When I was 12 I had 4 teeth removed. It was done using needles to numb the mouth then pliers. The injections were the most pain I've ever felt in my life. Such is with being young that I healed surprisingly fast.

The next time round, in Canada, on sharing my previous experience they laughing gassed me. If only I could get my hands on laughing gas for recreational purposes now! Even having teeth drilled out felt like the coolest sensation in the world. I was tripping and it was goooooood!

I was not back at work on the Monday. I needed a good week for the swelling and pain to go. In actual fact I only felt completely normal after two. The painkillers were industrial strength, the first 4/5 days I just slept. It was a strange existence.

I've had a total of 9 teeth removed. I am well-versed, haha. (My mouth is kind of a mess.)

A few were pulled with just injections. Those sucked.

Then I had 3 removed with laughing gas. My experience was much like yours. That was AWESOME. A few days to recover from that - I think I was about 15 or so at the time, so young enough for a quick(ish) recovery.

Wisdom teeth as I said was full anaesthetic. That took about a week to really recover. I did unfortunately end up with some other complications after that as a result of them having to dislocate my jaw after the surgery. That was over 10 years ago and still causes me some issues to this day. (Temporomandibular Joint Disorders (TMJ, TMD): Symptoms, Treatment and More if you fancy some bedtime reading. I now have to wear a nightguard to stop me from clenching, I can't chew gum, and eating really chewy stuff usually ends up with quite a sore jaw.)

Reduced Cost Dental Clinics in BC

check out this web site

BC Dental Association | British Columbia Dental Care

but note .........

Most seem to be aimed at the homeless, very low income, and are staffed by volunteer dentists, often dental students.


Dental Clinic at UBC ...

About the Dental Clinic | Faculty of Dentistry

The dental clinic at UBC operates at reduced fees ....... approximately 20 to 40 percent less than those in the BC Dental Association Fee Guide. There are different guides governing students, graduate students and faculty members


It can be difficult to be accepted into the programme ........... they do pick and choose depending on the treatments that the students need to master. The site tells you which programmes are accepting patients.

How to Become a Patient | Faculty of Dentistry


They are much more "picky" than the Dental Clinic that I went to in the 60s at Liverpool, which accepted anyone for any kind of treatment!

I had a lot of teeth extracted at the School Dental Clinic in my home town in the late 40s and 50s ................ do they even still exist??????????

It was "remove, no fillings"

Most were done with laughing gas.


I have not had one single tooth extracted since I stopped going to that place of purgatory


I find the dental treatment here to be excellent.


Though I have to say that the gold crowns put on 4 molars at the Liverpool Dental Clinic (by my dental student roommate) lasted one heck of a long time .............. the first one fell off about 40 years after she did the work

It was then decided that they should all come off, the tooth remnants be cleaned up, and new crowns put on.

The work she did back then was done well enough that there was little wrong with the underlying teeth, and the new crowns are working just fine!

There are some low cost dental places, but just beware the wait time can be long at times, and depending on the clinic may not do root canals and other procedures other then basic care like fillings and extractions, but this varies based on clinic.

If you can try Squamish dentists, you may find they charge less then a Whistler dentist.

I go here:

Squamish Dental Clinic
Dentist
Address: 37979 Cleveland Ave, Squamish, BC V8B 0A6
Phone604) 892-3548

They are 2 brothers, the one I see is friendly as are the staff, they don't have a super fancy office but its clean and modern equipment wise.

I don't know what their cash prices are, but they might be lower then what you find in Whistler but I have no clue.


I needed a root canal once about 10 years ago, had no dental and ended up with a blood infection from it, luckily it was a back tooth so it was just pulled since the root canal was too much, had another back pulled for the same reason about 6 years ago.

Extractions are the poor persons solution to dental care and sometimes the only option in North America when it comes to dental unfortunately.

My wisdom teeth came in okay, but recently have been causing me pain and discomfort, so even when those things come in okay and sit there for years okay, doesn't mean they will not cause issues down the road.

If you need a root canal done, don't wait. I had a hellish time with dentists back in Scotland before I emigrated; I had a veneer replaced at a private dentist who did such a bad job he managed to damage the root of the tooth. But he was relaxed about it, 'wait and see', and it was only when I saw another dentist (I wasn't going back to see him for many reasons!) they said I should really get a root canal done as it was still painful. Got a root canal done, but then had to have it redone because the guy didn't clean it out well enough - possibly because it had been infected for a couple of months before I had the root canal. And this was all on one of my top front teeth - removal not really an option!

So when we had to choose a dentist here I was really picky - we went and met with several before deciding on one. I also have what I would call 'suspect' wisdom teeth.. the bottom 2 are impacted and ache every now and then (usually when I'm stressed). The UK dentist (that I liked) said there was no way they would take them out in the position they were in, unless they were giving me issues. I was really worried every Canadian dentist was going to insist on it because of their policy of taking them out, but our current dentist is happy to leave them where they are if that's what I want.

Thanks again guys. Update on the situation... My bank doesn't do credit cards without me having to put $1000 on it first because I'm not a PR

I heard that Scotiabank are doing free credit cards for non PR's at the moment. Can anybody confirm this? They're closed now so I can't call.

Trying to get myself a check up for this Saturday and see what he says.

You won't get more than $500 out of Scotiabank. They are pretty pathetic.

Will a dentist let you set up instalment payments? Maybe offer to pay 30% up front (or more). We did it with daughter's braces. Maybe we were less of a flight risk but it's worth asking.

Or try and appeal to a bank's better nature - there might be one in there somewhere.

I have an appointment with CIBC on Monday, they do the card with $1000 dollar limit. I just have to show him my visa so there's hope yet. My dentist is closed until Monday but I'm going to try and get an appointment for a different one for tomorrow, I don't think I can cope with the pain until Monday

Just going to bite the bullet and put the treatment on card but I'm definitely going to ask about a payment plan first. Long shot but I can only try.

You don't have a credit card from your home country you can use????

you can get personal dental insurance with pacific blue cross, it's like 21 a month for one person, from what I understand you do have to wait 3 months before you can claim and you only get 500 or 700 dollars covered, which isnt great but it would take a bit of sting out of the final bill.


I was mistaken it is 27 per month http://www.pac.bluecross.ca/individual/dentalonly.aspx

Slightly off topic but good to know. Is that a secured card though?

Thanks again everybody for all of your advice. You've been so helpful.

My dentist today was kind enough to fax over a repeat prescription for antibiotics to the pharmacy rather than me wait until Monday so I started the course this morning. I hope they kick in soon as I'm currently lying here in agony. I've booked myself in for treatment in early May when the infection will hopefully have been well cleared by then.

I asked the guy at the bank if I have to put money on the card first in order to be able to use it and he said no which is good. I just have to take in my passport and visa to the appointment. Never again am I putting off anything like this because of expense. It's not worth the pain

So that's $324 a year and hopefully you have nothing done. Or it might pay for a filling or two.

It doesn't sound too appealing unless you're looking at several fillings or crowns, or something. Or maybe the root canal. But that level of treatment is quite unusual isn't it?

Five years worth of premiums are $1600 and might very well pay for it.