"My Teeth Are All Sensitive."

Patients January 15th, 2007

A few years ago when I was working elsewhere, I was referred a patient from Public Health. He turned out to be a really nice guy who was having thermal hypersensitivity on most of his teeth, but especially on his upper anteriors.

Examination of the teeth found them intact, no caries or defective restorations, but something looked odd about them. They had a dullness to them and they also looked too smooth across their facial surfaces. These were teeth without veneers so the problem wasn’t unaesthetic restorations. Could it be developmental?

He saw that I was checking these teeth out and with a proud smile asked, “Do you like how clean they are?”

“…yeah, I do,” I said uneasily. I had a feeling something was coming that I wouldn’t want to hear.

“Me too. I’ve been using a Dremel.”

“To do what?” I asked trying to buy time so that he wouldn’t say what I knew he was going to.

“I put this paste on the teeth, not sure if it’s aluminum oxide paste — but you use it on cars to polish the finish — and then I use the Dremel. Works just as good as your dental spinny gizmo, don’t you think?”


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  • Kissaki

    I love home-dentistry.

    Just as much as I love self-diagnosis.

  • Periapex

    Yeah, I forgot about your do-it-yourself patient.

  • Dr. Mommy, D.D.S.

    dude, no wonder why your teeth are sensitive. maybe he should get together with my patient who drilled a hole in his own tooth and made his own crowns in his basement. oh, and i almost forgot, bacteria can “change over” into yeast, at least in this guy’s body it magically can. that’s a story for another time, but definitely worth hearing.

    there was another patient who was seeing my boss when i was working in new york. she had just completed all these composite restos on her posterior teeth and they were now all rough, like swiss cheese after only 6 weeks and her teeth were all sensitive. she had no idea what could have happened, she had never had this problem with the the materials that were used before. it eventually came out that the hygienist (who was a kook and half, btw) had given her a HUGE handful of _course_ prophy paste so she could “keep that clean feeling at home” and she was using every day with her crest spinbrush. hel-lo, there’s a reason why we only use that stuff every six months!

  • Periapex

    No, just part of his brain.

  • Ginny

    OK, I’m not in the dental field, but I’d have to say that That Was A Bad Idea.

    Has this fellow also removed his own appendix?

  • Jeanie

    O_o crazy. i can’t wait to see my fair share of loony patients. the closest so far is the dude who cant find time to brush and yet flosses 3 times a day…

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