My entire life I have been plagued by the evil cavity. I remember being quite young and going to the dentist and finding out I had to go back to deal with the evilness. That was back when I saw Dr. Tong. He was a nice pediatric dentist and after your appointment you got to choose a prize out of a big lions head... there was also a large waterfountain at my favorite park where I would drink out of the lions head, but that is taking me away from the matter at hand.
Since my first dental recollection I have had several more trips to the dentist. For a while (when I was on my mom's dental insurance), I would go every 6 months like a good girl should. I brushed at least 2x a day and didn't really floss all that often. Cavities still silently invaded my mouth. The dentist explained that I just had deeper crevices in my teeth than everybody else.
While I was gone away to college I still managed to eek out an annual visit usually at Christmas. Also during college, I was a fanatic tooth brusher. So much close contact... bad breath=turnoff! I still managed to get cavities, though this time they were "flossing cavities." So I began to floss on a fairly regular basis (about 4-5 times a week... I know I should do everyday, but it was an improvement okay...).
When I got married, the dental insurance ended and unfortunately so did my trips to the dentist. Because I wasn't going to the dentist I let myself get a little lax in the brushing department... once or twice a day(I know I shouldn't confess that because people I know actually read this)... but no big deal to eat before bed and not brush, etc. Oddly enough I managed to keep up my 4-5 times a week flossing habit.
Jeff finally pressured me into going back to the dentist this week. Three cavities. Oh and I need to have a deep cleaning/rootscaling. The dentist said it is probably because I don't floss. I told him my flossing habits are WAY better than brushing. He then explained that my teeth looked like I was great at brushing. I don't think he believed that I flossed as often as I said I did. I know he does this for a living and is always looking in peoples mouths, but seriously, if he would have asked how often I brush, I would have told the truth... why would I lie about flossing?
My last note is actually for the staff of the dentist office: The waiting room was terrible. What was wrong you ask? Well, the decor was actually quite nice. There were some nice architectural features, good magazines, relatively comfortable chairs, even a nice plasma screen. However, the programming choice of people getting dental work done shown on the plasma screen--NOT PLEASANT! I don't want to know how disgusting it is the inside some people's mouths (if I did I might have pursued a career in dentistry, but I don't so I didn't). I don't want to know the differences between filling types; that there are bleaching procedures to take the stains off of disgusting stained teeth (before and after shots on a 60" plasma); or that you can take out peoples teeth and replace them with fakes that are permanently secured after you add a screw into the bone. These are not things I want to think about when going to the dentist (or anytime). I just need some trashy afternoon talk show, a depressing news station, or the Discovery Channel to drown out the soft buzz of the drill from the back office--Thanks!
1 comment:
If it makes you feel better, after several years without cavities I had 6 on my last visit. My dentist actually said that it would have been in part due to my pregnancy/nursing. I'm sure I don't get enough calcium in my diet...and the baby takes whatever it needs.
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