For the brits: 'English Teeth'

[DeeperShade]

Having just watched BBC's Question Time, they had a section on the problems facing the british dental service. Are the dentists greedy or is the NHS too stubborn to offer a decent package for them?

I'm just curious. How many of you brits are current with a dentist?

A few Info links on the subject:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cumbria/4424192.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/north_yorkshire/4422910.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cumbria/4420464.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/north_yorkshire/4417644.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4392528.stm

[Otej]

all the english having bad teeth is as false a stereotype as all irish people being stupid, though saying that i don't have great teeth...

[tool]

I have good teeth :B

[Twisted Metal]

If you consider buck teeth to be good. ;)

Jk, happy birthday. :D

tool, are you joking about not seeing a dentist in your whole life?

[G-Lite]

I'm not british, but my mother was assistent dentist, so she makes sure I keep my teeth white. :p

[togmkn]

Speaking of the British "bad teeth" stereotype, has anyone seen that Saturday Night Live skit with Mike Meyers?

Let me rephrase that -- has anyone not seen that Saturday Night Live skit with Mike Meyers?

[GotBeer?]

Speaking of the British "bad teeth" stereotype, has anyone seen that Saturday Night Live skit with Mike Meyers?

Let me rephrase that -- has anyone not seen that Saturday Night Live skit with Mike Meyers?I haven't, but I have seen Austin Powers.

And the Irish aren't stupid, they're drunks. ;)

[tool]

If you consider buck teeth to be good. ;)

Jk, happy birthday. :D

tool, are you joking about not seeing a dentist in your whole life?

I saw the dentist about 6 months ago, so its about time to get in an appoitment again. :B

[TossMonkey]

My teeth are pretty horrid, I hate my dentist too since he's never once said "you know we can fix those teeth blah blah" all he does is charge me for going in and him scraping my teeth with his butchers tools every now and then and saying random numbers to his stupid ass harlet assistant.

Did I mention I hate my dentist?

[Bean316]

I have absolutely great teeth, and people tell me all the time. Strangers even (it's true, I swear it). The funny thing about that is when I was a little kid, I had horrid teeth. I didn't care for them, and my mouth was too small, so all my teeth were bunched up. But I finally got to an orthodontist when my dad got a new jarb, and that guy just totally fixed me up. I had to wear braces for like...nearly 3 years, but he did a brilliant job. Not just that...he showed me those scary ass pictures of what happens if I don't take care of my teeth, and he scared me straight. My entire mouth was in such top-notch shape after his work, when I went to get my wisdom teeth pulled, I was fully recovered later that day! Anyone who has had their wisdom teeth pulled knows it usually takes a few days to a week to recover, and I was fine that day!

[Freon]

I haven't seen a dentist in... uh... 10 years... maybe more. In fact I don't remember when the last time was.

It's not that I have great teeth, most of them are misaligned, my wisdom teeth are starting to come out (I'm 24 years old, doe that mean I'm not a very wise guy? :p), and one of them is sticking out. I probably have got a few holes down there but no caries per se. I don't eat much sweet stuff.

Luckily for me, it doesn't show.

[Zundy]

Hey I've got great teeth, not perfect but hey, we can't all have our teeth bleached :D (JK)

[Valium]

There is something very disturbing when you see an over-tanned woman grinning with whiter than white teeth :/. Having teeth that are whiter than your eyeball whites is also quite disturbing.

[B]

When I was 10 years old I was tackeled, fell on my face and broke both of my front teeth. Since then I got 2 crowns.
To keep the crowns in place they have a small metal pin going into the root of the teeth. Unfortunately one of the roots has an infection, probably caused by the remains of the nerve which they forgot to remove/clean when I got the crowns. :(
As a result the bone tissue of my jaw has become softer (infections dissolve bone tissue) Now the bone is so soft that it can't support the tooth/crown anymore. I never noticed it untill the dentist pointed it out on X-rays. If I don't fix it now, eventually the tooth will fall out.

Thursday the dentist will pull out the tooth/root and he will screw a titanium pin in it's place into my jaw. In a worst case scenario the bone tissue is damaged so far that the dentist needs to cut a piece of bone from somewhere else in my jaw to rebuild the dissolved tissue.
Once the wounds are healed (est. 2-3 months) the dentist will put a new crown on the pin. For the 2-3 months in between I get a plate with 1 fake tooth. Even the thought of having this done to me makes me wanna cry... I hate dentists and even worse, I hate those damn injection needles... :( :( :( :(

Anyone who has had their wisdom teeth pulled knows it usually takes a few days to a week to recover, and I was fine that day!

Most of the horror stories come from people who aren't anaesthetized properly. I've had 2 wisdom teeth pulled without any problems at all.

Another fun treatment is the cleaning of root channels. Again if the anesthesia isn't done carefully it can be hell.

[Rukee]

something similar happened to me. I busted off half a tooth up front as a kid and they put on a cap with a pin and they didn`t get all the root out and started causeing problems. So, 15 years later I had procedure done is a root canal only from the opposite direction, open up the jaw and do it from the root end down. It wasn`t pleasant. :(

[B]

They allready did something like that to me, it's called an Apex. They cut of the top part of the root to prevent the infection...Appearantly it didn't work. :(

[Valium]

*Sniggers*
Watching UK daytime tv speaks for itself i'm afraid, the *type* of people that go on those shows usually have NO teeth at all, or at least very scary teeth..

It's usually the 'not very nice girls' who thought that they didn't want to wear a brace whilst at school becuase it wouldn't look good or they might get laughed at.

[_Zd_Phoenix_]

my teeth are far more of an ivory yellowy colour than white, and since it's down to being given lots of anti-biotics as a baby, the only thing i could really do to make em whiter is get em bleached, and im not sure i can be bothered. Other than that though they're not bad, i've got a slight overbite on one tooth but it's not that noticable.

I never really go to the dentist, i went a couple of months back and that was the first time in years, and he seemed to think that they were fine, which seems just wrong to me since I drink a load of coke.

[DeeperShade]

Me personally, I haven't got bad teeth to look at, it's just I haven't got that many left.
Fights, drugs and general apathy have left me having to wear a plate. I'm now quite paranoid about having more surgery (i've got a root canal coming up), so you could say I learnt my lesson, I just hope I haven't learnt it too late.

Oh and Phoe, Damn you man Damn you! I've just had to use adblock on your sig and avatar. Tell me when you stop using madonna in there and i'll unblock them :)

[_Zd_Phoenix_]

Oh and Phoe, Damn you man Damn you! I've just had to use adblock on your sig and avatar. Tell me when you stop using madonna in there and i'll unblock them :)

ha! Don't start on my sig and avatar choices, look at you! With you're dodgy ringlets...you know blue circles killed my parents! :mad:

[BobCobb]

And madonna raped my dog you sick twisted bastard Phoenix!

[_Zd_Phoenix_]

just because it wasn't you raping the dog this time you get tetchy. pff.

[Valium]

this came from braceface.com

http://www.braceface.com/orthoimages/dthumb3.jpg

Aaaarrrghhhhhh....

[Zxanphorian]

I have good teeth :B

I see! :B

[B]

And madonna raped my dog you sick twisted bastard Phoenix!

Yes and?! I'm sure your dog liked it.

[GotBeer?]

I skipped the dentist from age 23 to 32, and didn't have any cavities show up during that time (and I don't floss). I lucked out with parents with good teeth, but crappy vision/skin, so at least I didn't have braces to go with the bottlecap glasses and acne. Anyway, I stopped going after my wisdom teeth were surgically removed (none had broken the skin, but 3 were pushing forward on my other teeth, and the other was poking at my sinus cavity, giving me tremendous headaches). IV sedation so I felt nothing during, but the next couple of days I ached like a mother! And the swelling, whoa!