DENTAL WORK
Two or three “takes” of each location may still be needed to
find your hidden cavitations, “surprise” plastic leftovers, tattoos,
and simply, infected bone.
After examining your X-rays, make your decisions—do not
ask the dentist to make them for you—and mark the teeth for
extraction. The dentist may not agree with you because his/her
job is to save teeth. Your job is to save your life. Your dentist
can’t be expected to know that your life depends on this.
Another option is to go to a foreign country to find a sym-
pathetic dentist (see Sources).
What You Can Salvage
How can you decide what is a large and not-so-large filling?
Since this is to some extent a subjective decision, you should
consider the options. If you mark for extraction a number of bad
teeth, but leave single teeth behind that are marginally good,
you will get a partial denture that must fit around the single
stragglers. These will constantly get food clogged around them,