"Bless me, dentist, for I have sinned. It has been a ridiculously long time since my last cleaning.

    Yesterday Hubby and I had our first appointment in years with a dentist. We're both in fairly good shape, but neither of us were really crazy about the place we'd been going. Dr. M introduced me to Dr. John Bolen in Princeton, at our company health fair. They're pals and volunteer firefighters together. I'd had a tender spot in one tooth that bugged me at irregular intervals, and Hubby has a bit of gum recession going on, so we felt we needed to go.

    Dr. Bolen gives great cleaning. Best I'd had in a while. I pointed out the tooth that I thought had a soft spot, but he could find nothing. The most serious thing he could find was a small cracked filling in one of my top back teeth. It's possible that that was the tooth causing me problems, but I just thought it was a problem with my lower jaw. He went ahead and drilled out the old silver filling, and put a new resin filling in. I needed some pretty vigorous scraping down, but thankfully my sloppy flossing habits and half-hearted brushing has not caused me irreparable harm.

    Poor Hubby, however, is a victim of "toothpaste abuse"! Apparently years of overly vigorous brushing with abrasive pastes has actually worn away the enamel in some places. I had never heard of this before. But I guess it makes sense. And Hubby brushes fanatically three times every day and flosses twice a day. So he actually has been directed to brush without toothpaste, using only Listerine in the morning and Act (fluoride rinse) at night. And it was suggested he get an electric toothbrush, which he can't exert more pressure with. We got him one of those Crest SpinBrushes. Eight bucks. Runs on 2 AA batteries. I've had mine for ages. You just need to replace the heads four times a year or so. (Dr. Bolen feels those are perfectly fine and doesn't think the expensive Sonicares are any better.)

     So again, I'm so grateful that neither of us has to have any expensive dental work, especially at this particular time in our lives! I have resolved to do much better with brushing more frequently and flossing. Plus my teeth still felt so good after yesterday's cleaning that I want to keep that going as long as I can. I just brushed this morning actually -- with just a small amount of toothpaste -- and swished some Listerine around afterward. Teeth are like knees: Keep your own as long as you can!."

Mood: relieved

    Dror Lahav                                                                                 July 29, 2011

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