I think I should probably be embarrassed to admit this, but it seems I took the risk and it worked out OK.
Today I had my first dental check up in, I am pretty sure, about 20-something years.
I don't know why - I had some older amalgam filings replaced in the last bit of dental work around my mid 30's. And that was replaced with the white stuff instead of the old amalgam.
Since then, I got married and had kids and am pretty sure never got around to going back to the dentist. Maybe 7 or so years ago I bought a cheap dental pick from (I think) Daiso and use it occasionally to held remove the tartar (stupid word that) which can build up behind my lower front teeth, regardless of morning and evening brushing and evening flossing. (I asked a dentist what that was about - why do I only get it there - and was told it is because it is near salivary glands that produce a lot of calcium ions to repair enamel. That made me stop worrying that I was a failure at brushing, and perhaps my saliva is just particularly calcium rich.)
Anyway, I had a couple of minor issues I wanted to get checked and finally went back to a "new" dentist today. I didn't like the old one much. He got very cranky with me once when I was late for an appointment.
The result - I made a full confession to the dentist, but she didn't find any cavities or problems. X rays show no hidden problem. She did take a long time to give my teeth a proper clean though, and I sort of promised not to leave it another 20 years so that the next clean could be quicker.
But I do feel somewhat vindicated that my 20 year hunch that my teeth were, by and large, not getting any problems, seems to have been correct.
[Actually, I seem to recall that my father had an enormously long gap in seeking dentistry too, and when he finally did there was not much wrong. I think flossing had been "in" for a good couple of decades but he never did it. Is there something about the middle aged mouth that means more youthful propensity to decay stops or slows down? In my father's case, it could have been pretty regular evening alcohol consumption, perhaps. He was very big on drinking port (or sherry) nearly every evening. Does that work like a bacteria killing mouthwash?]
Sherry and Port are sweet so they are bad for the teeth. It takes high concentrations of alcohol to act as an anti-septic and its a very short-lived one. Sugars are pathogen foods and will rot the teeth, more effectively from the bloodstream, and so from the roots of the tooth, then from the visible tooth.
ReplyDeleteThey say brush your teeth. But coming off the high glycemic food is far more important. Because you will find that the teeth you lost mostly went bad at the roots. Getting rid of sugar is more important than brushing. I ruined so many of my teeth prior to my 40's and have been losing them slowly since. But it was the sugar and not the lack of brushing that was the killer. As all the evidence suggests.
They say brush your teeth. But coming off the high glycemic food is far more important.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how many people have enamel erosion because of too much brushing. I still have all my teeth, no cavities since my early 20's, and I don't even brush every day and have never flossed. Part of that may be down to luck because it has been suggested that tooth decay is dependent on the bugs in our mouth. Which touches on Graeme's point about alcohol because perhaps it is also killing the good bugs. Fruit juices are terrible because of the sugar.
Like Steve I rarely see the dentist. I think the yearly check up stuff has more to do with their next Mercedes than oral health. 6 years ago I thought I had a cavity and went to the dentist but they found nothing. However an X ray indicated I had a draining abscess elsewhere. I didn't believe it(even radiologists admit interpreting imaging is difficult) and they were annoyed arguing one day I would wake up with a huge lump in my mouth. 6 years and still waiting for that to happen. Incidentally it is not wise to have dental x rays at every visit because I have seen abstracts arguing for a clear correlation between dental x rays and some forms of cancer. Do the dentists ever mention that?
Best thing I have found for oral health is Dental Pro 7. Very expensive but I bought a bottle many years ago($100) and still haven't finished it because I only use it if I have sore gums. If you go to the website thousands report huge benefits and saved teeth despite what the dentist said. It hasn't been formerly tested but it works for me and many thousands of others. Dentists probably hate it. 😉