h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I was eating a chicken sandwich when I bit on a bone and felt a pain in one of my back teeth. Later I noticed that the tooth had become really sharp, and I realised that a bit had broken off it. I made an appointment to see the dentist. This morning I went along to the dentist and she told me she'd have to drill and fill. Since it was a wisdom tooth, I had to open my mouth really wide for her to reach it. As a result, I feel as if I've been beaten up - my jaw is aching, I've a headache from the anaesthetic and I haven't eaten much.

Tomorrow will be better.

sleeping tonight

Thanks GB. I went to bed at 10:30 (which is very early for me) and eventually at 2:30 took some Ibuprofen. I then slept soundly until 6:20 when I had to get up.

It's not so bad this morning. I might even chance some food.

Dear Gnoman,

There is nothing as bad as toothache I think.

So sorry the wisdom tooth is beginning to give trouble. I had all four out under a general anaesthetic years and years ago when I lived in Zim. I had a face like a swollen balloon for about a week afterwards, and a bruise that went right down the front of my neck to my sternum. They must have really pulled/cut hard to get all four out had stitches in my jaw as well. Gosh when I think about it, the dentist was butcher. !! Also a friend and an excellent rubgy player. !!

I wonder why we still have wisdom teeth?

Keep well and get better soon.

Cjhristiane
AR80

18/II/2010 8.15 GMT

I agree with Christiane: There is nothing as bad as toothache

Also recovering from dental treatment, ouch! My mouth is full of amalgam fillings I had as a child, I never seemed to be out the dentist waiting room, and being drilled and filled was horrifying. The treatment I have taken my son for is much more gentle than what I suffered. My daughter has also had wisdom teeth extracted, they cut her jaw and also stitched it, I recall how much in pain she was. I have a friend who has never recovered from wisdom tooth treatment (I told her I though her jaw was misaligned, but I'm no medical expert) and two years on she is now having neural (?) treatment as nerves have died in her face

Ouch!

Hope it gets better soon, Gnomon.

Was the bone-in-a-sandwich prepared by you, or is there any chance you could sue someone for it?

The sandwich had a special "Don't sue us" notice on the outside, so there's no hope there. Well, it was worded slightly differently, but that's what it meant.

There has been a huge improvement in tooth care over the last forty years. At least 20 of my 31 teeth are filled. Neither of my children has any fillings whatsoever. The difference, I believe, is fluoride, either in the toothpaste or in the drinking water.

The Dentist showed me an X-ray of the tooth and how the root of it is very close (half a millimetre?) to a nerve. She said that I would probably have neural problems if she were to remove the tooth.

What is the health insurance like for dentistry in Ireland? Here in Germany you practically have to pay everything yourself these days!

My health insurance unfortunately doesn't cover dental care, although it is good for everything else. The government used to pay a certain amount towards dental care, but in the recent budget they got rid of that to save money and to bale Ireland out the economy hole she is in.

That's counterproductive isn't it? How can the working force keep their strength to push the country out of a recession when they've all got toothache?

Unfortunately, that sort of policy applies to most countries these days, certainly here in Germany where the health insurance is run by semi-private companies. They raise the contributions and reduce the cover.

It could be worse. You could be in the States.

Of course, if you were, you might fall victim to the paranoid propaganda of the Right and think that you're better off than those in Germany (or insert any European nation) who have "socialized" medicine (ignorant that private insurers operate there) and surely must wait years before getting some kind of "rationed" treatment.

Sorry, didn't mean to go on a rant here. I'm just very disgusted with health care politics here.

Is there not a single dentist amongst us?

Why do we have wisdomteeth?

They are completely set at the end of our mandible and maxilla.

They are far too far away to help with chewing, or masticating.

They give one a heck of a lot of trouble.i.e. impacted wisdom ; Set at the wrong angle wisdom teeth; infected wisdom teeth; too short maxilla and mandible to fit them in without crowding all the other useful teeth - incisors and molars - 0ut.

One would think that they would have been evolved out of our original Adam and Eve pattern. !!

Busily chomping some marvellous French bitter chocolate. !
CME
AR80

18/II/2010 210 GMT

Wisdom teeth are there so that when you lose your other chewing teeth through tooth decay, you still have something to chew with. If you had no other molars, the wisdom teeth would move forward slightly and not be so close to the back of your mouth.

Since most adults now don't lose their main molars, they don't need the wisdom teeth and they just get in the way.

And evolution is a very slow process. Also, since we have things like dentistry and medicine, having wisdom teeth go bad on us is not typically fatal. Nor does it impede on our ability to reproduce. Therefore there isn't much evolutionary "pressure" to evolve past them.

I think you just proved the existence of God, there, CZ

Um... no.

I sympathise, Gnomon.

I've spent the whole weekend on ibuprofen because of a molar which went off, so to say. Root canal appointment next Monday.

Hi gnoman,

I think that was precisely my point. In these days of quite fantabulous dentistry, every tooth can be saved, repaired, copied, etc. etc. So the value of wisdom teeth seving as "spare" teeth - rather like the spare wheel of a car... is no longer de rigeur.

Anyway, I suppose that someone will catch onto the fact that they are no longer needed, and they will disappeaar.... peutetre. In any case my four were all surgically removed, and the gums repaired by the age of thirty - many moons/decades ago.....

Christiane.
AR80

18/II/2010 16.30

Nowadays dentists prefer to preserve teeth where possible.

Well, eight days have now gone by and the pain in my jaw from the anaesthetic and holding my mouth open have more or less gone away. My teeth are still painfull when I bite, though. I hope that will be gone in the next few days.