Woo-woo dental care

[theologygeek]

I hate it when dentists or doctors in general, shame people for what they believe is lack of proper care for themselves: Not brushing, not flossing... Because I am afraid of being shamed, I will nit go to the dentist although I should.

(I am running around with a missing tooth because it broke and the root got extracted at the start of the year, but I'll never be able to afford an implant anyway... but it looks... bad. No front tooth, but visible if I smile widely.)

Ask people you know for recommendations. My kids have a woman dentist who does not judge at all. I convinced my friend's son to go to her. When he told her that he smoked, she said "That's okay, we all have our vices." My friend called beforehand and told the receptionist to tell the dentist that her son was afraid that he would be judged about his teeth. Find a dentist who you heard rave reviews about, and then call and explain your concerns. Tell the receptionist to relay the message to the dentist. If the dentist shames you after you explained your concerns beforehand, then you never have to go to them again.

[ilovetchotchkes]

Ask people you know for recommendations. My kids have a woman dentist who does not judge at all. I convinced my friend's son to go to her. When he told her that he smoked, she said "That's okay, we all have our vices." My friend called beforehand and told the receptionist to tell the dentist that her son was afraid that he would be judged about his teeth. Find a dentist who you heard rave reviews about, and then call and explain your concerns. Tell the receptionist to relay the message to the dentist. If the dentist shames you after you explained your concerns beforehand, then you never have to go to them again.

THIS. There are dentists in my area- (chicagoland) who advertise that they'll do twilight sleep for cleanings if you're that horrifically phobic. Mine actually told me that next time I need a cavity filled, he's going to prescribe me xanax because I shook and cried and bawled so much. He just kept sitting back, baffled and very concerned, and saying "its ok! its ok! are you ok? Do you want me to keep going? do you need a break? is the lidocane wearing off? do you need water? how can I help you feel better about this?"

[Deleted03]

I hate it when dentists or doctors in general, shame people for what they believe is lack of proper care for themselves: Not brushing, not flossing... Because I am afraid of being shamed, I will nit go to the dentist although I should.

(I am running around with a missing tooth because it broke and the root got extracted at the start of the year, but I'll never be able to afford an implant anyway... but it looks... bad. No front tooth, but visible if I smile widely.)

well I wish my dentist in france had told me to floss! My mom always said it was bad for the gums...

why not do the minimal things to help put the odds in your direction? If you don't the dentist will have lots of money to make on you anyway, so go, the dentist will get over it :D

[theologygeek]

THIS. There are dentists in my area- (chicagoland) who advertise that they'll do twilight sleep for cleanings if you're that horrifically phobic. Mine actually told me that next time I need a cavity filled, he's going to prescribe me xanax because I shook and cried and bawled so much. He just kept sitting back, baffled and very concerned, and saying "its ok! its ok! are you ok? Do you want me to keep going? do you need a break? is the lidocane wearing off? do you need water? how can I help you feel better about this?"

He sounds like such an awesome dentist. That is the way it should be. I have no use for the stern dentist who shames people. Sadly, there are still some out there. But there are great ones out there too. It just takes a little time to find one of the good ones.

[ilovetchotchkes]

He sounds like such an awesome dentist. That is the way it should be. I have no use for the stern dentist who shames people. Sadly, there are still some out there. But there are great ones out there too. It just takes a little time to find one of the good ones.

Yeah, he's awesome. ;) my previous one I fired for 2 reasons. Flossing shaming and then they rescheduled my appointment, never comfirmed it and then gave me shit about remaining a patient. This was also a dentist that the novacaine did NOT WORK and they were not apologetic about it.

[Elle]

Ohhhhh man I remember that family. They were disgusting. Their teeth were BLACK around their gums! Also, I was googling them just now because I wanted to find a photo of their teeth, and I found a blog that mentioned them and compared them to Emily and Dna! Gave me a good giggle.

"It reminded me of that blog I told you about a couple weeks ago where the young Quiverfull couple lived on nothing in a tiny, dirty apartment and ate a bunch of fermented stuff all made in a crockpot in order to save money. That girl isn't as bad as these people, but she's young yet. I could see her thinking the Haigwoods were pretty cool. She shut down her blog by the way. I don't know why, but I suspect too many people were calling her out on endangering her kids (because she was) and it got too uncomfortable."

widelawns.blogspot.com/2010/03/wife-swap.html

I just looked them up, and oh my god! CPS in their area had tons of phone calls, e-mails, and faxes, and they said that feeding kids an "unusual" diet, and having a filthy house, and not educating as long as a home school form is filed, is okay. Those kids won't be able to function in the adult world.

[Lunatic]

I get so irritated with people who have good teeth and don't take care of them! Due to a genetic condition, I'm missing 13 of my permanent teeth and the rest are quite small. So I have four major bridges and a bunch of caps on my teeth. A lot of the work is over 20 years old and I'm saving up to have it redone and hopefully my teeth will look better because even after all that work my teeth still look crappy. Luckily I didn't pass the condition on to my kids, only one of them is missing a permanent tooth. I cried when I found about the results of the x-ray, my kids wouldn't have to deal with what I did.

So when I hear about people having great teeth and ruining them due to poor dental care, I'm disgusted! I'll take their teeth if they don't want them.

[dairyfreelife]

Dairyfree, are you in Washington state, by any chance? That sounds suspiciously like my old dentist.

No, I'm in Appalachia, but I hope that dentist is out of the job and that it didn't cause you much trouble.

[IamCanadian]

I hate it when dentists or doctors in general, shame people for what they believe is lack of proper care for themselves: Not brushing, not flossing... Because I am afraid of being shamed, I will nit go to the dentist although I should.

(I am running around with a missing tooth because it broke and the root got extracted at the start of the year, but I'll never be able to afford an implant anyway... but it looks... bad. No front tooth, but visible if I smile widely.)

Dentists who shame should be shamed!

After a bad bout of TMJ problems, I had a bad experience with an oral surgeon who caused me a lot of pain and terror. (Turned out he was suffering from undiagnosed brain cancer which likely affected his interpersonal skills...much as I hated him, I later had a lot of pity for him in his situation) Anyway, he put me off dental care for a few years. When I finally went to a new dentist a few months ago, I was happily surprised. He and his staff were great. I even asked "Aren't you going to yell at me or something?" Nope. Turns out, good dentists want you to come back. I had two cavities (my first ever), and the clinic was so super that getting them fixed was just mildly unpleasant. I happily booked my next appointment before I had even left the office.

In other works, one bad experience can create a huge amount of anxiety, but one good experience can make take it all away.

[gardenvarietycitizen]

I just looked them up, and oh my god! CPS in their area had tons of phone calls, e-mails, and faxes, and they said that feeding kids an "unusual" diet, and having a filthy house, and not educating as long as a home school form is filed, is okay. Those kids won't be able to function in the adult world.

Here too. I don't mean to hijack this thread but I will say, this google search is gonna be loads of horrified entertainment over here!

Have to wonder, there's a youtube clip of Mr. Haigwood (Raw Food Dad) crying after the swapped-in wife took his kids to a restaurant and they were feeling bad the next day and blaming it on eating cooked food. But - did Raw Food Mom try to make her host family in San Francisco eat raw meat? If she did I'll bet that was even MORE interesting...

Back to teeth, apparently the Raw Food Family does in fact brush with butter. Just... what?

Edit to add: Saw more clips on YouTube (googling "wife swap raw meat family" will get you there!) and Raw Meat Dad pulls some jar out of the fridge and talks about "high meat." Had to google that, did I mishear? What the heck is that?

It's FERMENTED RAW MEAT, y'all. :shock:

Dentists who shame should be shamed!

Really, does SHAME about any sort of health or physical problems help anyone at all? I was amazed to find the level of moralizing over cavities I got from the first dentist I visited in the US (ages ago, and wouldn't go anywhere near a place like that now) - it was all about how somehow if you have good teeth, you are a good person.

I'm all fine with stressing to people that they really need to be cleaning their teeth IF they're not doing it, but (1) we're mortal, people are GOING to get cavities anyway, probably the damn dentist has some himself, and (2) any knowledgeable dentist knows there's plenty of factors involved, you can't just say any kid with cavities must be a lazy non-teeth-cleaner.

It just seems there's this moralizing about health that goes on - if you're a good person and Do Everything Right, you will be thin, you will be healthy, and you will have movie star teeth.

Plus it seems they think that unless someone is shamed, they just won't NOTICE they have less than wonderful teeth. Um, I think they know.

[NurseNell]

Uhhh why did her 10 year old lose one of her adult teeth? And why are they taking butter as a supplement?

I thought she meant a molar, which do start coming out around this age and are replaced by adult molars. Molars are bigger than front teeth.

[IamCanadian]

Really, does SHAME about any sort of health or physical problems help anyone at all? I was amazed to find the level of moralizing over cavities I got from the first dentist I visited in the US (ages ago, and wouldn't go anywhere near a place like that now) - it was all about how somehow if you have good teeth, you are a good person.

So true. It's weird, I can't imagine anyone being foot-shamed at the podiatrist's office, or eye-shamed at the optometrist's. For whatever reason, some old-school types feel that teeth and weight are fair shame-game. It accomplishes nothing. Hopefully this will change in the near future.

For the record, I have been eyebrow-shamed by an esthetician for not plucking regularly. It was so traumatic that I never went back. Come to think of it, wIth the bright lights, pain and sharp tools, it was a lot like the dentist's office.

[pomology]

I have never been shamed at the dentist, but perhaps that is because I still see the pediatric dentist I've seen my entire life (which I suppose will need to change soon now that I'm graduating from college)? The penultimate time I went to the dentist they pretty much told me that my teeth looked really wonderful, but that I really should floss every day. Also, at one point I had some sort of decay. I don't remember the exact details, but they pretty much told me that it wasn't my fault and because of something or another that sort of decay was inevitable and that there was nothing I could have really done. They weren't like "OMG YOU HAVE CAVITIES TAKE BETTER CARE OF YOUR TEETH!"