PAGING drjeff ...

[drjeff]

Originally Posted by ckofer

My only advice: don't watch Marathon Man this week.

+1

[drjeff]

Originally Posted by GrilledSteezeSandwich

First of all why don;t you just PM him..and the back teeth don't matter...

We LOVE folks who think that back teeth don't matter, they tend to be the one's who ask us to rebuild their entire mouths a few years after the back one's go at a cost that often rivals a brand new SUV!

[drjeff]

Originally Posted by ALLSKIING

The yellow part of the teeth in the after pic was below the gum line in the before pic. I think thats why its so yellow....Do they remove part of the gum?

Actually why the yellow part that was below the gum pre-surgery is much yellower in appearance then the part that was pre-surgery above the gum line has more to to with what is is than where it was. Basically, before any changes in gum height occurs, either naturally, via surgery, or via the effects of gum disease, the part of your teeth that you see in your mouth are covered entirely in enamel. Once you get basically to the point on your tooth where the gum line contacts it in that original gum height position, that enamel layer stops and the tooth's outer layer is then a relatively speaking thin layer of what we call cementum. This cementum is very often much yellower to yellow/brown than the enamel, and hence the color difference you see in the photo. When people bleach their teeth it's actually that cementum, and what it covers(something we call dentin) that the bleach works on to lighten. That enamel that I mentioned before is actually very translucent and what gives a tooth the majority of it's color is the color of that cementum/dentin.

As for the do they remove the part of the gum question, well the vast majority of the time is that via a scalpel blade or more and more nowadays with a laser, gum tissue is removed. Occassional in a few very specific cases, the gum tissue will be "teased" away from the underlying bone and then repositioned to where the dentist wants it, and then be stitched to that new place to allow for healing - this tends to have a higher degree of variability about where that final gum postion will be, so we tend not to do it as much, since we hate to have to say "Mrs. Smith, well that gum didn't end up where I wanted it to, so we have to do the same gum surgery AGAIN"

[drjeff]

Originally Posted by OldsnowboarderME

Post Whore Master

That was me on this thread I could have just as easily cut and pasted all my responses into 1 post, but I needed to pad my post count!

[Hawkshot99]

Originally Posted by drjeff

That was me on this thread I could have just as easily cut and pasted all my responses into 1 post, but I needed to pad my post count!

Whore!

[BeanoNYC]

Originally Posted by drjeff

Take the gas if you want it, the kind of gas we dentists use is completely clear of your system less than a minute after they gas is turned off.

My dentist gives me gas for cleanings if I ask...of course I ask. I put a dead show on my Ipod while they clean away. I call her the Grateful Dentist. wawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawa wawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawaw

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

At UVM they had nitrous tanks at alot of the parties...they called that Hippie crack..luckily I saved most of my brain cells and only tried it twice..

[Paul]

Originally Posted by GrilledSteezeSandwich

At UVM they had nitrous tanks at alot of the parties...they called that Hippie crack..luckily I saved most of my brain cells and only tried it twice..

We used to do NO2 in college. A friend had a house at Lehigh, it was a big thing there. I think it was more the Amyl Nitrates and Rush that turned my brain into the fried egg that it is today.

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Originally Posted by Paul

We used to do NO2 in college. A friend had a house at Lehigh, it was a big thing there. I think it was more the Amyl Nitrates and Rush that turned my brain into the fried egg that it is today.

I still have mental images of hippy girls with hairy armpits..sitting Indian Style in Burlington VT basements with a big mo-fo balloon..they wouldn't put meat or processed food in their body but they would injest lots of Nitrous Oxide to forget about the stress of following around Phish and Rusted Root..along with keeping up with the rigorous Environmental Studies program..lol

[Hawkshot99]

Originally Posted by GrilledSteezeSandwich

luckily I saved most of my brain cells and only tried it twice..

What did you do with them when you saved them, cause you seem to have lost them again.