MEDICAL MATTERS

[Tizer]

Don't be too hard on him, he is 80! The older you get the harder it is to accept some aspects of the modern world as normal. Even in my 1950s youth you hardly ever saw a very fat young person - if you did, then they were probably suffering from a metabolic disease. Now we see lots of them and know they are going to suffer ill health if they don't take action. Another problem is that, while obese people tend to think they are normal weight, women who really are normal weight often say they are overweight! It gets very confusing for oldies like me and Stanley.

[Sue]

Stanley you are forgiven! This time

[Wendyf]

[LizG]

It would be a boring world indeed if we all had the same opinion. Nothing wrong with a good debate.

[Stanley]

Silence is, at times, Golden!

[Tizer]

`New Zika vaccine candidate protects mice and monkeys with a single dose -- results from study highlight the promise of mRNA-based vaccines and therapies' LINK
"A new Zika vaccine candidate has the potential to protect against the virus with a single dose, according to a research team led by scientists from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. As reported in Nature this week, preclinical tests showed promising immune responses in both mice and monkeys. "We observed rapid and durable protective immunity without adverse events, and so we think this candidate vaccine represents a promising strategy for the global fight against Zika virus," said senior author Drew Weissman, MD, PhD, a professor of Infectious Disease at Penn. "We hope to start clinical trials in 12 to 18 months."

[Stanley]

Those 'pesky scientists'...... More power to their elbow!

[Tizer]

Mrs Tiz broke a tooth this morning while eating her crunchy breakfast. She rang our NHS dentist when he opened at 9.00 and told them the problem. Luckily today is his quick fix day when he does emergency and quick jobs so she got an appointment at 10.00. She arrived early and the tooth was cleaned up and a new filling in and she was out by 10.00! How's that for service? The cost was £53. I hate to think what it would have cost for private treatment. Many people can't find an NHS dentist these days and probably can't afford, or won't pay for, treatment. Lots of children have bad teeth, almost as if we were back in the early 1900s. It's another part of British health that needs urgent attention!

[Sue]

I can tell you private was about £130. I did the same thing. My choice was NHS amalgam or ( whatever it is now)filling which was a patch which would probably not last, a private composite filling which was the tooth drilled out completely and refilled with an acrylic something or other bonded chemical matching my tooth colour, or a crown on nhs. The private filling was half the cost of the crown. I opted for the private filling based on the cost of the crown which I knew it would be in the end.

Healthy breakfasts can seriously damage your teeth. I know, I have done it several times

[Stanley]

My commiserations to both of you. I had all my teeth out 58 years ago and never regretted it. Never a minute's trouble and I still bite apples......They have cost me less than £50 in repairs. Lots to be said for pot gobblers!
On the medical front, I am still seeing benefits from adopting the Wendy diet. Nothing ground-shaking, just a general improvement all round. I am not missing bread, spuds or the occasional treat at all. Thank you Wendy!!

[Wendyf]

I broke a tooth on Thursday, and managed to get an appointment for Monday morning. I'm trying to remember not to smile at the moment as it is quite obvious. I'm actually quite pleased as the tooth had been well filled over the years and looked very discoloured so I had been thinking about paying to improve its looks. Hopefully I can now get it capped at NHS prices.

[Sue]

Nhs crown is over £200. I have a few mostly broken on breakfast cereal :laugh5:I had the private filling because I couldn't face another crown and an hours drilling!

[Wendyf]

I've got a couple too Sue, including one crown that was done privately without root canal work. it later caused me a lot of problems and the root canal had to be done through the crown. I think this one is beyond filling as it is the front that's broken away.

[Tizer]

Mrs Tiz's filling was tooth-colour and the dentist said it would last a long time because the remains of the tooth were firm. We're lucky to have an excellent dentist. He's very efficient and quick but pleasant and sympathetic to people like me who seem to have more sensitive teeth and dread visiting the dentist.

[Big Kev]

I've got a couple too Sue, including one crown that was done privately without root canal work. it later caused me a lot of problems and the root canal had to be done through the crown. I think this one is beyond filling as it is the front that's broken away.

I had to have a root canal done on a front tooth that is the support for a bridge, the dentist didn't want to damage the bridge work so did a 'surgical' root canal (in from above). That was an interesting concept.

[Stanley]

It makes me cringe just reading your posts. I was brought up with dentists who used a drill powered by pedalling and we were terrified of him! Include me out!

[Sue]

I had one like that, I had to have a bridge eventually because the crown kept breaking as due to it being a biting tooth. It also resolved a problem I had that it was a milk tooth and hence hardly any root. When I had the bridge the dentist did a bit of cosmetic work making the new tooth bigger and the connecting crown smaller. They therefore look normal size. All on the NHS. He was a lovely dentist who used to swim competitively with my daughter so we had a lot to chat about or in my case grunt and wave my arms about.

[Sue]

Mrs Tiz's filling was tooth-colour and the dentist said it would last a long time because the remains of the tooth were firm. We're lucky to have an excellent dentist. He's very efficient and quick but pleasant and sympathetic to people like me who seem to have more sensitive teeth and dread visiting the dentist.

I am afraid my lovely dentist left to live in Cyprus. I now have a non communicating South African. Brilliant dentist, his work is fantastic but he has no empathy with my fears and no conversation. It was after having a crown with him with an hours drilling to shape the tooth, the farthest back tooth I have that I decided I just couldn't go through it again. He said the tooth he filled was very fragile and the normal filling would not last. I trust his technical judgement completely but just wish he would smile more and ditch the tupee.

[Tizer]

I commiserate with you, Sue - and Stanley too. I have a fear of dentists, partly due to over-sensitive nerves in my teeth or jaw but also because my earliest experiences were with the `The Clinic' in the centre of Blackburn at the start of the 1950s. I suppose it was when the local authorities had just started providing dental care it was in a horrible old building and the dentists were probably ex-army used to treating paratroopers, not children. The first thing I saw was while sitting waiting for my first treatment - kids coming out of the rooms crying and holding bloody handkerchiefs to their faces, and still fuzzy from the gas anaesthetic. Then going in and having a mask shoved over my face with no warning and effectively being gassed. Then coming out like the kids I saw earlier. Later came the drill. I suppose I've still got PTSD!

[Sue]

My experiences were later in life, just after we came to Rochdale. I only had one filling at the time. Within 4 years every tooth was filled and filled again. I had two crowns...metal....no consultation on what I wanted. The teeth shattered whilst he was filling them for the third time in as many years.' May as well do them whilst you are pregnant and it is free was the quote. The dentist was investigated, my mouth was one of the ones checked. He disappeared, needless to say, just as the investigations started. I changed dentist and hardly ever had treatment after that, but my overfilled teeth were weakened and I have reached the stage when the slightest force shatters them. My last dentist understood, indeed he knew of the dentist that scarpered being a local lad himself. My present dentist does not seem to understand my fear.

[Tizer]

That's a terrible experience Sue. About 15 years ago a colleague of mine had major trouble with his teeth and ended up seeing a hospital specialist who was shocked and told him that the dentist he used had failed to note what was happening to his teeth and should have done X-rays which would have revealed the problem. It all makes me so grateful to our local dentist that he's so good. In fact it's one of the factors that keeps us living in his catchment area!

[Sue]

As I said my present dentist is technically probably the best I have had but it's a shame his personality is the opposite!

[Stanley]

Here's a couple of dentist stories from me memoirs.....

Joyce Lawson came to me one day and asked if I could make sure that Ted went to get his teeth fixed. Ted was frightened of the dentist. A lot of us were in those days because all we had ever had from dentists was pain. Half an hour with a pedal operated drill grinding slowly next to a nerve was enough to put anyone off, we’d go to work with broken bones but when it came to anything to do with teeth, forget it! I arranged to be in Barlick and at the appointed hour, met Ted and took him to Pinder’s on Park Avenue. We tied the horse up to the lamp post outside and went in. While we were waiting Ted was telling me how hard-bitten the horse was, he kept getting the bit between his teeth and you had to haul back on the reins to get him to stop. I saw him into the dentist’s chair and waited outside. After about 20 minutes they helped him out, still groggy after the general anaesthetic. “OK” I asked? “No way” said the dentist, “We got him in the chair and put him under but all he did was grit his teeth and shout “Whoa you b****r!”, they were frightened of damaging his mouth and after trying to get it open decided to give up. Ted had been driving the horse in his dreams!
I had a bad tooth ache one day. It had got to the stage where I had bursts of red light behind my eyes so I gave in and went into Atkinson’s who at that time practiced in Croft House on Station Road where my accountants is now. I went in and there was nobody else there. I told him what the trouble was and he had a look in my mouth and said it was rotten and wanted to come out. I asked him how much it was and he said five shillings or two and six. I asked him what the difference was and he said that for five shillings he would inject me with cocaine, wait for the gum to go numb and then pull it, for two and six he would just pull it. I only had four and six so I went for the half dollar treatment. I sat in the chair and his wife cupped her hands over my head and forced me down with my head back. I’d never noticed until then that an old-fashioned dentist’s chair has a depression it the seat up against the back and if someone forces you down into it you are immobile. Atkinson went straight in and grasping my tooth, first pushed it down, then screwed it round each way to loosen it and then pulled it and threw it into the corner of the room. I supposed that he had done this so I couldn’t see it in case any roots had broken. That was it, one fraction of a second of violent pain and then blessed relief. As I swilled out he went in the back and I heard a bottle neck clink on a glass. When he came in I gave him the four and six and he asked me what the extra two bob was for, “Give me some of whatever it is you have in that bottle in the back!” He came back with a glass of rum and told me to wash my mouth out with it and spit it out. I washed my mouth out all right but I didn’t spit!
One day I had a load to take to Nestles at Ashbourne. No big sweat but I had had all my bottom teeth taken out the day before. Now my Mercury was the best motor in the world but it had the worst heater, it was virtually useless. On a hard frosty morning like it was that day the inside of the cab window used to freeze up as your breath hit it. My dad had warned me not to get frost in my jaw and by the time I got to Ashbourne I realised he had been right, I was in agony. The pain had gone right round the back of my neck and it was like an iron band so when I got to the tipping point I had a word with the lads and they said they’d tip me and wash out while I was with the Nurse, because Nestles were a big firm they had a nurse on duty in the ambulance room day and night. She took one look inside my mouth, got four aspirins down me and a hot drink and then she spent half an hour massaging my gums with oil of cloves. I was still in pain when she’d finished but nowhere near what I had felt when I arrived. One of the lads found me a scarf and I wrapped that round my head, I must have looked like the invisible man! It wore off a bit on the way home but I told father about it, he had been quite right.
You might be wondering why I had had all my bottom teeth extracted. I had gone to Mr Pinder the dentist in Park Avenue with a very bad bout of toothache and he told me they all needed to come out, they were rotten. This doesn’t seem to happen nowadays, probably due to better food and health care but in those days it was quite common to have all your teeth pulled. I’ve heard of young women being given money to go to the dentist and have all their teeth out as a wedding present. This sounds crazy now but in those days it was a passport to a pain-free future, this was certainly how I saw it. Once my bottom jaw had settled down a bit I went back to Mr Pinder and he pulled all the teeth in my top jaw and temporarily fitted my teeth, all done under cocaine injections. The idea was to wait until the gums had totally healed and then go back for the final fitting. At this visit he made me pick the colour of teeth I wanted and told me that he was going to make my new ones slightly bigger than my own teeth because he thought large teeth were manly. I’ve never quite worked that one out but I thought I’d better let him have his way! After putting up with the temporary teeth floating round in my mouth for about three months I went back and got the final set.
I remember that the waiting room was full and Mr Pinder asked me why I was fidgeting in the chair. I told him that I was bothered about the fact that we were holding up the other patients. Mr Pinder said that these teeth would be with me for at least 45 years and it was worth spending 45 minutes to get them right. He also told me that if there was such a thing as a prize for having a good mouth for false teeth I would stand a good chance of winning it, whether this was true or just something he said to all his patients I don’t know. All I can report is that forty years later (fifty at the time of editing) I am still using the same set of teeth and apart from the bottom set cracking and needing an emergency repair once, I’ve had no problem with them and haven’t had any pain either in my mouth or my wallet. There is much to be said for well-fitting pot gobblers!

[Wendyf]

I was given the option of an NHS crown or a private white filling like you had Sue, though all the front half of my tooth had broken away. I chose the filling and had it done straight away without having to have a nasty injection....one delighted customer! I have been conscious of that tooth being discoloured by its big black filling for a few years so I can smile again now.

[Sue]

I know the feeling Wendy, my recent filling had been visible, but now blends in nicely but my bridge and crown altered the whole appearance of my smile. The offending milk tooth that broke was right in the front of my mouth and I was 53 before it decided to give up and die on me! The replacement was amazing