[ot] dental fillings

When I was studying Radio & TV Servicing in the early 60s we had one chap in the class who worked for a company who made or supplied x-ray machines.

He explained that they used TV cameras which needed a much lower dosage than film. This must have been very much leading edge at the time and I would imagine that permanent storage would have been a major problem then.

No problem today, of course, and the TV techniques and sensitivity must have been considerably enhanced over the past half century ...

Reply to
Terry Casey
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Its usually about now someone posts:

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Reply to
John Rumm

And then someone points out that experience with radio-active iodine (for thyroid ablation) has suggested smaller doses can (sometimes, in some conditions, with some forms of radiation) be more dangerous than larger doses.

Reply to
polygonum

They are benefitting from flouride in the water.

Reply to
Peter Johnson

Maybe the ones who suffer from Coeliac disease wouldn't benefit from that... :-)

But sure that would only make sense if the amount of fluoride in the water has changed between Andy and his kids? (Whether by changes to the water supply or change in location.)

Map of fluoride levels - including fluoridated areas - here:

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Reply to
polygonum

Very old tech. Mine captures the images on a computer, which he can then put up on a ceiling mounted monitor for me to see.

Colin Bignell

Reply to
Nightjar

But not as frequenty as every two years.

MBQ

Reply to
Man at B&Q

+1

MBQ

Reply to
Man at B&Q

That sounds a little infrequent to me. Perhaps it depends upon which sort of X-ray machine they have or perhaps whether it is the NHS, you or an insurer who is paying.

Colin Bignell

Reply to
Nightjar

Maybe Fluoride toothpaste had an effect. My children used Fluoride toothpaste and had no fillings but I see from the map that I lived in a Fluoridated area too, so who knows?

Another Dave

Reply to
Another Dave

Or giving children fluoride drops, or better toothbrushes, or ...

I agree it is a possibility but had hoped to tease out whether Andy's report of better teeth coincided with water fluoridation, as suggested. Or not.

Reply to
polygonum

Not. Could be, as you say the toothpaste; but where I was brought up and where we are now are both marked as under 0.49.

Andy

Reply to
Andy Champ

Not routine here but ...

60's for me but also have a pretty poor set of gnashers. Maybe dentist is working on the basis that there is so little actual tooth left in many places there isn't much point. Fillings that fail can just be replaced, to a limit, just had a crown put on one that fell apart.

I also suspect that the introduction of floride in water and/or tooth pastes is a factor. How many sub 40 (ish) year olds do you know that have a mouth full of fillings? How many over 40 (ish)'s?

No, back in the fifties and sixties it was pretty basic. Drill and fill was about all they had. No fissure sealing, lower understanding in the general public of oral health etc, all contributary factors to gaining a mouthfull of mercury amalgum.

I hate the dentist basically because of the trauma as a kid. I do go and drag the kids in (no fillings for either of them, 16 and 13. SWMBO'd almost has to be dragged, kicking and screaming, into the dental surgery, Check ups what are they? Something has to fail before she goes along ...

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

Mine does it a lot less - I've had two panoramic ones in 20 years, plus an individual tooth xray when there was a specific problem. He will do it more often if I wanted, but said he didn't need it, given my teeth are what he describes as quite stable now, although I didn't take good care of them 30+ years ago so they far from fault-free. And it's not a cost thing, as I'm a private patient. I suspect he adjusts xray frequency based on rate of invisible decay he's seeing, and I've been with him for ages with regular check-ups and occasional work needs doing, so he knows my teeth well by now. In the earlier days he did some experimental work on me that saved a tooth which would normally have been extracted, until some 15 years later when technology advanced and a proper repair could be done with the remaining tooth. I talked with him about it more recently, and he said he had about 500 patients where he'd saved a tooth this way, which would normally have been extracted at the time.

I've moved miles away, but still go back to the same dentist, and actually I dread that he might retire soon and I'll have to find another good one.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

That's what I have done too.

The plastic (a resin/quartz mixture) does bond to the teeth, but that bond is more susceptable to attack than the boarder around mercury amalgam fillings, so they don't work as well in people still suffering a high rate of decay, but should last longer if decay has been eliminated (and if necessary can be repeated more often because as you say, less tooth has to be drilled out).

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

Another factor is that according to a dentist I once had you can't see anything much useful on X-rays of teeth heavily restored with amalgam, 'cos the X-rays don't penetrate it, although presumably periapical abscesses can be seen.

My parents generation used to decline conservative dental treatment because it was an on-going cost, extractions being the order of the day, which is a pity 'cos when teeth are extracted neighbouring teeth are extruded into the gap, in fact gaps open up throughout the dental arch leading to food getting trapped and rotting away between the teeth and acting as foci of infection.

Poor local aneasthesia caused by the dentist rushing to get treatment finished did a lot to discourage treatment involving a lot of cutting cavities with power driven instruments.

Reply to
DerekG

Mine uses the X-rays periodically to check if my large amalgam fillings are leaking, which he is able to see.

The slow grinding drills were pretty unpleasant. I can also still smell the mask used to put us under for extractions - one of which apparently left me out for rather longer than expected. Who knows what might have happened. That particular dentist retired early - it was either early onset Alzheimer's, or he had been at his drugs cabinet.

OTOH, crowded teeth cause distortion, and gaps too tight to floss. Ideally I should have lost one tooth in each quadrant.

There was certainly a time when, amongst a certain demographic, it was a coming of age to have all your teeth removed.

My dad told tales of his parent's time when extractions would be done at a travelling fair, with the band playing to drown out the sound!

Chris

Reply to
Chris J Dixon

Good point, the few times I have had an x-ray most of the exposed parts of my molars are just white blobs.

My experience of abscesses is that you don't half know about it... though I guess that may not always be the case. I did have a cyst form at the tip of one root after a crown post was fitted. That must have been there for years until an x-ray showed it. Had it removed (size of a pea) and a few weeks later that tooth was much firmer in the jaw...

Tight gaps trap food as well, pea or sweetcorn skins or other tough but slim fibrous material. A larger gap wouldn't and would allow brush bristles through...

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

My grandfather apparently got fed up with his teeth and told the dentist to take them all out, probably in his fifties or sixties. He thought dentures would be so much easier.

Of course, they never were comfortable, and each time he got a new set, he spent hours in the garage with the bench grinder reshaping them. Eventually he would go back to the dentist and say "they don't fit", to which the dentist would take one look and say "I never made those!".

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

but, depending where they are, they allow opposing teeth to force food into the gum line, and that's a major cause of lost teeth.

Ideally, you want a gap which is a slightly tight fit for floss.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

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