
The Life of NHL Dentists - evo_9
https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/27851359/the-ugly-gory-bloody-secret-life-nhl-dentists
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evo_9
About 6 months ago I caught a full-swing of a stick to the right side of my
mouth/jaw. Cracked my front right tooth in half and broke the next two right-
most teeth at the gum-line, and cracked one of my lower teeth off at the top
1/4\. Neither top teeth broken at the gum could be saved/or built up so they
pulled them. I also had one of my lower teeth, left of center knocked out (yes
left of center, I think the top portion of the stick blade came down and
slapped that part of my mouth). I picked that one up and washed it off and
stuck it back in; it seems to have re-rooted.

The work they did on the top teeth was pretty much the most painful, least fun
medical I've ever had to go through. Pulling those two top teeth that were
broke off at the gum-line was extremely unpleasant. At one point the dentist
had to put her knee on the chair/left side of my ribs to get enough leverage
to pull one of the two. My wife couldn't even watch and said it was like a
scene from a movie.

This is after playing hockey since the age of 6 (I'm 52) and not wearing a
cage for roughly 30 years (since I stopped playing in college).

I had a very strange desire to buy/put on a full cage a few weeks before this
happened and even started to research which to buy but got interrupted and
lost my traction on the whole idea.

To date this has run me over 10k and I still have to get my final implants.

And yes I do wear a cage now, and it's crazy how often I catch a stick/puck to
the face now. I guess I used up all my karma and was getting lucky for years.
I attribute this 'luck' mostly to playing with other ex-college and pro
players whom generally know how to keep their stick down and in control.

Incidentally the person that hit me was a female defense-men in a co-ed
league; she'd played high level college and was groomed for the women's
Olympic team on one point, so I don't fault her, it was a freak accident
mostly caused by her being tiny (just over 5ft on skates); if she was an
average sized guy out there the stick would have hit me in the half-shield or
top of the helmet.

Either way, yeah cage on now and I regret not making the transition sooner.

Also - I give USA Hockey Organization high marks, they have so far covered
about 90% of the costs and were easy to deal with. I actually lost my previous
job because of all this, I also sustained a concussion (and a partially
fractured jaw), and they were not very sympathetic to my drop in production so
the coverage from USA Hockey has been a huge positive in all this.

~~~
nsxwolf
"I picked that one up and washed it off and stuck it back in; it seems to have
re-rooted."

I am shuddering. This is Cronenberg levels of body horror. I suppose I must
have known this was how it worked, but I figured there was more to it than
that and that dentists had to do something more dentist-y to make it take.

~~~
jessaustin
All a dentist would do would be to wipe off any large debris (as long as
noxious chemicals aren't involved, you don't really even want to wash it) and
then stick it back in the socket. Maybe pack some cotton rolls around it to
keep it in one spot for the first 12 hours or so. Doing this on-scene ASAP is
strictly better than waiting until you get to a dentist.

~~~
badger_bravo
Would it still take root if it was placed in backwards? If it was someone
else's tooth? a particularly well shaped rock?

~~~
OnlineGladiator
It depends, but there's an issue of biocompatibility similar to any organ
transplant. So no, a rock wouldn't work. The backwards tooth though is
interesting - my guess is if it would fit it would stick (although it would
definitely fuck up your bite).

[https://myhillsdentist.com/blog/why-dont-we-do-tooth-
transpl...](https://myhillsdentist.com/blog/why-dont-we-do-tooth-transplants/)

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THansenite
Playing rec league years ago, I had always played with a full cage. I decided
to go with a half visor to be one of the cool kids. Went to my local shop and
it was a bit more expensive than I had planned so I figured I'd wait until the
next week to buy it. That week, I took two pucks to the cage. I never did go
back to buy the visor.

~~~
alkonaut
I wonder why the 50/50 ones (visor top with cage underneath) aren’t more
popular? Juniors/Women I think are required to wear regular cages but for
recreational players you’d think more would wear that type?

I got a used pro players helmet from my team for $20 after the season (they
sell off all their gear to fans) which is great bargain for a really nice
piece of equipment - but I wouldn’t dare playing games with it because it’s a
visor obviously. I look like one of the cooler dads at the 4year olds’ skate
practice though.

~~~
soperj
Because visors suck? They fog up and if they get wet you have to clean them.

~~~
alkonaut
Visits are basically mandated everywhere now (just the NHL will take 10 more
years while everyone else has already made them mandatory)

If you are required to wear a visor anyway it feels like the version with a
few bars covering the teeth/jaw can’t fog up _that_ much more than just the
visor alone?

~~~
blasphemers
Visors are mandatory in the NHL, players not wearing them before the ruling
are grandfathered in though.

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smacktoward
Back in colonial times, a common part of two people getting married was the
bride's father paying to have all her teeth pulled and replaced with a set of
false teeth -- because the state of dental hygiene was so bad then that it was
just assumed that she would lose all her teeth eventually, and that way the
husband wouldn't have to bear the expense of dealing with it. It was a kind of
dowry.

I look at those photos and wonder if something similar wouldn't be a nice
benefit for newly minted pro hockey players.

~~~
m463
The barber pole was originally an advertisement for surgery and more.

If I recall, Red meant bloodletting, White meant teeth, Blue meant haircuts.

The Joe Rogan interview with Lindsey Fitzharris was a lot of fun. (also the
interviews with elon musk, john carmack)

~~~
OJFord
> If I recall, Red meant bloodletting, White meant teeth, Blue meant haircuts.

I'm not sure that can be right, because I think blue's only used in the USA.
(At least, I only see it with blue in emoji; in England they're red and white.
Amusing if it is though, and the only still-relevant colour has been lost
here!)

~~~
m463
Ok here it is...

> In Renaissance-era Amsterdam, the surgeons used the colored stripes to
> indicate that they were prepared to bleed their patients (red), set bones or
> pull teeth (white), or give a shave if nothing more urgent was needed
> (blue).

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barber's_pole](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barber's_pole)

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leblancfg
That article is so evocative and well-written, I feel I'll be coming back to
it just to steal some expressions.

~~~
ydnaclementine
Always a casual sports fan, I recently started reading ESPN daily after
getting into fantasy football/basketball, and their writers are really good.
And they have sport specific RSS feeds
[https://www.espn.com/espn/news/story?page=rssinfo](https://www.espn.com/espn/news/story?page=rssinfo)

------
psychometry
Last I checked, college and professional women's leagues mandated face
protection. Why don't men's?

~~~
ben7799
There's a flipside in another sport.

In Men's Lacrosse at the college level they wear helmets... in Women's
Lacrosse helmets are not allowed, they wear ridiculous eye-cages instead.

Their argument is that they have less contact allowed and don't need them. I
think the real thing is trying to look better and/or culture like hockey.

Women's college Lacrosse apparently is #2 for concussions after Men's
Football.

Men's Lacrosse apparently has far fewer concussions even though it allows
contact.

My wife had 3-4 concussions playing Lacrosse in College.. I definitely worry
about some effect of it coming back as we age. Her concussions were apparently
bad enough the effects lasted and messed up her schoolwork for quite some
time.

I played a lot of pond hockey as a kid.. we somehow managed to not knock each
other's teeth out or get head injuries without helmets but there was no
contact and the level of play was very low.

First time I suited up in a rink with a helmet I got hit in the head by the
puck coming around the boards. I was totally fine cause of the helmet but it
scared the crap out of me, I don't think I ever really played pond hockey
again.

~~~
dmurray
Women's college lacrosse is effectively a different game, as different as
baseball is from softball.

~~~
lozaning
Trying to play attack with no pocket is a fool's errand. I honestly don't know
how they manage to play.

~~~
mandelbrotwurst
Well, they turnover a hell of a lot more for one...

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emmelaich
Coincidence - I'm watching Slap Shot right now.

I'm amazed that only the goalie wore head gear.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slap_Shot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slap_Shot)

~~~
WalterBright
I suspect they didn't because the players need to be recognizable to the film
goers. It's the same thing with movies about military pilots - they are filmed
with the oxygen mask off.

(Top Gun helpfully had the name of the pilot stenciled on the front of the
helmet! Sort of like why knights had a coat of arms so you could tell who was
who and not hack off the limb of your buddy.)

~~~
emmelaich
Good point. I looked it up.

Slap Shot is from 1977. Helmets weren't compulsory in the NHL still 79/80\.
And that only for new players. Most were wearing them by 78, in the NHL. Slap
Shot is about a minor league, so probably a lot fewer wore helmets.

Apparently some were still playing without helmets in 1996/97 !

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kseo3l
I always thought that the dentists would have a lot of work, but has someone
asked to the massagists? lol

~~~
SilasX
I was going to correct you, but apparently "massagist" is a standard term; I'd
only ever heard masseur(m.)/masseuse(f.).

[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/massagist](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/massagist)

~~~
40four
Haha I've never heard that either. 'Massage therapist' is the best term I
think.

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Vysero
Here I am complaining about my recent gum grafting surgery...

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tyingq
Goalies didn't use to wear masks. Terry Sawchuck's face:
[https://images.app.goo.gl/noYBCaJAYkVWKLeG9](https://images.app.goo.gl/noYBCaJAYkVWKLeG9)

~~~
ralfd
[https://twitter.com/historyinpics/status/786272014927626240](https://twitter.com/historyinpics/status/786272014927626240)

