Greetings!
I have been extensively searching online for information on my lifelong dental problem and what happened that was the first sign that something was not right. I have not been very successful, so I thought that it might be of interest to dentists and if one has an idea how my continual problem can be helped then that's a bonus!
As a child I had two sets of upper teeth. I know what you are thinking, but my adult teeth did not grow behind my baby teeth as is relatively common, they grew out the front of my gums. It was not just one or two such as the canines, it was all my front upper teeth. The first I noticed something felt strange was indeed above the canines, but then as the teeth broke through there the same was happening above my two front teeth. It was a very rapid process and none of the baby teeth were even vaguely loose. The dentist decided that at least eight baby teeth would have to be removed. I can't remember exactly how many she ended up removing, it was in the days of gas and air knocking you out on the dentist's chair, but I do remember my teeth the day of the appointment, I quite liked my scary two rows of teeth!
Then of course there was the horrible braces plate thing. I don't remember how my teeth looked straight after the removal of the baby teeth, but my parents say I had a gap between my front two teeth the size of a tooth. The strange thing is, their memories aren't great, but they seem to think that gap was always there inbetween my baby teeth. I always smiled with my mouth closed, so old pictures don't help. Which in itself leads me to think maybe they are right, why would I never smile showing my teeth unless there had always been something that didn't look right?
Anyway, my adult teeth ended up being very strange. My front two teeth were the worst. The angles of them were such that when I bit into an apple, they made the shape \/. Not quite those angles, but not far off. The rest were nowhere near normal either.
Every time I brushed my teeth my gums would bleed from inbetween my teeth. This is where we get to the lifelong problem. When I say the gum inbetween my teeth, I mean literally. My teeth are squashed so tightly to each other, I have never been able to floss. They really press on each other. However, at the very top where they meet the gums, there is a small gap between them. That's where my gums always bled when brushing.
These gaps between them at the gums, combined with overlapping due to their angles and the tightness to each other, have led to constant tooth decay. My teeth don't get normal cavities. They decay from the sides. One tooth that has been removed revealed something very interesting. The side of the tooth next to it had no enamel and you could see where the other tooth had been inside it. So the tooth next to it had decayed from the gap at the gum between it and it's neighbour, but lower down it was so tightly squashed into the same neighbouring tooth, that it was inside it.
I spent so much of my life with toothache and abscess, until two years ago I was having one tooth pulled a year. The nhs dentists would only pull a tooth once it was deemed beyond saving. Although they never said how my other teeth could actually be saved. So once a year a dentist would deem the worst tooth could be removed. It felt like my teeth were deliberately queueing up to make sure one of them was always causing me pain!
After many years of this, I was finally able to afford to see a private dentist. I was hoping that as she was not nhs, she would do as I asked and take the lot out. She wouldn't, however she did agree to take several out that were decaying anyway and I got a partial plate, which I love. First time in my life I've ever smiled showing my teeth.
Since then I've only had one more tooth extracted, which for 2 years is amazing for me. But I know that it's only temporary, the rest will all decay the same way sooner or later. I can tell which will be next to be removed.
So, there it is. My story and my problem. Dentists refuse to remove healthy teeth, regardless of the pain they are going to cause me when they inevitably crumble on the side due to either the gap at the gumline or lower down the side due to the pressure of it's neighbouring tooth.
I have been extensively searching online for information on my lifelong dental problem and what happened that was the first sign that something was not right. I have not been very successful, so I thought that it might be of interest to dentists and if one has an idea how my continual problem can be helped then that's a bonus!
As a child I had two sets of upper teeth. I know what you are thinking, but my adult teeth did not grow behind my baby teeth as is relatively common, they grew out the front of my gums. It was not just one or two such as the canines, it was all my front upper teeth. The first I noticed something felt strange was indeed above the canines, but then as the teeth broke through there the same was happening above my two front teeth. It was a very rapid process and none of the baby teeth were even vaguely loose. The dentist decided that at least eight baby teeth would have to be removed. I can't remember exactly how many she ended up removing, it was in the days of gas and air knocking you out on the dentist's chair, but I do remember my teeth the day of the appointment, I quite liked my scary two rows of teeth!
Then of course there was the horrible braces plate thing. I don't remember how my teeth looked straight after the removal of the baby teeth, but my parents say I had a gap between my front two teeth the size of a tooth. The strange thing is, their memories aren't great, but they seem to think that gap was always there inbetween my baby teeth. I always smiled with my mouth closed, so old pictures don't help. Which in itself leads me to think maybe they are right, why would I never smile showing my teeth unless there had always been something that didn't look right?
Anyway, my adult teeth ended up being very strange. My front two teeth were the worst. The angles of them were such that when I bit into an apple, they made the shape \/. Not quite those angles, but not far off. The rest were nowhere near normal either.
Every time I brushed my teeth my gums would bleed from inbetween my teeth. This is where we get to the lifelong problem. When I say the gum inbetween my teeth, I mean literally. My teeth are squashed so tightly to each other, I have never been able to floss. They really press on each other. However, at the very top where they meet the gums, there is a small gap between them. That's where my gums always bled when brushing.
These gaps between them at the gums, combined with overlapping due to their angles and the tightness to each other, have led to constant tooth decay. My teeth don't get normal cavities. They decay from the sides. One tooth that has been removed revealed something very interesting. The side of the tooth next to it had no enamel and you could see where the other tooth had been inside it. So the tooth next to it had decayed from the gap at the gum between it and it's neighbour, but lower down it was so tightly squashed into the same neighbouring tooth, that it was inside it.
I spent so much of my life with toothache and abscess, until two years ago I was having one tooth pulled a year. The nhs dentists would only pull a tooth once it was deemed beyond saving. Although they never said how my other teeth could actually be saved. So once a year a dentist would deem the worst tooth could be removed. It felt like my teeth were deliberately queueing up to make sure one of them was always causing me pain!
After many years of this, I was finally able to afford to see a private dentist. I was hoping that as she was not nhs, she would do as I asked and take the lot out. She wouldn't, however she did agree to take several out that were decaying anyway and I got a partial plate, which I love. First time in my life I've ever smiled showing my teeth.
Since then I've only had one more tooth extracted, which for 2 years is amazing for me. But I know that it's only temporary, the rest will all decay the same way sooner or later. I can tell which will be next to be removed.
So, there it is. My story and my problem. Dentists refuse to remove healthy teeth, regardless of the pain they are going to cause me when they inevitably crumble on the side due to either the gap at the gumline or lower down the side due to the pressure of it's neighbouring tooth.