Is my dentist lying to me when they say the only way to fix my cavities is to empty my wallet so they can drill holes in them and put in fillings?
I've read about various methods to cure cavities through vitamin supplements, diet, and special remineralizing toothpaste, but I'm hesitant to go out and buy the stuff as it generally feels like a scam.
I'd like to hear from anyone who has some experience with this kind of thing, am I dodging one scam by walking into another? Should I bite the bullet and get the fillings? Is there actually some way to heal my teeth without the expensive surgery?
http://www.naturalmedicinebox.net/photographic-proof-that-cavities-can-heal-on-their-own/
http://www.naturalmedicinebox.net/be-your-own-dentist-heal-cavities-gum-disease-and-whiten-teeth-with-this-natural-homemade-toothpaste/
You have bacteria growing in holes in your teeth. How the fuck is vitamins, diet, or "remineralizing" going to kill the bacteria? The answer is that it will not, it is a scam.
All those things are great as preventatives. You do them BEFORE you get a cavity so you don't get one in the first place. After you already have the cavity, it's too late. You're pretty much fucked. It's time for a filling
It's just a filling, hurts less than a checkup.
>>8021169
it hurts my wallet a lot more than my teeth
>>8021155
Just brush your teeth regularly, then when the time is right shed your flesh and become a machine, then fight in the machine war to kill all fleshbags.
Uh, i mean, brush your teeth and gargle regularly.
Get the fillings done, then practice a low sugar diet (you can use artificial
sweeteners), and brush with Colgate total after every meal, and floss once a day, and
you should be set and never get a cavity again.
You do not want to get a root canal, and you don't want to lose a tooth. Having a full
set of teeth is a luxury. Take very good care of your teeth.
>>8021209
A common, single filling is one to two hundred fucking dollars out-of-pocket, and if you don't deal with it, it will deteriorate to the point where it WILL (probably) literally hurt your teeth more than your wallet. And by that point it will hurt your wallet more, adding insult to injury. You're essentialy in a position where you need to have preventative maintenance done on a very important tool - a part of your body.
You don't know the meaning of the phrase "financial pain". It is clear that you have never owned or maintained a car for an extended period out of your own pocket, managed student loans, or other larger-scale kikery.
Get your damn teeth filled. This is the science board. That means first and foremost that we go where the science takes us. It secondarily (and consequently) means that we are partial to western medicine over and above voodoo bullshit. Pay your eensy teensy tiny bill that you don't even understand yet how tiny it is, for the privilege of not having your teeth hurt downstream, and be glad about it.
>>8021365
^^
Gonna give the thumbs up here.
Get your teeth cleaned and your cavities filled you fucking basement-dwelling, neck-bearded, soda-drinking animal. Jesus christ..
And fyi: during my last dental visit, I had a lengthy conversation with the primary specialist. He claims that you can inhibit the growth of very small cavities by brushing, flossing regularly, and using fluoride every few days. Your cavities have gone past the critical point. $200 is god damn pocket change. Get your teeth fixed.
>>8021365
My problem is that it's not a single filling and the bill I'm looking at is over a thousand dollars. You're dead on with your assumptions about my life... I'm young and hesitant to jump into the adult world of working hard and bleeding money. Thus began my quest and arrival here on the science board (I originally thought health & fitness was a combined board, but /fit/ really did not seem like the right place for my question). I wanted to get the right answer even if I didn't like it.
For that at least I thank you and the others who've hit me with the sack of bricks.
>>8021209
if you let it go you will likely face an incredible amount of dental pain and then an even larger financial pain. Don't be a fucking idiot get your teeth taken care of.
>>8021383
Yeah.. Didn't want to be mean, but sometimes you have to wake up. In the long-term, even $1000 is nothing. Ideally you'll be making that weekly in the not too distant future, and when you make that money but have a nasty-ass yuck-mouth, you're going to regret not forking over the relatively little amount of money now.
>>8021387
No worries, this is the internet, I figured I'd get some rude responses (I loved reading this post >>8021380 because it's sort of exactly what I expected and even had the closest answer to what I was looking for).
In the end I suppose I can afford the $1000 without getting evicted, but I'm just now making enough money where that would be true, and the idea of saving that much was too tempting.
dentistry is a fucking scam.
On the level of chiropractors to be honest
>>8021422
care to elaborate?
>>8021426
I mean, if your diet is horrible and you get tons of cavities, ya you need a dentist to drill that shit out.
But if you have a reasonable diet and brushing your teeth there really is no reason to go to a dentist.
Question:
I haven't been to the dentist in years. My teeth LOOK fine and I've never experienced any pain or discomfort. Is there still a possibility that there's cavities? Are you supposed to go to the dentist to find out if you have cavities, or only go once your mouth hurts?
>>8021209
That's your fault. Brush your fucking teeth. Don't eat garbage. Stay away from soda.
>>8021450
yes, i dont have pain and the dentist found me a cavity. see the dentist before you have to get a root canal
>>8021428
yeah but no one does that
>>8021155
I have amalgam fillings and gold caps. When I got my first gold cap I could taste "battery" for like 2 weeks. I put my multimeter to the gold cap and random fillings. The best I could measure was 5v. The Amps were so low that it was not registering.
>>8021434
Well one time I was found with a cavity when I didn't have pain... but lo and behold, he shows me in the little mirror a tiny brown hole. It's about $100 a visit where I am, which for one time was worth it I think.
How long until a way to permanently kill the bacteria which causes cavities
or perhaps tooth regeneration ?
>had cavity when I was 6 or 8 or something
>for the past like 4 years tooth with the filling was sensitive to all cold
>dentist told me I'd need a root canal someday eventually as the filling is touching the nerve slightly
>last year tooth starts hurting tremendously suddenly for about a week and a half in december, like it would come and go with fucking balls to the walls pain, no trigger needed
>can't do shit because my college in in the middle of bumfuck nowhere, and the only dentist around doesn't even take insurance (not that I have a car anyway)
>grin and bear it
>it eventually stops hurting
>now it's not even sensitive to cold anymore
What happened here, dentalfags? I went to the dentist for a checkup in March and I sure that if it was dead or something he would have said something.
>>8021243
Depends on the sweetner. Xylitol is the best, but things like citric acid and phosphoric acid are almost if not just as bad as sugar. OP, rinse afterwards with warm water and practice good hygiene. Your dental products shopping should be based on the amount of fluoride in a product in the drug facts, not some meme printed on the box.
I have 8 crowns so far at age 34 and have had somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 fillings in my life. Guessing around $30k in my mouth. Brush your teeth dumbass. Also, floss twice a day.
>>8021383
> a thousand dollars [total]
LOL. If you let it sit and rot all the way down to the roots, you need a root canal at close to a thousand dollars PER TOOTH. And the tooth is permanently weakened since it's basically dead inside.
If you're dead set on saving a few bucks, see if there's a dental school nearby Odds are that it's booked for months but if you can find a slot or cancellation, it might be a bit cheaper.
>>8021569
Yeah your nerve died. You need a root canal. Have the dentist look for a dark area like pic related, it's bone loss from bacteria living inside the nerve channel.
>>8021243
>>8021570
The basics aren't always enough, at least on some people. If you really need to stop cavities dead, use a fluoride rinse. The big name brand is ACT fluoride rinse but there's cheaper generics available.
If you're a poorfag like OP, ignore the label directions. You can get away with just 2-3 times a week with half the recommended amount. Just rinse 2-3 minutes instead of the recommended 30 sec and make sure you get it in between your teeth as much as you can.
>>8021605
Also note that this doesn't stop cavities that have already started. It only keeps new ones from forming.
>>8021578
Not to mention after a decade or two, those root canals will need crowns.
That's like, another 2000 per tooth.
Just gargle with bleach. That should solve the bacteria issue.
>>8021434
Didn't go for 6 years, no bleeding gums or obvious signs, except for light dull pain in one of my molars.
Turns out I have 3, 250 a pop without insurance
>>8021209
sucks to be murrican
go to mexico or something, they charge much less there
>>8021155
If i say Im dentist you will call bullshit.
I will post proof and you will still call bullshit.
If I tell you what to do you wont do it.
Fuck you and your teeth.
>>8021383
No joke, but if you live in america, have you thought about... idk, travelling outside the country? Tijuana has US trained dentists bro and they'll charge you half. It's an option. I got an implant done in Cancun, paid way lesss than I would have in america and everything went well. Got a vacation with it kek.
>>8021728
and you did brush?
>>8021383
If it's thousand dollars now, it will be literally at least 5-10 times more in the future.
>>8021428
>>8021434
>if you have a reasonable diet and brushing your teeth there really is no reason to go to a dentist.
Don't skip the checkups, dummy. Even if that prevented cavities 100% of times, there are other things than can go wrong with your teeth.
>>8021550
should've tried to power a calculator with it.
>>8021751
>they charge much less there
Yeah, but in this specific example you get what you pay for.
>>8021933
are you implying shit jobs don't happen in the US?
What makes you think those dentists want to tarnish their reputation with whitey by butchering his mouth?
>>8021844
>Dental tourism
Expect pain in a few years and a very costly repair operation.
Dental tourism is, from a financial point of view, a great new source of income that has appeared to western dentists in the last 20 years. But how?
As a dentist, the quality of work I've seen from these "dental holidays" has been absolutely atrocious. Many times multiple teeth have been lost due to untreatable infections and secondary bone loss. These fixes cost anywhere from 5000 to 50 000 depending on the severity and almost always involve surgery.
My advice to everyone is to take care of your teeth at home and pay the relatively small fees associated with quality treatment. Avoid dental tourism. You may call me a shill, but telling you this makes me lose money for not having to charge you 10x times for repairing the damage caused by your own bad decisions and dental toursim. I would never want anybody to undergo some of the things I've seen. This same discussion was in /int/ a few days ago.
t. european dentalfag
>>8021953
>Expect pain in a few years and a very costly repair operation.
Eh, I'm pretty optimistic.
You gotta make proper research before you go on medical tourism la'. Saw lots of brits when I was there and americans too. The place has fantastic reputation and the patients seem to go back yearly. I'll make a thread 5 years from now to update /sci/ on medical tourism.
>>8021953
Been to several US dentist and while I haven't needed surgery one of my amalgam fillings was botched. It wouldn't permit floss of any type between two of my molars without excessive force. Now that I've had it fixed the dentist failed to patch the cavity on the side of my molar despite me telling him and receiving a positive response in return, in addition to all imaging.
>>8021155
Your dentist is telling you the truth. If you do not let him fix this, they will start to decay further, eventually leading to the top rotting off and exposing the inner part of the teeth, which hurts like a motherfucker. They will then need to be removed and replaced by fake teeth.
Do not be an idiot with this, you will need your teeth the rest of your life still! Give them the care they need or you _will_ regret it.
>>8021155
I use cinnamon and eat kale to prevent cavities. If you don't want cavities you need vitamin A, calcium, boron, and a diet that will attack cariogenic bacteria(lots of alkaline food and again more cinnamon)
>>8021984
>Saw lots of brits when I was there and americans too.
Yeah, people who have no fucking idea whatsoever about what is going to happen to them.
>I'm pretty optimistic.
I'm not. See you in 5 years. Prepare your credit card.
>>8021953
I'm not doubting that this is true but
There may be some bias in your observation, in that you see exclusively the botched dental work, and are unaware of the successful dental tourism that don't need additional repair.
>>8022020
You know excessive amounts of cinnamon can be bad for your liver. It has a small concentration of some toxin, google it
>>8021209
You've never had root canals, have you, OP?`Now that's the real moneyhole.
They've been working on regeneration for decades, but still nothing.
I don't care if I grow teeth cancers all over my face, i'll volunteer for testing.
From this thread I can conclude that medicine is a shit field. Glorified technicians who cannot fix one itty bitty problem and keep talking about prevention but cannot prevent ageing and the inevitable. I dread going to the medic not because he has no cure, in most cases, but because he will admit it and still charge me for it.
>>8022102
Medicine is a shit field, and should be automated by now.
The only reason we don't have instant pathological testing, aenesthesia and online diagnositics is because muh 7 figure salary and burgerfat corruption.
Robotic surgeons when?
>tfw while being polish I can only afford some laptop with i3 and integrated gpu but when I had to deal with root canal it costed me roughly $60
>>8022110
Feels like it will be sooner than other fields simply due to their exuberant fees.
I reckon that diagnostics is already well understood and probably one of the first fields Google Deepmind will engage in.
One of my molars is infected, moreover it is broken from the expansion of the filling.
I had a fistula but it almost disappeared.
The tooth is rocking slightly but I don't want to remove it.
As the price of an implant is roughly the same as braces, I am considering getting braces and removing the infected tooth to bring the last molars in its place.
(I know it is dangerous to keep an infected tooth but I have no choice, if I remove it rigt now, the bone will shrink making things harder)
What do you teeth butchers think ??
>>8022141
I know it sucks to remove it, but implants suck even more. If it's your front teeth and it's for cosmetic reasons, then ok, suffer for your beauty. But if it's for comfort, you're making the wrong choice.
Also if your third molar hasn't grow in yet it will probably replace it without the need for bracers. It worked that way for me, there isn't even a gap anymore.
Dentists are just trying to scam you for your money. Go to dentists for teeth whitening, but don't give them any more money unless your teeth are literally falling out. I've had two experiences with them trying to suck my money from my wallet in my life.
>be 13
>dentist notices that my upper teeth are misaligned with my bottom teeth
>he tells my parents that they need to pay a fuckton of money for special treatment otherwise my canine teeth will pierce my skin and I'll look ugly as fuck by the time I'm 18
>parents decided not to do anything
>I'm in my 20's now and nothing happened, and my face looks fucking sexy
>be 19 or 20
>dentist says that I have cavities
>says I need fillings
>I say that I'll call later and make an appointment to get fillings or whatever
>never call them
>I just drink more water and brush my teeth more
>a year later I went for a checkup and I no longer have cavities
>>8021953
>t. european dentalfag
where in yurop
>>8022155
It's not really a scam, but they definitely are scammers.
The history of dentistry is fucked up, they've managed to keep it out of healthcare as a separate service a century later.
>>8021605
>Using fluorides
completely fucking retarded
That shit is more toxic than lead
And you want people to wash their mouths with it?
>>8022056
That's a flawed way of looking at things in the medical field.
Indian surgeons only kill 30% of the patients they operate on. 70% lived. That means they must be quite good with that gigantic success rate!
>>8022141
What do I think? GO to a fucking dentist. Not everything is a conspiracy
>>8021953
Anecdotal shit that is popular on /pol/ and a site that cannot be mentioned needs to go.
>>8021155
>People itt rather live with pain
Why? Can't you arrange payments? What backwards country do you live in?
>>8022290
what surgery are they performing ?
>>8021422
I take it you never went to the vet.
My front guns are receding since I brush like a mother fucker.
Anything I can do to reverse this?
>>8022463
Don't brush like a mother fucker.
>>8022466
Yes that will prevent but can I grow them back somehow?
>>8022172
You eat Sodium all the time and that produces a highly exothermic reaction in contact with water and is generally unstable, and toxic if consumed in large doses. Same goes for Chlorides. You're not dead though.
>>8022572
Eventually it will
>>8022670
So best to eat highly toxic substances that fuck up your brain & certain organs, and bio accumulates... because??
>>8022679
It will seal your third eye pineal soul self so that the jew can enslave you without resistance.
>>8021155
>tfw most dentists are jewish
what do you think idiot? I haven't been to a dentist in 10 years. No fillings.
>>8021387
>$1000 is nothing. Ideally you'll be making that weekly in the not too distant future
what kind of living standard do you guys have holy shit
if i ever get to make that kind of money i would retire after 3-5 years
>>8021555
Never, Your body is dependent on diff bacteria to work properly and most bacteria inhibitors aren't selective for speciif microbes. Just types of microbes (gm -/+)
>>8021761
I love you
>born with congenital malformation
>missing lateral incisors
>missing molars
>missing lower canines
I still have milk teeth.
Am I fucked?
This has caused me insecurity problems since I can remember and I never smile anymore.
>>8022807
move to Japan
They love teeth like that
>>8022818
But he will forever be gaijin
Not worth
>>8022834
seriously though
its considered cute there
>>8022877
>expectation
wooooooow kawaii teehee you want fuck me?
>reality
baka gaijin white piggu go home
>>8021555
Tooth regeneration has been done in mice. Just give them a bit of hormone therapy, and BAM, new set of teeth.
>>8021605
>The basics aren't always enough,
Colgate total has triclosan, a germ killer, and tons of flouride.
If you brush after every meal, a fluoride rinse is unnecessary.
alcohol based mouthwashes are acidic, so I don't think they should be used.
>>8021155
>live in Germany
>free Healthcare
>government has too much money still, blows billions on refugees
sucks to be 'murrican
>>8021383
>$1000
Where the fuck do you live boy? I had a cavity that ran me all together $135 at a really nice place.
>>8023608
is dental care free in germany?
Go to the store and buy teeth whitener with strong bleach in it. Use it on your back teeth being careful not to swallow.
>>8021155
You cannot fix a literal hole in your tooth with "supplements" and special miracle toothpaste. Your "proof cavities can heal" website is a very disreputable source. Almost anything with the word "natural" in the title is.
>>8023608
>>free Healthcare
It's not free, you pay for it with your taxes.
>>8023616
You have absolutely zero reading comprehension. Get off this board.
I'm not the OP but assuming that post is the OP (reasonable), it (he) clearly stated in the very first clause that he has MULTIPLE CAVITIES. You literally had to skip over and ignore THE FIRST FUCKING PHRASE OF WHAT THAT GUY WROTE to zero in on the thousand bucks and then type out 'huh derp but I only hadda one cavity that shouldn't be expensive!!?" While you had a SINGLE CAVITY that falls perfectly in the $1-200 range that I correctly gave early in this thread because I understand what I'm talking about
Now I can understand OP's financial pain a bit more, but he still has to have this work done. Teeth don't heal, and when you multiply 1 by n, the answer is n. Kill yourself my man.
How about we somethimes bleed a bit inside our mouth and keep it for like few minutes? since the blood has white blood cells in it, they will fight the bacteria
Getting an infection from the opening might be a problem, but may be we can culture the blood in a lab or smth, is this a worthwhile idea?
>>8023801
it's like 10 bucks a month
>>8024636
>is this a worthwhile idea
no
>>8024656
thanks for your insightful and scientific opinion
>>8024715
>say dumb shit with no knowledge or effort
>get no effort reply
>act sarcastic
kill yourself
>>8024715
hey at least I refrained from calling you a moron. I'm a doctor yet I've very rarely heard something as stupid as you just said. FYI blood is used in petri dishes to grow bacteria.
>>8021155
Why am I attracted by these cavities?
>>8021434
Always get a second opinion before doing any dental work. They will lie out of their ass for extra money.
>>8024636
>hurting himself to regenerate his teeth by bleeding
Why not just bite the other people?
>>8021155
They're not lying to you about cavities, but there are instances where shady dentists will drill more than they need to or set you up to needing a repeat visit down the road -- just exercise judgement and don't go to a shit dentist.
Bacteria colonize in hard-to-reach areas of your teeth and metabolize sugar into acidic byproducts that erode your enamel, and once the layer is compromised, the acid breaks down the calcium carbonate of your teeth. The reason why cavities get worse even after you brush and kill most of the bacteria in the area momentarily is that the enamel is compromised, and the eroded surface is porous and conducive to bacterial growth. Drilling it out and filling it returns the area to a uniform state. It's really the only method right now. Perhaps there will be something better in the future though.
>>8025049
they only drill out and fill the center root
killing the tooth
Bateria still grows
Causes a lot of systemic problems in your body
>>8025183
What? They only do that with root channels (removing the nerves, basically killing the tooth)
Normal drilling of cavities isn't the same at all.
>>8025188
oh well whatever
I don't go to the dentist
>>8025203
and I hope you never have to my friend, tooth ache is one of the worst pains.
>>8021164
/thread
