@asemaster "I think there is no need to go to the dentist every couple of years…"
Sorry my good friend but, Bzzzzzzzz…bulla the buzzer says you are dead wrong. These are the only teeth you will ever have. You are lucky if you don’t get cavities. But, if you do and loose a tooth after several years of neglect, the cleaning bill will be chicken feed compared what you have to do to save your teeth. Dental health is correlated to overall health. Maybe most aren’t as lucky as you to be so confident they will never have dental problems. Your teeth wear away and they will break and need repair…and then there is periodontal disease you can easily get if you neglect cleaning between the gum line and teeth which you can’t do yourself…then there is loss of bone mass which can lead to tooth loss without early intervention…then there is…
This ain’t your car which at ten years old is “elderly”; this is your teeth which do not grow back and wear away like any mechanics in a car but these can not be replaced naturally.
Dot 4 is cheap at the auto parts stores and if you expect any hard use, use that. It can replace Dot 3 in any car.
Dot 5 is silicone based and should never be mixed with Dot 3 or 4. It is standard in every new Harley Davidson motorcycle because it will not remove paint if spilled.
Dot 5.1 is high temp glycol based fluid that can be mixed with Dot 3 or 4. It is very high temp stuff and great for track days, but expensive.
The main problem I see is that somebody is taking advice from Scotty Kilmer
The guy is so whacky, I wonder if he used too many drugs when he was a young man . . .
“there is periodontal disease you can easily get if you neglect cleaning between the gum line and teeth which you can’t do yourself…then there is loss of bone mass”
Yup
I have that. Still have all my teeth, but I have to get deep cleaning every 4 months for the rest of my life
And this was definitely due to bad dental hygiene . . . aka not going to the dentist regularly
Thanks for the concern @dagosa , my response was kind of tongue in cheek, along the lines of the guy in the video showing an example of one instance and trying to apply it to everyone.
True, I visit the dentist every 4 years rather than every 6 months as many people do. I haven’t had so much as a cavity in 28 years, I have had to have one old filling from my teenage years replaced. I had one wisdom tooth removed, had the dentist do it in his chair rather than seeing an oral surgeon. Never needed a deep cleaning or anything else yet either. My dentist wants me to come in every 2 years instead of 4, just in case something does come up. But I realize that my experience may be unique, or at least not the norm.
I do find it odd that people who would never ever miss a 6 month dental cleaning find it unnecessary to bring the car in for a 60K checkup.
There are lots of things we can do for a car that we can’t do for ourselves as far as service is concerned and we get lots of help from the manufacturer . Our cars are becoming less and less serviceable with fluids like DOT5 but evolution ( if you believe in it ) hasn’t caught up to the fact we are living longer then our teeth were designed to last and our diets have so much HFCS our dental health is at risk. The manufacturer of our bodies just hasn’t kept up with our increased life expectancy. Someone is slacking.
'spose a recall might be in the offing? Wait till you get my age sonny. In the last 6 months I’ve spent several thousand dollars on crowns and a root canal. Don’t know how many hours anymore and I’m flossing and brushing all the time.
Perhaps more regulation is in order? I mean if California can require that emission control devices remain under warranty for 100,000 miles perhaps they can also regulate dental wear? Say, no crowns or root canals before age 55?
My cousin and I have a theory about teeth. Milk is bad for dental health, must be the sugar in it or something. We both hate milk, were forced to drink it growing up, under some guise that it was good for you. When in our teens we were finally able to say “Enough, I’m not drinking this horrible crap anymore” we also stopped getting cavities. Seriously, the year I quit drinking milk was the last time I had a cavity. And that was almost 30 years ago. She had the same experience.
To keep this discussion automotive related, I wonder if anyone has had a similar experience with cars, like things stopped going wrong when they quit doing maintenance?
I think Tom or Ray once said things were fine with his car after he stopped doing oil changes and just topped it off once in a while. Not gonna try that myself, though.
I do have a friend who wins the award for minimal maintenance, though. He’s a retired machinist and former gearhead, but he manages to buy older cars for like $1000 and keep them running for years with practically zero maintenance. I don’t know how he does it. He just seems to know exactly how much neglect he can get away with, and his cars never break down.
I hate milk too and don’t drink it. Love malts though. I think it may have had more to do with floride being added to the water about that time. There was a big battle in Minnesota with one town that decided to go to court over it. Thought it was a government conspiracy to poison them. But then there is just the issue of genes where some people have lousy teeth and others good ones.
@Bing yeah - that’s just Honda wanting you to give them the money for the brake fluid rather than someone else. I know several people with the same car I have that have been running 4 (and 5.1) for years with no problems.
I also remember that fluoride lawsuit. I’m really glad I don’t live in that town
I’m thinking there was always fluoride in my water, I’m 45 years old.
I think genetics plays a very large part of it, and I know I’m damn lucky. Dad is 83, only missing one tooth. Mom is 70 still has all hers, a few crowns I think but they’re all still there. I had a few cavities as a young teen but none since 16 or 17.
If teeth were like cars mine would be like that old Ford Econoline that just keeps doing what it’s supposed to do.
“To keep this discussion automotive related, I wonder if anyone has had a similar experience with cars, like things stopped going wrong when they quit doing maintenance?”
I just thought of a hypothetical situation . . .
If a person is getting their car maintained at Jiffy Lube and Pep Boys . . . YES, things will stop going wrong when they quit having it maintained at those places
Therefore you should not advise others to treat their teeth the way you do
You might get away with it, but somebody else following your advice may not
True, but isn’t the bulk of our opinions based on our own observations and experience? I rarely see the dentist, do a minimal amount of dental care and have had no problems to speak of. In my experience dental care is unneeded.
Someone can buy a new car, do nothing but oil changes every 15,000 miles and replace worn out tires and have 150,000 miles of trouble free driving. In his experience scheduled maintenance is unneeded.
Getting that guy to start changing his transmission fluid every 30,000 miles is going to be as hard as getting me to go to the dentist every 6 months.
There are people here who refuse to replace a battery until it fails and carry a jump box to start the car in that circumstance. There are people here who replace batteries preemptively. Which group is right?
Looking back at some very old owners manuals (1965, 1966) there is no mention of changing the brake fluid. I agree that with modern ABS and traction control systems, changing the fluid every 30,000 miles is a good preventive measure.
