I love dentists
While I do not love the sound of the drill, I love the fact that you can bring a mouthful of bad teeth to a specialist and have them replaced with cybernetic super-teeth that will not grow old or break. Why am I not allowed to buy spare arms and legs like the handicapped, or eyeglasses that improve my 20/20 eyesight? It is just not fair.
Luckily, I have had some bad teeth and so have been offered to pay a lot of money to get new ones. It is just so cool.
I learned two things at the dentist today. I like to ask him questions while he works, or before he works. Mostly before he works, to procrastinate the whole hole-drilling session a little more, and also to show off how smart I am.
Last time I assumed that the designation "4-7" must mean fourth quadrant, seventh tooth from center, and I was right. Apparently dentists switch these designations around every now and then, so there is progress or something. Imagine your mouth from the front, imagine an analogue clock in front of it, centered on your tongue, and anything between 12 and 3 is the first quadrant, 3 to 6 is the second, 6 to 9 is the third and 9 to 12 is the fourth quadrant. So your four front teeth are 1-1, 1-2, 1-3 and 1-4, clockwise from the top, according to that scheme. I like it. I do not suppose your dentists use the same scheme - I would be surprised if they did.
But that was something I surmised and was confirmed on last time. This time, I asked him why the hell it hurts to drill in the dead enamel.
"It's the cold", he says. "You see, root nerves aren't as particular as our skin. Our skin tells the difference between blunt and sharp pressure, heat and cold and more", he continues, "but whenever a dental nerve recieves a signal, it registers as pain, regardless of what the sensation would be on any other body part".
Once I had heard that and understood it, my first reaction was "Why not heat the drill then?", but I never asked. There must be many reasons why you cannot heat a drill between uses. For one thing, the bacterial flora of the human maw would be overjoyed to have some 37 centigrade to frolic in, rather than a cool steely 15C. For another, maybe the material would be softer, less efficient, weaker. And, I suppose, it would be a minor engineering problem to build a drill that both rotates and heats the drill bit at the same time. Most drill bits would need cooling to prevent friction overheating, not the other way around.
So that was the first thing. The second thing I forget.
/ Per
Luckily, I have had some bad teeth and so have been offered to pay a lot of money to get new ones. It is just so cool.
I learned two things at the dentist today. I like to ask him questions while he works, or before he works. Mostly before he works, to procrastinate the whole hole-drilling session a little more, and also to show off how smart I am.
Last time I assumed that the designation "4-7" must mean fourth quadrant, seventh tooth from center, and I was right. Apparently dentists switch these designations around every now and then, so there is progress or something. Imagine your mouth from the front, imagine an analogue clock in front of it, centered on your tongue, and anything between 12 and 3 is the first quadrant, 3 to 6 is the second, 6 to 9 is the third and 9 to 12 is the fourth quadrant. So your four front teeth are 1-1, 1-2, 1-3 and 1-4, clockwise from the top, according to that scheme. I like it. I do not suppose your dentists use the same scheme - I would be surprised if they did.
But that was something I surmised and was confirmed on last time. This time, I asked him why the hell it hurts to drill in the dead enamel.
"It's the cold", he says. "You see, root nerves aren't as particular as our skin. Our skin tells the difference between blunt and sharp pressure, heat and cold and more", he continues, "but whenever a dental nerve recieves a signal, it registers as pain, regardless of what the sensation would be on any other body part".
Once I had heard that and understood it, my first reaction was "Why not heat the drill then?", but I never asked. There must be many reasons why you cannot heat a drill between uses. For one thing, the bacterial flora of the human maw would be overjoyed to have some 37 centigrade to frolic in, rather than a cool steely 15C. For another, maybe the material would be softer, less efficient, weaker. And, I suppose, it would be a minor engineering problem to build a drill that both rotates and heats the drill bit at the same time. Most drill bits would need cooling to prevent friction overheating, not the other way around.
So that was the first thing. The second thing I forget.
/ Per
posted by Per Edman | 23:55
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