In the Smile Reconstruction Dental Implant Podcast 🎙️, Drs. Josh Muir and Tanner Townsend discuss the dangers of DIY dentistry ⚠️, highlighting a story about a trucker 🚛 who pulled out his tooth 🦷 while driving, causing a 10-hour traffic delay 🕐. They emphasize the importance of seeking professional dental care 👩‍⚕️🧑‍⚕️ due to the risks of improper dental procedures, such as using superglue 🧴 for crowns or temporary fillings, which can lead to further complications ❌. They address common reasons people avoid dentists, like cost 💰 and fear 😨, and suggest ways to manage these concerns, such as discussing payment options and using pain management techniques 💉. The key takeaway is to establish a trustworthy dental home 🏡 for regular care and emergency support 🚨.

Dr. Josh Muir 0:00 Welcome everyone to the Smile Reconstruction Dental Implant Podcast, where we talk about all things related to dental implants and tooth replacement. My name is Josh Muir, and we’ve got Tanner Townsend here today. Today’s kind of a cool topic. We’ve got the wild world of do-it-yourself dentistry. Now as we start this, so Dr. Townsend, just put yourself in someone else’s shoes. How far would you imagine someone might go to avoid seeing the dentist? I mean, they’ve got a tooth problem. They know it’s there. They’re ignoring it. They put it off. And then finally, any stories come to mind that you may have heard of.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 0:39 I’ve got a story for you, and it’s, this is a story that we found on the internet, and we were approached by a friend that kind of shared this story with us. And it’s of this 57 year old trucker, and he is driving down the road, and he decides I’m gonna pull this tooth,

Dr. Josh Muir 0:53 Interstate 20,

Dr. Tanner Townsend 0:54 Interstate 20, yeah. And he decides I’m just gonna take this tooth out. This tooth bugging me. Let’s just get it out.

Dr. Josh Muir 1:00 So he probably pulled off the road, found a nice, secluded area with some privacy and relaxation, maybe a bathroom nearby so he could clean up afterwards. Did he do something like that?

Dr. Tanner Townsend 1:10 Oh, I wish he did.

Dr. Josh Muir 1:12 What happened?

Dr. Tanner Townsend 1:13 Well, he decided that it would be best to perform the procedure while driving. I don’t know if he was on a deadline or something like that, but he decided to get his leatherman out while he was driving. I don’t know if he was even using the rear view mirror to look and see make sure he had the right tooth or not, but he decided to rip and grab and pull with his leatherman. Got it out.

Dr. Josh Muir 1:33 Okay, so end of story. This guy took his own tooth out. No problems at all. And that’s a great story. Avoided going to the dentist.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 1:41 Avoided going to the dentist.

Dr. Josh Muir 1:43 Did I miss any details? There was there anything else he wanted to say?

Dr. Tanner Townsend 1:46 Just a few. So, yes, he did a great job avoiding the dentist. However, he did jackknife and flip the 18 wheeler. There were no fatalities.

Dr. Josh Muir 1:55 Okay

Dr. Tanner Townsend 1:55 It was good.

Dr. Josh Muir 1:56 So he caused a traffic accident.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 1:57 He caused a rather large traffic accident that held up interstate 20 for 11 hours.

Dr. Josh Muir 2:02 Okay, blocking traffic. All right. So what’s a take home message from something like this?

Dr. Tanner Townsend 2:09 I think the big take home message is as fun of a story as it sounds to do, do-it-yourself dentistry at home and glue your crown back on or take your tooth out. Best, leave it to the dentist to take care of it. I don’t know any other take homes that you feel like you would want to get across.

Dr. Josh Muir 2:25 You know, I think you nailed it with that. But just, you know, here’s some things we can’t ignore. The reason that people try to avoid seeing the dentist. Now, one of them is cost. One of them is pain, fear, anxiety, past experiences, and so why don’t we address some of those? So you know, as I think of cost, the first thing that comes to my mind, don’t let that scare you off right away. Call the office and say, Guys, money is a big deal. What can we do? Like, what can I expect? Or are there any other options? And sometimes what we’ll do is we’ll say, Look, I know if you go to the public health center, they have a sliding scale. If you qualify for certain types of pricing, then you can get it for, get it done for much less. So that would be a way to alleviate that and help them get to a dentist. What about the pain part?

Dr. Tanner Townsend 3:17 The pain part, there’s quite a bit we can do in terms of helping manage pain. Now, pain during the procedure, what we could do is we could do some topical anesthetic to kind of help take off the edge. But a lot of the pain that we we feel at the dentist is almost built up anxiety. Yes, there is true pain as well, but we can kind of help control that anxiety so you don’t feel the pain as much. And what we could do is we could do anything from IV sedation, where you’re totally asleep, all the way down to like a pill, like Halcion, that kind of helps you feel a little bit more relaxed, a little bit loopy, so you don’t remember things.

Dr. Josh Muir 3:51 Or laughing gas, something like that, nitrous oxide.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 3:54 And so those are excellent methods that we use, typically on a daily basis, to kind of help control patient’s fears, but also the pain involved.

Dr. Josh Muir 4:02 Yeah, it’s interesting when I hear patients talk about, oh, I hate dentistry. I hate the dentist. I hate all of this. Typically, it stems from some sort of a past experience. Typically, it’s people that, it was quite some time ago. It was in their childhood. Now they’re 50-60, years old, and so they’re saying, you know, when I was a little this is what happened, and so I can’t stand dentists anymore. It’s like, well, I mean, a lot has improved. We know that. I mean, even our anesthetics, even the size of the needles we use, are tons smaller than they used to be, the little drill bits are much sharper, and they’re much more precise than they used to be, and everything’s smoother that way. So you know, that can even alleviate some of it. And then the other place that I hear is, you know, my mom went to the dentist and had this horrible experience. And so certainly my experience is going to be horrible too. So those are hard to overcome. Those are real fears and real experiences that people have. Had, but we’ve seen a lot of improvements. I mean, even in my time, 13 years after school. So yeah, we’ve seen a lot of improvements. Well, what else can you say? You know, do-it-yourself dentistry, have you ever seen other issues that have arisen?

Dr. Tanner Townsend 5:13 With patients doing do-it-yourself dentistry? I’ve seen a number of patients that have tried to superglue crowns back on. And that just makes it icky, geeky mess, because you’re not only getting the glue on the tooth that you’re gluing it to, that can get hot, that’s not good for the tooth, and then it also damages the teeth surrounding it. Seen people, I mean, glue dentures back together. Or, you know, when they need like a root canal, they’ll go to the store and buy the putty, like the temporary material, then shove it down there. And that’s understandable to kind of get you out of some immediate pain, but it doesn’t solve the problem. I don’t know any other unique ones that you’ve seen.

Dr. Josh Muir 5:51 You know, just what you were saying. You know, even myself, I was out of town. I had a filling that came out. I went to Walgreens and got some of their dental repair putty, and I looked in the mirror, and I put the stuff in there, I shaped my own little filling. And for a temporary fix, works great, because with that it doesn’t stick to the gums. It doesn’t glue this tooth to that tooth. And so it’s a good temporary option, but anytime you put super glue in your mouth, it’s going to spread and contact much more than you were hoping it would contact.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 6:26 Yeah.

Dr. Josh Muir 6:26 And so, you know, in the dental office, we can isolate just that tooth, we can move the tongue, move the cheek, and keep everything away from it, and be very specific with where we’re applying our materials and bonding agents. But the other thing, yeah, a lot of these glues and adhesives that we use on paper and glass, they can kill the tooth.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 6:46 Yeah

Dr. Josh Muir 6:46 I mean, they’re actually toxic to living organisms, and we tolerate them on our skin, because our skin’s largely covered with dead cells anyway, on this outer part, and it’ll slough off over the next several days. But, you know, in our mouth. It can heat up, it can kill the tooth. Well, now you’re gonna need a root canal or have the tooth taken out in a year. So one thing, have you ever had patients say, oh, yeah, I pulled this tooth out myself. But then you look at the x-ray, and what do you see in the x-ray, they left part of the tooth in there? Yeah? Almost always see the root there, yeah. And so most of the time, people think, yeah, I pulled the tooth out the part of the tooth I can see, yeah, which is the crown portion, yeah, but down below now we have to go digging for those roots.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 7:29 And it’s much harder.

Dr. Josh Muir 7:30 Much harder most time.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 7:32 So what is your kind of takeaway from this? What would you recommend to people that maybe might be guilty of that DIY dentistry? It might not be as severe as our friend on the Interstate 20, but what would be your takeaway message?

Dr. Josh Muir 7:46 You know, the biggest thing, I think, is to have a dental home, whether that’s whether you’re in a denture and it’s a place that you can rely on and trust to help you when you need to, when you have problems, or whether you’ve got all of your teeth and you just need a place where you can have your cleanings done, where you can have your fillings done and so on. But you should be able to establish a relationship and give those guys a call and say, Hey, here’s where I’m at. I’m out of town. I’ve got this tooth that broke and is hurting. What can I do? And when I get back in town, you know, what can I expect? And they really you should be able to have that relationship where you can ask him, guys, I’m not in a position to pay a lot of money right now. Is there something I can do temporarily? Is there a product I can get to just tide me over for the next couple weeks so I get my paycheck or till I’m back in town? But have a dental home, develop a relationship with some people you can trust, and then the other side is guys, I know it’s, you know, none of us really like to go to the dentist. I mean, we go there every day, but most people don’t like to go to the dental office and so, but there is a place for it, and when you’re going through those breaks and pains and problems, those are the guys that are going to be able to fix it the best.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 8:56 Yeah

Dr. Josh Muir 8:57 So

Dr. Tanner Townsend 8:57 I love that. I think it’s really just coming down to trusting your dental home and trust that most dentists just want you to get the best care for yourself and get you out of pain and get you being able to eat and enjoy the foods that you want to enjoy. So just taking the time to make and find that dental home that works for you, and then going there if you have an issue.

Dr. Josh Muir 9:17 Yeah. Well, I’m hoping we can have some other cool stories like that truck driver today when we talk to you again. So this is Josh Muir and Tanner Townsend, and thanks for joining us today on Smile Reconstruction Dental Implant Podcast.