Take Care of Your Teeth!

[Pramrider]

Trying my darndest to chew on some peanuts with remaining teeth awhile ago made me think of posting this topic. PLEASE take good care of your teeth! You'll be glad you did as you get older.

I never did from elementary school age on. As I mentioned in Mandi's "Social Class" thread, with my dad the way he was and mom working at night, there was no one to really get behind me to make sure I took care of my teeth. By the third or fourth grade my tooth troubles were starting. I was having painful tooth aches from cavities in my baby teeth. Every time I would try to eat the pain would bring tears to my eyes. So, my mother took me to a dentist to have them pulled. She told him to pull every one that looked bad. He put me to sleep with gas and ended up pulling four of them.

That took care of the pain for a time, but troubles from tooth neglect continued. By the time I was 12 decay had eaten into several of my permanent teeth. Some of the fillings needed were deep and the novacaine needles painful, especially closer to the front of my mouth. The dentist was a good one and tried to lessen the discomfort as much as possible.

With all I had been through by then you'd think I would be taking better care of my teeth, but ingrained habits can be very hard to break. As I went through my teen years, additional teeth were filled and ones already filled had larger/deeper fillings put in as the decay continued. By early adulthood I had passed the fill/refill stage. I now entered the root canal/crown restoration phase of dentistry. I also had to deal with painful absesses from previous deep fillings. A couple extractions were also done on teeth too far gone to restore.

Finally, after all this self inflicted misery, I started trying to take better care of the teeth still remaining, but it was too little, too late. The damage had been done! So now many of my molars are gone. What ones remain are missing either upper or lower counterpart to occlude with. Only a few bottom front teeth have never experienced a dentist's drill. These days, many of the snacks I enjoyed in younger years are impossible, or nearly so, to chew properly. Pop a few nuts in my mouth and it takes forever to break them up with frontmost teeth. Try chewing on licorice candy and a crown comes off. To have implants put in would cost a small fortune since they are not now covered by insurance. My only recourse is to keep going with root canals and crowns as needed, and try to hang on to the teeth I have left for as long as possible. I dread the thought of having to deal with dentures. However, I see the day coming when I may not have much choice. So, again, PLEASE take good care of your teeth while you're young and save yourselves much of the pain and expense I've gone through by neglecting mine.

~Pramrider

[dogboy]

I am so right with you, Pramrider. Being adopted, I don't think I got the milk and proper nutrition that I should have. When my parents adopted me, my skin was orange because they said all I wanted to eat was carrots. My adoptive parents (real parents as far as I'm concerned) were on well water, so there was no flouride. As a result, I too grew up with bad teeth. Now I am going through all of the root canal business. I too have a wonderful dentist, and he is well aware that I am dentist phobic.

When I was little, the dentist that my parents took me to was in my opinion, a sadist. He never used novacaine, and he'd yell at me when I cried. One day he pulled a tooth leaving part of the root and nerves. When I went back for my checkup, he pulled the root out using just his pick, and no novacaine. If you've ever heard the expression, dancing on someone's grave, as we moved around N.J., we eventually wound up in Toms River. If you read when I talked about the boy who lived down the street who I so very much liked, well, he lived in that Dentist's house, after the dentist died and the house was sold. Every time I went to see J----, which was every day, I thought of this dentist. I would think to myself, I'm dancing old man. Take that!

[Abercrombiestud]

I have only had one tooth filled my entire life lol. I try to go to the dentist every 6 months but he told me I was just wasting my money, he told me I have good teeth whatever that means and that getting a cleaning once a year is good enough for me.

[ShippoFox]

My teeth are bad cause my parents are idiots that stopped taking me to the dentist after a certain age. And guess what? My mom knew I needed to go too. AND checkups are free! It's mostly just my back teeth but... I'm gonna probably end up with dentures at a young age though -_- Oh, and I've never had dental work done, so not only can I not afford it.... but it scares me a ton too! And it's not fair.... I've been taking obsessive care of my teeth....

[Cupcake]

Well I have seals on my molars so I basically will never get cavities there. I am also waiting on seals on the rest of my back teeth, but I think he wants to do this after braces are off. One thing I absolutely hate doing, which my dentist yelled at me about a few times, is not flossing. It takes too much time!

Now I'm waiting on getting my wisdom teeth out so I can get braces. I have really crooked front teeth, the second on the right from the middle sticks out quite a bit, and the left one sticks out a tiny bit. Then the bottom ones are pretty crooked too.That should be done within the next 6 months.


My brother, however, is only 11 and has really bad teeth. He had 4 crowns put on when he was 8 or 9 I think. But he brushes! And he doesn't eat too much junk food! I don't even know what it is, but he has something wrong that makes his teeth very fragile, and susceptible to cavities or whatever.

[ShippoFox]

Oh yeah.... to add to my dental problems.... I have at least one screwed up wisdom tooth! It's not hurting though.... but I know it's not a good thing.

[Cupcake]

Originally Posted by ShippoFox

Oh yeah.... to add to my dental problems.... I have at least one screwed up wisdom tooth! It's not hurting though.... but I know it's not a good thing.

Good thing it doesn't hurt! I have all 4 screwed up, they are all growing in sideways. The back left one gives me a bit of pain, but thats it. When I get them removed, they are doing all 4 in one pop, and he told me that it will hurt like a bitch... basically he'll knock me out to get them out and then put me on perks, lol. They have to actually cut my gum, and dig into my bone to get to them, which sucks.

[Lukie]

I make a good effort to brush at least twice daily. After seeing what can happen to people's teeth, I was more than motivated to prevent that happening. Besides, tooth decay is one of the easiest things to prevent from happening!

But people have commented on my teeth before. They think I've had braces (which I haven't) because my teeth, for the most part, are straight and aligned. And they think I go to a dentist often because they are in good condition and relatively white and not stained. Truth is, I haven't been to a dentist in about 5 years! :O

[Pramrider]

It's a shame there's so much fear in this day and age over going to a dentist. Most of them are pretty good and make sure you're as comfortable as possible. They strive to do everything they can to take the fear out of dental visits. You're right, dogboy, I've heard some horror stories about dentists years ago who seemed to enjoy inflicting pain rather than relieving it. I worked with a guy who had been severely traumatized as a child by a mean dentist. He said the dentist actually strattled the chair and sat on him to hold him down while he worked on him without novacaine! I don't think I'd ever want to go near a dentist either after an experience like that! He finally found a good dentist later in life who would work with the phobia caused by the first bad one. The dentist still had to give him Valium first to get him to relax regardless of the dental procedure. I understand if you're too frightened and uptight, novacaine and other numbing medications won't work as well.

We've both made sure our kids have maintained good oral hygiene. They've seen some of the problems I've gone through. If nothing else, it's been a real life lesson for them to keep their teeth healthy.

~Pramrider

[Tygon]

Sound advice, Pramrider... At a young age I saw how bad my grandparents & dad's teeth were. My grandmother got dentures at 30, grandpa & dad have had some nasty root canals & infected teeth that left their faces swollen, and my dad's teeth looked as small as my baby teeth because he had ground them down in his sleep due to a misalignment.

When I was 5-ish, I vowed to never have that happen to me, lol. So far so good, no cavities yet, though I did just have my wisdom teeth removed (3 were coming in good--I have a fairly big jaw--but one was crooked, and you basically need the whole set to keep 'em... oh well).