So, sorry I missed you guys last Tuesday. To be honest, I was still pretty sick with sickness and stuff. So yeah.
I don't much like to delve into myself here, it ruins the sense of mystery surrounding my online persona. But this here blog post is gonna get a bit into my real self, so yeah, don't come looking for me. This outing out, I wanted to talk about teeth. More specifically, yours. And I want to tell you a few things on how to take care of them in case something bad were to ever happen to them.
1. The nerve inside your tooth likes to be healthy. If it isn't healthy, it hurts. If you want to gauge how bad your tooth really is, try a scale of one to ten. Common triggers of pain are hot temperatures or chewing pain, but in my experience, the most reliable method to test the degree of crapiness about your tooth is cold temperatures. If you drink cold water and you would say the pain comes and lingers on for more than a few seconds and you would say it is up in the seven or eight range, then chances are your tooth is not doing well. Go see a dentist.
2. Dentists are nice people, really. They want to help you. Listen to what they say and obey.
3. If you get antibiotics from your dentist for a toothache, there is a chance that your tooth may start to feel better as infection is cleared out. DO NOT BE FOOLED, the pain will come back. Antibiotics will not cure your problems, they will just stave them off.
4. Infection ALWAYS comes back.
5. Make your regular dental visits to have a cleaning and get a check-up.
6. I don't care if you think you are lucky in life, if you have wisdom teeth, they will cause you problems. Some people, and by some people I mean VERY FEW, can let their wisdom teeth come in and not have a problem. If you are in the 0.000000000000000000001% of people that this happens to, go to Vegas and place some bets, you might get lucky. For the rest of us poor saps, get them evaluated and if need be, get them out. Wisdom teeth are usually too far back in the mouth to properly clean and so they usually accumulate mounds of plaque and calculus (not the mathematical kind) which can sometimes actually give you REALLY bad breath. This is compounded by the fact that wisdom teeth usually come in all scattleywompus and crooked and such, which causes them to erupt in a fashion that is not very healthy for the molars in front of them. Then you are losing bone and get to my old nemesis, Periodontitis.
7. Floss your dang teeth if you want to care for your gums. Healthy teeth (or lack of cavities) are all fine and dandy, but all it will afford you are some really healthy teeth that will fall out of your head if your gums are shot. Your gums can easily get to an inflamed state of being, known as gingivitis ("Hey, I learned that from a Listerine commercial!"), which is reversible if properly treated. However, it can progress to periodontitis if not treated, which is when you start losing bone support for your teeth and that is when they get all wobbly and fall out of your mouth. So yeah, love your gums too, m'kay?
8. If you are not a patient of record at an office, PLEASE don't call the dentist at 10:40 at night and ask for them to call you in a prescription for pain meds. The dentist does not know you, does not know your situation, cannot use his or her magical x-ray vision through the phone to see what is going on with your tooth. It just makes the dentist skeptical of your actual state of pain, which makes them think you are just seeking drugs. Yeah, I don't like those phone calls. Wait until the morning at the start of the business day. Look at it this way, you wouldn't go to a hair dresser or barber (whichever you prefer, really) and ask them to cut your hair while blindfolded, right? How can they properly work if they cannot see what is going on. Same thing with the dentist, they need to see what is going on in your mouth before they can properly diagnose and begin to treat a tooth. And another thing, and this might just be a pet-peeve of mine... don't self diagnose your tooth. Your job is to know that it hurts and tell the doc what symptoms you have. But don't start shooting off words in my ear like abscess and stuff like that. I went to school to learn to diagnose, let me use my knowledge. When you begin to self diagnose and request a specific treatment, ESPECIALLY if that treatment is a called in prescription at 10:40 at night, it just makes you look like a Seeker.
9. Just to restate, don't be a drug seeker. It's not cool.
10. Ever stubbed a toe in the dark? Hurts like crazy, right? This is my most important point-- don't get freaked out by a little tiny poke to get numbed. It is like a fraction of the discomfort as stubbing your toe in the dark, especially if it is the pinky toe, which it always is. Your anxiety over getting that dreaded "shot" to get numb doesn't help you in the long run, and actually can make the dentist more upset, depending on the severity of your anxiety. And let's be honest here, would you EVER rather be worked on without getting numbed first? Let's not be silly... the TINY discomfort of the injection is magnitudes less than the discomfort of getting a tooth pulled or a cavity filled without being numb. So the next time you need to get numbed for a procedure, try THANKING the dentist for saving you mounds of pain and trauma by giving you the blessing of a numbed tooth.
So there it is, some easy advice to help you in your own oral care. Take it for what it is worth, which in my opinion is worth a lot if it saves you any time, stress, and money the next time you need to see your dentist, which by my estimates, should be every 6 months. Get on it.
I've been flossing! Hooray :)
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