While sitting in the dentist's chair this morning I discovered something very interesting.

Granted, I only went in for a checkup and cleaning so it wasn't as bad as it usually is. Given that about a third of my teeth are artificial in some way - usually cored, packed with plastic and capped with surgical steel and porcelain - it should have been obvious in hindsight. It appears that the physics of sound propagation through modified teeth are markedly different than those customary to un-altered dentition. To put it simply, I've never felt the cavitron hurt quite so much because the sound …

Please be advised that a noticeable taste of blood is not part of any test protocol but is an unintended side effect of the Aperture Science Material Emancipation Grid, which may, in semi-rare cases, emancipate dental fillings, crowns, tooth enamel, and teeth.
--GLaDOS, Portal

Last week, I went to the dentist for my six month cleaning and was treated to an unexpected, and rather unpleasant surprise. Remember that molar I broke a couple of years ago - you know, the one that I had filled, fractured, capped, had a root canal on and re-cappped? When I was getting checked out last …

I realize that some of these stories are kind of old, but in my defense I work a lot.

Scientists at the Tokyo University of Science announced earlier this month that they had grown a replacement tooth for an adult lab mouse. While this doesn’t sound like much given that rodent teeth grow continually through the creature’s life, they accomplished this task by engineering mouse cells to grow teeth and transplanting them into the socket of an extracted tooth. The tooth grown was fully functional, and seemed to have all of the nerve connections, structural integrity, and usability …

Early this morning was my final trip to the dentist's office of 2007. I figured that, seeing as how I'm on the road so much I should get a checkup and cleaning before New Year's to make sure that there's nothing pressing in the immediate future.

I could stretch this entry out and make it look interesting or even entertaining, but frankly I'm not in the mood for such creative writing at the moment.

I'm looking at four crowns, one of them ASAP before the cavity bores completely under the bicuspid's filling. I'm probably looking at four more root canals …

This morning, as I mentioned previously, I had made an appointment with a local dentist (Dr. Calvin Nguyen; 8622 Lee Highway, Suite A; Fairfax, VA 22031; telephone number 703-876-4600) to have two capped molars checked out because one of them has been giving me no end of trouble. I showed up about an hour early to fill out the requisite paperwork and get things worked out, and then went in for the main show.

Dr. Nguyen took a pair of x-rays and examined the area. Percussive sensitivity: Minimal. Temperature sensitivity: Ohholyshitstopstopstop...

No inflammation, no discharge, no bleeding.. just pain that …