0_Wizard
I've always wanted to study to be a dentist. Especially an oral surgeon 
A dentist, also known as a dental surgeon, is a surgeon who specializes in dentistry, the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases and conditions of the oral cavity.
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Dentist
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Dental implant
A dental implant (also known as an endosseous implant or fixture) is a surgical component that interfaces with the bone of the jaw or skull to support a dental prosthesis such as a crown, bridge, denture, facial prosthesis or to act as an orthodontic anchor. The basis for modern dental implants is a biologic process called osseointegration, in which materials such as titanium form an intimate bond to bone. The implant fixture is first placed so that it is likely to osseointegrate, then a dental prosthetic is added. A variable amount of healing time is required for osseointegration before either the dental prosthetic (a tooth, bridge or denture) is attached to the implant or an abutment is placed which will hold a dental prosthetic.
Special needs dentistry
Special needs dentistry, also known as special care dentistry, is a speciality of dentistry concerned with the oral health of people who have intellectual disability, or who are affected by other medical, physical, or psychiatric issues. Special needs dentists require an extra three years of postgraduate training after attaining their dental degree. They are then eligible for Board Certification by the American Board of Special Care Dentistry (Diplomate ABSCD) or Fellowship with the Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons (FRACDS (SND)). The oral health therapist have incorporated studies to allow for their scope of practice to cover working with people with special needs.
Dental extraction
A dental extraction (also referred to as tooth extraction, exodontia, exodontics, or informally, tooth pulling) is the removal of teeth from the dental alveolus (socket) in the alveolar bone. Extractions are performed for a wide variety of reasons, but most commonly to remove teeth which have become unrestorable through tooth decay, periodontal disease or dental trauma, especially when they are associated with toothache. Sometimes wisdom teeth are impacted (stuck and unable to grow normally into the mouth) and may cause recurrent infections of the gum (pericoronitis). In orthodontics if the teeth are crowded, sound teeth may be extracted (often bicuspids) to create space so the rest of the teeth can be straightened.
Dentistry
Dentistry is a branch of medicine that consists of the study, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases, disorders and conditions of the oral cavity, commonly in the dentition but also the oral mucosa, and of adjacent and related structures and tissues, particularly in the maxillofacial (jaw and facial) area. Although primarily associated with teeth among the general public, the field of dentistry or dental medicine is not limited to teeth but includes other aspects of the craniofacial complex including the temporomandibular and other supporting structures. Dentistry is often also understood to subsume the now largely defunct medical specialty of stomatology (the study of the mouth and its disorders and diseases) for which reason the two terms are used interchangeably in certain regions.
Dentistry throughout the world
Dentistry throughout the world is practised differently, and training in dentistry varies as well. Australian dentistry is overseen by the Australian Dental Council and the Dental Board of Australia The professional body for dentists is the Australian Dental Association. Dentists trained in Australia must meet the entry requirements of one of the Australian institutions offering dental courses, and then complete the required full-time academic training leading to a dental degree. If dentists wish to specialize, they must complete extra study after having had clinical experience. In order to practice dentistry in Australia (as of July 2010) you must obtain registration and licensing from the nationalized Dental Board of Australia.
Mouth ulcer
A mouth ulcer is an ulcer that occurs on the mucous membrane of the oral cavity. Mouth ulcers are very common, occurring in association with many diseases and by many different mechanisms, but usually there is no serious underlying cause. The two most common causes of oral ulceration are local trauma (e.g. rubbing from a sharp edge on a broken filling) and aphthous stomatitis ("canker sores"), a condition characterized by recurrent formation of oral ulcers for largely unknown reasons. Mouth ulcers often cause pain and discomfort, and may alter the person's choice of food while healing occurs (e.g.
Kurt Hermann Thoma
Kurt H. Thoma (December 2, 1883 – June 5, 1972) was an American Oral Surgeon known as the founder of the American Board of Oral Pathology. He was also the Editor-in-chief for the Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology, and Oral Radiology Journal for 22 years. To many Kurt was recognized as the Father of Oral and maxillofacial pathology and the defender of Oral and maxillofacial surgery and a great teacher of Oral medicine . He was born in Basel, Switzerland and attended the Institute of Technology in Switzerland where he studied architecture. He eventually moved to USA in 1908 and received his dental degree from Harvard School of Dental Medicine in 1911.
1_Apprentice
Do you think you will pursue being a dentist?
0_Wizard
Well, I know I probably missed my calling ! I had a infected root canal earlier this year that cost $1300
A dentist, also known as a dental surgeon, is a surgeon who specializes in dentistry, the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases and conditions of the oral cavity.
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Endodontic therapy
Endodontic therapy, also known as endodontic treatment or root canal therapy, is a treatment sequence for the infected pulp of a tooth which results in the elimination of infection and the protection of the decontaminated tooth from future microbial invasion. Root canals, and their associated pulp chamber, are the physical hollows within a tooth that are naturally inhabited by nerve tissue, blood vessels and other cellular entities. Together, these items constitute the dental pulp. Endodontic therapy involves the "removal" of these structures, the subsequent shaping, cleaning, and decontamination of the hollows with small files and irrigating solutions, and the "obturation" (filling) of the decontaminated canals.
Healing of periapical lesions
Apical periodontitis is typically the body’s defense response to the threat of microbial invasion from the root canal. Primary among the members of the host defense mechanism is the polymorphonuclear leukocyte, otherwise known as the neutrophil. The task of the neutrophil is to locate and destroy microbes that intrude into the body – anywhere in the body – and they represent the hallmark of acute inflammation. In response to tissue injury, neutrophils leave the circulatory system in great numbers and gather at the site of tissue injury. They are drawn to the site by chemotaxis, following a concentration gradient of chemotactic molecules until they reach the site of greatest concentration: the site of injury and microbial presence.
Biofilling
Biofilling also known as orthograde canal grafting technique or 4D sealing, is an endodontic root canal obturation technique with a Bioceramic material after root canal preparation and enlargement procedure. Biofilling - perfect sealability, biocompatibility, no heavy metals, no expansion. All diagnosis of the teeth leading to endodontic therapy and retreatment procedure. Biofilling is specially indicated for severely infected root canal, perforations, cracked tooth, file separations, apexogenesis, and for simple endodontic obturations. 1. Physical Sealing - After Biofilling, water tight apical plug is formed at the apical constriction of apical foramen.
Endodontic files and reamers
Endodontic files and reamers are surgical instruments used by dentists when performing root canal treatment. These tools are used to clean and shape the root canal, with the concept being to perform complete chemomechanical debridement of the root canal to the length of the apical foramen. Preparing the canal in this way facilitates the chemical disinfection to a satisfactory length but also provides a shape conducive to obturation (filling of the canal). Hand files can provide tactile sensation when cleaning or shaping root canals. This allows the dentist to feel changes in resistance or angulation, which can help determine curvature, calcification and/or changes in anatomy, in which two dimensional radiographs may not always identify.
Root canal
A root canal is the anatomic space within the root of a tooth. Part of a naturally occurring space within a tooth, it consists of the pulp chamber (within the coronal part of the tooth), the main canal(s), and more intricate anatomical branches that may connect the root canals to each other or to the surface of the root. At the center of every tooth is a hollow area that houses soft tissues, such as the nerve, blood vessels, and connective tissue. This hollow area contains a relatively wide space in the coronal portion of the tooth called the pulp chamber. These canals run through the center of the roots, similar to the way pencil lead runs through a pencil.
Post and core
A post and core crown is a type of dental restoration required where there is an inadequate amount of sound tooth tissue remaining to retain a conventional crown. A post is cemented into a prepared root canal, which retains a core restoration, which retains the final crown. The role of the post is firstly to retain a core restoration and crown, and secondly to redistribute stresses down onto the root, thereby reducing the risk of coronal fracture. The post does not play any role in reinforcing or supporting the tooth and can in fact make it more likely to fracture at the root. When deciding whether or not a tooth requires a post and core crown rather than a conventional crown you must establish the following:  1.
Focal infection theory
Focal infection theory is the historical concept that many chronic diseases, including systemic and common ones, are caused by focal infections. In present medical consensus, a focal infection is a localized infection, often asymptomatic, that causes disease elsewhere in the host, but focal infections are fairly infrequent and limited to fairly uncommon diseases. (Distant injury is focal infection's key principle, whereas in ordinary infectious disease, the infection itself is systemic, as in measles, or the initially infected site is readily identifiable and invasion progresses contiguously, as in gangrene.)
1_Apprentice
Oh, my gosh. I had the most painful infected root canal about two years ago. 
0_Wizard
I had no idea it was infected at all , actually !  The are of concern was up above the tooth where it hurt but NOT the tooth itself.
A root canal is the anatomic space within the root of a tooth.
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Root canal
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Tooth decay
Tooth decay, also known as dental caries or cavities, is a breakdown of teeth due to acids made by bacteria. The cavities may be a number of different colors from yellow to black. Symptoms may include pain and difficulty with eating. Complications may include inflammation of the tissue around the tooth, tooth loss, and infection or abscess formation. The cause of caries is acid from bacteria dissolving the hard tissues of the teeth (enamel, dentin and cementum). The acid is produced by the bacteria when they breakdown food debris or sugar on the tooth surface. Simple sugars in food are these bacteria's primary energy source and thus a diet high in simple sugar is a risk factor.
Toothache
Toothache, also known as dental pain, is pain in the teeth and/or their supporting structures, caused by dental diseases or pain referred to the teeth by non-dental diseases. Common causes include inflammation of the pulp, usually in response to tooth decay, dental trauma, or other factors, dentin hypersensitivity (short, sharp pain, usually associated with exposed root surfaces), apical periodontitis (inflammation of the periodontal ligament and alveolar bone around the root apex), dental abscesses (localized collections of pus, such as apical abscess, pericoronal abscess, and periodontal abscess), alveolar osteitis ("dry socket", a possible complication of tooth extraction, with loss of the blood clot and exposure of bone), acute necrotizing ulcerative gingivitis (a gum infection, also called "trenchmouth"), temporomandibular disorder and others.
Endodontic therapy
Endodontic therapy, also known as endodontic treatment or root canal therapy, is a treatment sequence for the infected pulp of a tooth which results in the elimination of infection and the protection of the decontaminated tooth from future microbial invasion. Root canals, and their associated pulp chamber, are the physical hollows within a tooth that are naturally inhabited by nerve tissue, blood vessels and other cellular entities. Together, these items constitute the dental pulp. Endodontic therapy involves the "removal" of these structures, the subsequent shaping, cleaning, and decontamination of the hollows with small files and irrigating solutions, and the "obturation" (filling) of the decontaminated canals.
Crown (dentistry)
A crown is a type of dental restoration which completely caps or encircles a tooth or dental implant. Crowns are often needed when a large cavity threatens the ongoing health of a tooth. They are typically bonded to the tooth using a dental cement. Crowns can be made from many materials, which are usually fabricated using "indirect methods". Crowns are often used to improve the strength or appearance of teeth. While inarguably beneficial to dental health, the procedure and materials can be relatively expensive. The most common method of crowning a tooth involves using a dental impression of a prepared tooth by a dentist to fabricate the crown outside of the mouth.
Human tooth development
Tooth development or odontogenesis is the complex process by which tooth form from embryonic cells, grow, and erupt into the mouth. For human teeth to have a healthy oral environment, all parts of the tooth must develop during appropriate stages of fetal development. Primary (baby) teeth start to form between the sixth and eighth week of prenatal development, and permanent teeth begin to form in the twentieth week. If teeth do not start to develop at or near these times, they will not develop at all, resulting in Hypodontia or Anodontia. A significant amount of research has focused on determining the processes that initiate tooth development.
Human tooth
The human teeth function to mechanically break down items of food by cutting and crushing them in preparation for swallowing and digesting. Humans have four types of teeth: incisors, canines, premolars, and molars, each with a specific function. The incisors cut the food, the canines tear the food and the molars and premolars crush the food. The roots of teeth are embedded in the maxilla (upper jaw) or the mandible (lower jaw) and are covered by gums. Teeth are made of multiple tissues of varying density and hardness. Teeth are among the most distinctive (and long-lasting) features of mammal species.
Water fluoridation
Water fluoridation is the controlled addition of fluoride to a public water supply to reduce tooth decay. Fluoridated water contains fluoride at a level that is effective for preventing cavities; this can occur naturally or by adding fluoride. Fluoridated water operates on tooth surfaces: in the mouth, it creates low levels of fluoride in saliva, which reduces the rate at which tooth enamel demineralizes and increases the rate at which it remineralizes in the early stages of cavities. Typically a fluoridated compound is added to drinking water, a process that in the U.S. costs an average of about $ per person-year.
1_Apprentice
I sure do sympathize.  