fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2585 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2585 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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02.

[Monster High]

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03.

[Bryan Fuller, John Green]

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04.

[Star Trek: The Next Generation]

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05.

[Pretty Little Liars]

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06.

[Breaking Bad]

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07.

[Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey]

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08.

[Reign]

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09.

[Leviathan: the last day of the decade]

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10.

[Sherlock Holmes]

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11.

[Steam]

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 017 secrets from Secret Submission Post #369.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I have awful teeth. I brush three times a day, I floss (okay, not three times a day, but once), I don't drink sodas or eat nothing but sugar or anything. But I haven't had dental insurance for 7 years. I think I have an abscess, and it's been around awhile, say 2-3 years. I have an occasionally painful lump kinda under one ear that's only visible when I drop my jaw like I'm doing a snake impression, and a cold sore that doesn't ever go away, only pops sometimes, in the same spot in the back of my mouth. Anyway, I have root canals on both my top back molars, so I assumed one had gone bad, and went to a dentist recently, who took an x-ray, said "looks okay, we could do a ct-scan to be sure but that'll be another $250, or I could write you a prescription for antibiotics." I'd normally cringe at an antibiotic prescription when he couldn't even be sure there was anything wrong without charging me money I didn't have, because some doctors will prescribe them even when they're not needed. But my suspicious lump really hurt, the area around my ear canal on that side had swollen up and so had my temple. I took the prescription. The swelling went down while I was on them. Now I'm done, I have antibiotic-related digestive ick, and the swelling has been coming back, although it's not so bad. Since I went to a dentist and he said he couldn't see anything that might be causing it (I had cavities, but nothing on those back molars and nothing that awful) should I ask a doctor? (Thanks to Obamacare, I have access to a doctor again at least.)

I'd see the doctor, but really, your best option is to fork out the 250 bucks in case it really is your root canal. Mind you, I have no idea how root canals work, so no idea if they can cause abscesses or not.

AYRT-I'm not a dentist, or I'd know if I had an abscess or what. But a root canal can't cause an abscess in an of itself. A root canal is (any dentists/dental students/hygienists around to correct me if I'm wrong?) where a cavity gets really deep into the pulpy part of a tooth, and past it into the 'roots' where it anchors to the jaw. So the dentist goes in there and gets rid of all the roots and rotten stuff, hence 'root canal.' And then they give you antibiotics for a bit to make sure the infection's all gone, put metal posts in where the roots were, and backfill around the metal with filling-stuff all the way to the top of the tooth. Then they put a cap over the dead tooth, which will turn black and icky, hence the cap. /gross oversimplification from non-dentist.

So an abscess might happen if the root canal wasn't properly done the first time, since an abscess is just an infection. But the reason dental abscesses are so nasty is that since they're in your jaw, they can eventually reach your brain. Brain+infection=bad. Also death. Since the swelling, whatever it is, has been growing and moving back and up from my jaw, I'm worried. And I'd rather go to a doctor before I went back to a dentist, since a doctor visit will likely cost me less than $100, at least for them to say if there's anything they can do/they have any idea what it is/to go back to a dentist. The dentist was charging $250 for a ct-scan, which wouldn't have covered actually doing anything about what he found. $250 is a quarter of a month's pay for me.

nayrt

In that case, go to a doctor. Depending on how your insurance works, your doctor may be able to do a CT scan or take more X-says (not dental ones, but something), if necessary, for less than the dentist would charge.* If you're okay with the possibility of your doctor just telling you to go see a dentist, then it can't hurt and might help.

It makes sense that they wouldn't want to do exploratory dentistry if they didn't have too. I've been in the position of complaining about tooth discomfort only to have nothing show up on the x-ray. As my dentist then put it, "We'd rather not drill into an apparently healthy tooth, so we'll just have to keep an eye on things." Your situation sounds much more dire, though, since I had no swelling or even real pain and I'd never had a filling on the tooth that felt weird.

*Although not necessarily, since dental stuff is often cheaper than other medical stuff.

[ SECRET POST #2585 ]

surprising number of bad teeth up in here

Re: surprising number of bad teeth up in here

Re: surprising number of bad teeth up in here

Re: surprising number of bad teeth up in here