• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

My trip to the Dentist.

Norma, I posted earlier that my friends took me because I was a bit high on phensic,dispirin and codiene. The man removed the tooth and said that because I was so scared it could be dangerous healthwise. He gave me a letter for my G.P. and the Doc gave me a prescription for some sedative/tranquilisers to take for seven days prior to the appointment. I was not allowed drive for that week. I turned up, much to my own surprise. He removed all my teeth after putting me to sleep with a needle in my arm. A doctor and a nurse were present at the time but it all went very well. I used a dentist one time in Acocks Green. His place was above a shop over the road from the Dolphin pub. On my second visit he put a belt around my lower stomach after I had put my hands in trouser pockets then sitting down. I am just so glad i never had to see the dentist after I was 20 years of age. I am really glad you were able to overcome your fear but I honestly dont think I would ever have ben able to. I had a gun pointed at me in the Gay Tower one night, the barman hit him on the head with a soda syphon, we called the police and it was all dealt with. I had a curry and went home to bed. Now, if that had been a niggly toothache I would have spent most of the night in the loo.
 
Next time you go to your dentist and get a computer print out for your next appointment, ( take a good look at it ) it will say duration or length this will tell you how long the dentist is prepared to spend working on your teeth. I find this a cheap and nasty practice with regard to the human being. Is this another government ruling, certainly makes you wonder G/B...Cat
 
3 months now and my tooth has been an ongoing saga.
The abscess has flared up time and time again preventing the dentist from doing the crown and meaning that I have a temporary filling
Correction,I have had 8 temporary fillings.
Went back for one at 11.30am yesterday and spit it out at 9pm last night.
Today my dentist admitted defeat,to be fair there was not much tooth to work with in the first place.
I have my tooth and root removed on Dec 3rd and two months after I shall be having a bridge fitted.
I have become paranoid about this tooth so roll on the New Year when I can smile again.
That is if I can afford to smile LOL.
 
Alberta my partner had trouble with a Crown started on Tues Evening and went to the only Dentist she could get because she had an Abscess.
He gave her two injections and started drilling near the roof of her mouth minutes later and she had to stop him as she was in so much pain. He didn't really understand, so he gave her a prescription.
Total cost £61 and they have told her she can't get Free presciptions as I get Pension Credit is this right.

By the way Alberta she was in the Dentists at 1.30pm
 
Alf, I cant help you with your query but please pass on my sympathy to your poor wife.

Trevor.
 
Alf I can't comment on the charge by the dentist as they all seem to charge different,I know that it does not matter how many times I go, and it has been 10 so far, I cannot be charged more than £198 which is the NHS limit for one ongoing problem.

As for the prescription,anyone in this country of 60 years and over is entitled to free prescriptions no matter what their or their partners circumstance.
I am 66 and have no state pension qualification in my own right and gave up the bit of my husbands I was entitled to when I divorced.
My present husband is 56 and employed so I will be 75(when he is 65 and retires) before I get a pension,but I am entitled to free prescription,my £250 fuel allowance and bus pass.
Incidently if I had not married Steve even though he still works and is only 56 I would have been entitled to the standard single persons pension even if we lived together.
Silly old romantics we would have been quids in LOL.

Please give your wife my sympathy,,my dentist drilled near my abscess yesterday but I touch his arm and he knows to stop,he is a very caring man.
 
Last edited:
Alf
As iunderstand it from the NHS website
https://www.ppa.org.uk/ppa/low_income_rpb_faq.htm and the directgov website
https://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Over50...eing/SupportAndYourEverydayHealth/DG_10030615
everyone over 60 is entitled to free prescriptions. Dental treatment and glasses are a different matter, but painkillers aren't dental treatment. Asked my local chemist and they said is it a nhs prescription or a private prescription. if its a private one then you would have to pay. Solution might be to go to your doctor (if he's accessible) and ask for an nhs prescription from him. Good luck anyway, and hope your wife's problem is solved asap/
mike
 
The story of this tooth is a bit like War and Peace.
A couple of weeks ago after numerous attempts to try to get a crown to stay in place my dentist Robert and I came to the conclusion that it was time to throw the towel in.He is a bit upset because he has battled for over three months for me to keep the tooth.
The remains of the tooth and root must be removed and I am having a bridge.This means that for a few weeks whilst the gum shrinks i will have a gap but I thought it worth it in the end.
Robert arranged to do it last Wednesday.
On Tuesday I developed a chest infection that my doctor says will take about 3 weeks to clear,I am Asthmatic,so the sorry saga of my tooth now goes into the New Year.
 
Last edited:
Alberta you've had a right old time of it of late. I have developed a tiny hole at the back of one of my front teeth. I would rather visit the dentist than the doctors believe it or not as every time my doctor finds something wrong that I didn't have before. Jean.
 
Poor Alberta, I feel for you. On December 27th last year my front tooth fell out whilst I was eating but fortunately no pain, I now have a false tooth on a plate, but as I have no back teeth (used to just have teeth extracted when younger) I now find it difficult to eat some meat and have had to turn to porridge instead of muesli for breakfast. I also lost another tooth - next but one - will have to have another tooth added to my plate, this one came out the day before I had my first cataract operation and I decided to leave a visit to the dentist until my next check up in January.
I absolutely dread the thought of having a full set of dentures. Oh the joys of getting old.
 
Up date to this saga.I never had my tooth out ,my dentist changed his mind ,I think trying to save my tooth became a person challenge to him.
He kept fitting composite mockups of a tooth whilst the abcess took its time to completely clear and for the past few 2/3 months it has kept reappearing and the mock up has to be removed.
It was all gone a fortnight ago and today I had my lovely new crown which matches the colour of my other teeth perfectly.
8 months,18 visits to the dentist it must be some kind of record but after all that he has done a wonderful job,is a lovely young man and I hope I do not have to see him any time soon.LOL.
 
Not a happy ending I am afraid.
Today whilst eating my lunch I thought it was a bit crunchy and found that I was eating my crown which had come dislodged.
My dentist was not at work but one of his associates agreed to cement it back in place(for how long I thought)
As luck would have it when I got there Robert my dentist was picking up papers at the practice ,he called me in and 30 minutes later I left minus the tiny remnant of tooth and the root.
Now as it is one of my front teeth I am practicing not smiling until my bridge is made.LOL.
 
Sorry to hear about that Alberta- hope all will be well when your bridge is ready. You have been a trooper to have all that treatment. I had been putting off going to the dentist for years. I talked myself out of it time and time again even though I had lost several teeth over the years. I promised my daughter that I would go and got my husband to make the appointment with his dentist. I had even saved up money myself to cover any costs since we have no dental insurance which was difficult to obtain over the years since my husband was self employed.

I temporarily joined a "Scared to go the Dentist" forum to read what other people said in the threads. When I entered the office I knew I was going for an evaluation and one cleaning. I was completely calm and everyone was very friendly. They even gave me a 10% seniors discount! I went through two more cleaning appointments and then advice about a temporary bridge for the top and one for the bottom. Had impressions taken and one bridge fitted after what was left of two teeth close to the front were removed....on the same day. Then I went back for the bottom bridge to be fitted and four teeth to be removed. Finally, last Friday my life returned to normalcy as far as the dentist is concerned. My smile is back. The dentist and his assistant did a great job and so far so good. Got some new back teeth on one side. Dr. Lucy in Potters Hill in the late l950's extracted one of my molars. I am getting used to the bridges and have tried to eat the hardest foods to give them a work out. The dentist managed to save my front teeth which is good and the colour match is great.

I wouldn't show the before photo because there isn't one...my mouth was always closed when cameras were around. Here are a couple of photos taken last Saturday. Not exactly comfortable having a close up taken but
I don't mind now....people will think I am a permanently grinning Cheshire cat!
 
Last edited:
looking good JA.... I hate the dentists avoid em like the plague unless I cant stand the toothache as they say grit my teeth and then go ..
 
I smiled at the checkout operator in Tesco this morning forgot about the large gap.

Jennyann ,I must say that I didn't know what to expect,years ago it was splinting sounds and lots of blood but Robert froze my gum and the roof of my mouth.He explained he would 'wiggle' the root around a bit,the next thing the nurse was putting a wad of cottonwool in the gap,not that I needed it there was hardly any blood to see.
I feel fine(just look strange)and have had no pain.

I know that Robert was on some sort of a mission to save my tooth but I wish now that I had saved myself about 18 visits in 12 months and had the tooth out in the first place.
 
Today we were discussing teeth problems, and I recounted how, when we were children, and if we had an aching, or loose tooth, usually 'milk' teeth, one of the solutions was to wrap strong cotton around the tooth, and tie the other and to the door knob !

I cannot recall whether this ever worked, but I was wondering if any of our 'older readers' recall this sort of solution for removing loose teeth..

Eddie
 
Its all a far cry from yesteryear, people used to have all their teeth removed as a 21st birthday present.

How bizarre is that?
 
Certainly, all my grandparents had full set of false teeth. They had all their teeth out pre-NHS so I assume it was both to save money and also the grief of visiting the dentist.


My mm had this lifelong fear of the dentist, and would only go when the pain of toothache was so bad, she had no choice.


I’m the opposite. I have fallen asleep in the dentist chair as he was working.
 
Today we were discussing teeth problems, and I recounted how, when we were children, and if we had an aching, or loose tooth, usually 'milk' teeth, one of the solutions was to wrap strong cotton around the tooth, and tie the other and to the door knob !

I cannot recall whether this ever worked, but I was wondering if any of our 'older readers' recall this sort of solution for removing loose teeth..

Eddie
Oh yes it worked haha.
I had a small milk tooth at the front of my mouth when I was little it was a dark colour as it grew through with no enamel on, I hated it. Mum was up the road at my aunts one day and I thought right this is it. I put strong cotton around it and connected the other end around the door knob and slammed it! It popped straight out, when I think about it I must have been desperate to get rid of it as it wasn't at all loose haha
 
Back
Top