How essential is it get the best facilities and dentist for my ceramic filling

[cloa513]

Hi, I live in Japan with my wife and child. I am Australian. I went to dentist on recommendation of my wife- I have seen others. This one has CT and an endoscope. The employee 30's dentist (the owner is older and they have quite a few treatment rooms) found that I needed an interdental filling (I later post a scan of the photos that they printed for me which are just OK quality) and it is going to need some exploration. That dentist is going to use his headset magnifier not the endoscope- I think it does 6 times magnification. My wife doesn't like the place as they keep to time and so likely are pushed to not do the best. I could maybe see the best doctor that will cost a lot- we don't have private health insurance. Please advise how important is it I get the best. How long should I search for a dentist?

 

[Busybee]

Not good to rush such work. Can you ask your dentist whether you can pay a little more for a long appointment?

 

[MattKW]

• Don't post low-res scans of photos up here, get digital copies (TIFF or JPG).
  
• I think you mean microscope, not endoscope.
• Interproximal decay is assessed from Xrays, not by exploration. An exploration suggests drilling when going interproximally. There are certain guidelines for considering intervention - this one is used at Sydney Univ where I tutor.
• Keeping to time is not a bad thing in itself. It can demonstrate that they have good time management and have learnt the time required for each procedure. It's not always perfect, but even students are assessed for time management. People time manage their lives and work every day.

 

[cloa513]

And what if your dentist don't give you digital copies? I'll scan to high as quality of the pictures that I was given. The quality of the pictures is same what they showed on their screens.
Sure microscope- I didn't know that usage dental microscopes exist or look like.
No- he definitely said (by translation from Japanese and pictures) exploration- digging out weakened surrounding teeth to complete the gap for filling. As I said they already did a computer assisted tomography. Keeping to time is good when the task is well defined but what if the task is being defined as you do it? Anyway we are probably going to change dentists but I still need consider cost versus benefit.

 

[MattKW]

• If they can put it on their computer monitor, then they have the ability to give digital copies. Do what you can.
• Decay is not diagnosed from CAT scans - that's for larger structures like roots of teeth. Standard dental Xrays, about 30mm x 35mm are used for fine detail of decay and the type of shot is called a bitwewing.
• The task can be defined from the xray. Everyone does it. I plan the treatment into convenient periods of time, typically in increments of 10 minutes. A standard filling will take 30mins from start to finish.

 

[cloa513]

They did a dental X-ray too after examination and before cleaning. That dentist was keeping exactly to time- I started at my time of 4:30 pm. My wife quizzed that dentist with dental medicine level awareness and he wanted that conversation to stop. My wife just did her own research for own situation.

 

[cloa513]

• Don't post low-res scans of photos up here, get digital copies (TIFF or JPG).
  
• I think you mean microscope, not endoscope.
• Interproximal decay is assessed from Xrays, not by exploration. An exploration suggests drilling when going interproximally. There are certain guidelines for considering intervention - this one is used at Sydney Univ where I tutor.
• Keeping to time is not a bad thing in itself. It can demonstrate that they have good time management and have learnt the time required for each procedure. It's not always perfect, but even students are assessed for time management. People time manage their lives and work every day.

Your editor won't let me upload my image- too large. So much for must have high res.

 

[cloa513]

The tooth particularly to filled is labelled C2 in the diagram- second file. And I include a tooth condition assessment as the third file.

 

[MattKW]

No X-rays, no diagnosis; sorry.

 

[cloa513]

Going to new dentist on Tueday- hopefully he will provide X-rays pictures.

 

[cloa513]

Appointment changed to 22nd.

 

[cloa513]

I asked the dentist for a copy of my Xrays. He said yes and then didnt give me them. I took photos. Please confirm I have cavities since my wife couldnt see them.

 

[MattKW]

Can't see anything of a photo of a monitor. Since they are digital images, every Xray software has the ability to export them to a flash drive etc as a JPG or TIFF file. You'll have to ask again.

 

[cloa513]

I saw another dentist- he graduated from the best dental private university- and he said I don't need fillings. I said the full tooth is pre-C1 and the interdental is probably C1 but shallow. Maybe the software has that means but I would be loathe to let an unknown flash drive to connect to my expensive computer system and he doesn't have one for me.

 

[MattKW]

He had a few options:

• Burn it onto a CD for you
• Take your USB and scan it with his antivirus or format it
• Give you one of his old flash drives. I must have about 10 lying around the place.

Anyway, sounds like you're finally satisfied; good luck.