Find me a dentist! Dentists?

Thanks for the reassuring advice!

Yep, Don't stress over something you can't change. One of my kids permanent incisors came down and the other didn't come for another year! Rule of thumb is to think about investigating if something isn't there after 2 years (ignoring baby incisors) .

My dentist (who I've been seeing since I started in London in 2014) is encouraging me to get invisaline as a 'preventative' measure against me damaging my teeth with my massive overbite, rather than cosmetic, even so it wouldn't be covered by my dental insurance and it costs a wad.

Am i better off trying to book a consult with an actual orthodontist and seeing what they say?

Has anyone had a dental implant? Can you share your experience?

My root canal treated tooth seems to be failing. I have a choice to either have it retreated or have a implant and I am not sure what to do.

I can afford to have a implant so money isn’t really a concern here as such... but still a big ouch! BUT I am not sure about it as it seems an unnecessarily lengthy and painful procedure if a re root canal can sort me out for another 10-12 years?

I’ve had both, and my dentist always explained the options and differences for me to decide.

My medical/dental insurance covered Invisalign because the size of my overbite made it a medical rather than aesthetic procedure. The dentist then fucked up the invoicing so I only got £800 of the £2,500 paid for, but if your dentist knows what they’re doing that should be ok. I have two aligners left, and there has been a big change.

Well, I asked and they told me it’s my choice so I am booked in with an implant consult that will cost me £150... this is the bit that surprises me. Maybe I’ll give them a ring...

Dentist suggested I buy an Oxyjet

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Oral-B-Oxyjet-Cleaning-System-Irrigator/dp/B01BHS0R2O?th=1

There's some shoddy reviews though. Anyone use this kind of tooth pressure washer shit have an opinion about usefulness and and/or which pressure washer to buy?

I have one that cost £14.99 from Aldi. I have to be honest, its amazing. Great for clearing out your teeth before brushing. Without going into detail I have bad wisdom teeth that are challenging to keep clean. I'm convinced that its kept me from needing serious work etc on my wisdom teeth which are simply impossible to clear with old school floss and interdental brushes (which often made the teeth bleed from the physical poking).

Can't comment on the top end Oral B one, but its just a rechargeable handheld jet squirter thing, there's nothing to it really. Could always try a cheap one to start and see if the concept works for you.

I've never flossed and my wisdom teeth need to come out because they're impacted with the molars in front of them (one of which is the total cunt that I just got rooted canal done on - probably similar to yours I guess, where they trap food).

I'll see if I can find the ALDI one. The dentist mentioned the Oral B one because he said he'd had it 10 years and it was still going, which was about as good a review as you can get for this kind of gadget.

Hmm, no luck looking on the ALDI website. Does your sprayer have a model name?

I had one (I can't remember what make/model but it was something reasonable). It didn't seem to work that well compared to floss but that's possibly because I didn't know what I was doing with it.

It used to get scaled up too which was a faff.

I think they're pretty popular in Asia.

Ah, it's actually a Lidl Nevadent Water Jet Flosser. I bought it about a year ago, so dont know if its still there..

I got one from Fairywill a couple of years ago and don't think I paid more than £30. You can get them on eBay - they were removed from Amazon for trying to game the review algorithm or something, but I bought it on the recommendation of a site that does independent reviews of electric toothbrushes etc. and they said they still recommend it as a budget option.
I really hate flossing and I have teeth that are very crowded in parts of my mouth so it's much easier for me to just use that - I would leave it on the lower pressure setting to try out if you get one though because higher pressures can feel pretty aggressive. You won't be able to use it for some time after wisdom tooth extraction though in case it blasts out the clot, but maybe once it's more healed it can be useful for rinsing out stuff that gets trapped in the gum divot.

Recommendations for cosmetic dentist work?

I had a major bike smash 7-8 years back which involved a week in UCH’s ICU followed by a few years of dental surgery. It got to the point where everything is healthy, but the work was done at different times and at Eastman who value clinical excellence over aesthetics.

I want to go round again to make it all look better. Really it’s just replacing a crown, an implant crown, possibly a new crown to replace a composite build-up and a bridge.

It’s not something I want to do twice, so looking for someone I can trust.

Was the original implant and crown / bridge done on the NHS as part of the trauma rehab?

Yes. It’s all good work, but done at different times so doesn’t quite match up.

Any chance of being referred back to the NHS hospital that did the implant stuff?

Nope, it’s purely aesthetic now so NHS not interested. It was all done at Eastmans, and even at the time it was a struggle to get them to balance aesthetics with their view of what’s clinically best.

And tbh - even if they would do the work, I don’t think I’d want them to. I’m not sure the result would be any better than I have now.

Id rather pay the money and have someone that’s focused on the aesthetic outcome, not just the medical result.

Ah, see your point. given the damage it might be pragmatic to swap to a full implant reconstruction and eliminate the risk of heavily restored natural teeth / roots failing. And then having to go back with more Dentistry.

Implant practice rather than a "smile makeover" practice?

I think the underlying stuff is all good. That was one of my differences with Eastman - my preference was to stick four implants in and be done with it, whereas they were insistent that the clinically best approach was to keep two of the teeth - which always gives an option of implants at a later date as a fallback

All clinicians have their opinions whenever this scenario crops up. Ours is generally.... do the surgery once, do all the implants you will need and don't go back to take out teeth and replace with another implant.

Yep. The Eastman view (iirc) was thats it better to root canal and cap teeth as implants have a finite lifespan. If you can get 10-15 years out of the root canal, and after that go to an implant (which gives you another 10-15 years) then you're sorted for a while.

There were a few of these "clinically best" vs "quickest and best aesthetic outcome" decisions

Implants if they osseointegrate and are looked after well have a life in excess of 40 years. Many of the ones I restored 20 plus years ago are still going strong. As ever it's all down to opinion and circumstances.