures would be swimming around the mouth because of the presence of a tongue which got in the way of the denture.
The upper denture would drop when they talk, very embarassing in a social context!
Over time, the bone in the jaw would shrink and the dentures get loose and need replacement. Finally, when the jaws are completely stripped of their ridges, no dentures can be retained on the jaws and implants would need to be considered.
At this stage, in order to place the implants, some patients would require a rib to be grafted onto the jaws in order to carry the implants!
Initailly when he heard this, he asked if we could save his tooth for him. After reading an x-ray of his dental condition, we told him that the tooth was savable and how much it would cost him. Again, he chose the cheaper option of the extraction, forgetting the consequences of this option.
He had previously had multiple extractions with no tooth replacement because he refuses to pay to look after his teeth. Although he would have huge cavities, he would normally wait until he was in pain before he sought a remedy. By that time, a small, easy to fix cavity has grown into a full blown acute inflammation of the tooth with nerve involvement and a costly and time consuming rehabilitation process.
We told him that because he has never had is extracted teeth replaced, it would be very difficult for him to have the replacement later on. We have seen patients who waited until all their teeth were extracted before they even considered having the worst of all options - dentures. They all complained of the horrid experience they went through to get used to their new dentures.
The lower dentures would be swimming around the mouth because of the presence of a tongue which got in the way of the denture.
The upper denture would drop when they talk, very embarassing in a social context!
Over time, the bone in the jaw would shrink and the dentures get loose and need replacement. Finally, when the jaws are completely stripped of their ridges, no dentures can be retained on the jaws and implants would need to be considered.
At this stage, in order to place the implants, some patients would require a rib to be grafted onto the jaws in order to carry the implants!
Initailly when he heard this, he asked if we could save his tooth for him. After reading an x-ray of his dental condition, we told him that the tooth was savable and how much it would cost him. Again, he chose the cheaper option of the extraction, forgetting the consequences of this option.
After removing the tooth, we had to tell this one-packet-a-day smoker to refrain from smoking for 24 hours to facilitate wound healing.
The cost of replacing that tooth with an implant (without the rib graft) would have been approximately equivalent to between 60 to 80 times that of the tooth extraction!
I remember what my lecturer once told me:
I remember what my lecturer once told me:
Dentistry is not expensive,
the neglect of your teeth is.
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