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Your Dentist Is A Mercenary Molar Mechanic If...

Outlook Web Desk

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  • He gives you Japanese gold fillings (maximum cost: Rs 10 per tablet), a material used only by dental students in lab/trainee situations on dummy models. Main content copper corrodes rapidly in mouth. Odds are he might charge you for regular 22-ct gold (cost: Rs 2,000 maximum for the Rs 1,750 worth three-odd gram gold used).
  • He makes porcelain crowns costing Rs 2,500 each instead of the standard acrylic ones costing Rs 250 each for kids.
  • He uses hand-held drills instead of easy-on-tooth-enamel ultrasonic/pizomatic scalers, for tooth cleaning. Hand scaling per se isn't dangerous but the hand-held drill can erode irreplaceable tooth enamel making it hyper-sensitive to cold/heat, reducing its life expectancy significantly.
  • He insists on 6/7 pay-per-visit sessions for a root canal job as opposed to the acceptable three visits. Thumb rule with Gentleman Dentist: Fewer visits/longer sessions. With Mercenary Molar Mechanics: Frequent Visits/Shorter sessions. Extra visits translate to extra pennies for him, extra pain for you.
  • He recommends an extraction/root canal when simple pulp capping or restoration would do in a tooth where nerve infection/inflammation hasnt occurred. That's a one-sitting job involving cleaning of the cavity and capping it with silver amalgam: a silver alloy amalgamated with mercury.
  • Recommends a crown (base cost Rs 2,500) when a mere matching light cure composite filling (base cost Rs 250) would do. Post-root canal treatment, a caried front tooth can be cheaply repaired with just this filling.
  • He gives you a filling that pops out every three months/years. A professionally well done filling can last eight/ten years unless you have acidic saliva, traumatic occlusion (night-time tooth-grinding habit).
  • If the bridge/crown he gives you doesn't blend seamlessly with the rest of your teeth. This, in a market chock-a-block with colour matching options.
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