Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Dental Care And Drawing Your Own Teeth

By Owen Jones


You would doubtless be very surprised at how many people actually try to pull their own teeth. It sounds disgusting and very painful, but it is still true and there can be many reasons why people do it. We all know how distressing toothache is and how it always seems worse at night stopping the sufferer from getting a good night's sleep.

If the tooth is just loose, there should not be too much of a problem, but if you do not know what you are doing, you could worsen the matter. Especially if there is an abscess.

Dentistry has become very refined over the last 100 years, but before that barbers and dentists shared the same occupation. Anaesthetics were hard to come by, so most adults just got intoxicated and pulled their own teeth or had someone else do it for them.

People used to use pliers or other carpenters' tools. Toothache was widespread and it resulted in a lot of suffering. Nowadays, modern anaesthetics and modern practices make pulling teeth or even repairing them almost painless.

However, there are still situations when you may want or even have to remove teeth at home. Baby or milk teeth often work loose and fall out without any problems. When I was a child in the UK in the Fifties, it was not uncommon for parents to remove children's teeth, even though dentists were free for children.

I know of parents giving their children toffee to eat, hoping that the tooth would stick in the toffee and come out and I have had a tooth tied to an open door and the door thrown shut, pulling the tooth out rapidly.

Other situations that may make you want to remove your own teeth is if you live or are holidaying in the wild or in a country where you do not trust the dentists. In some countries, any dentistry work is very expensive, in other countries straight-forward extractions are free or at a set, small fee.

There are other circumstances when you should never try to draw your own teeth. One of these is if you have gum disease or an abscess. These circumstances can have very serious results for your gums and jaw bones, so you ought to seek appropriate medical or dental help immediately.

There are other dangers to drawing your own teeth too. If you snap off a tooth, you will be in more pain than before and you will still have to go to a dentist to have the bottom half dug out of your gum. If you do not sterilize your pliers or and other instruments you run the serious risk of infection too.

The bottom line is that it best not to attempt to draw your own teeth if you can possibly avoid it for the reasons given above. Another problem for many though is cost, particularly in the United States where dental costs seem to be out of control. With the deepening depression and increasing unemployment, there is a danger that some people will go back to drawing their own teeth again, setting dental care standards back a hundred years.




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