As a dentist, my observation is that this thread is a pretty fair reflection of the age demographic of the forum: what we call the “heavy metal generation”, i.e. lots of large amalgam (and other) fillings from our misspent sweet-eating childhood, coupled with a rather less conservative professional approach to treatment in those days.
Unfortunately, every loaded structure will suffer from fatigue failure given time, and that is what has been described in previous posts. As there is less and less tooth to work on, then the ability to repair becomes less easy. Winkling out a root is actually usually a lot easier than a broken stud.
Modern dentistry has a much better philosophy of prevention and minimally invasive restoration techniques, so I hope that our children have a happier time than you lot. Incidentally, I have a string arm dental engine in my workshop and very good it is too.
I worked in part time practice for 33 years on a Saturday morning. We had the policy that if something needed replacing that we had made, then we deducted the original cost from the replacement price. Fortunately, I never invoked that clause.
You are right, dentists are getting younger: or at least it seems like it, as I’ve been training them for the last 34 years.
Prof Tim
