My Home Dental Care Routine Got An Upgrade

My Home Dental Care Routine has recently received some upgrades.  It’s funny how we focus on certain aspects of our self care.  On this blog you have seen me talk about my Morning Me Time (here), the importance of my Nighttime Winddown routine (here), how I cook and eat, how I take care of my skin.  I could go on an on about all of the things that I do to try to stay healthy.

Well, I thought I took decent care of my dental health until a few weeks ago.  Ok, I have to fess up that I don’t go to the dentist as often as I should.  That has been my least favorite doctor visit of my entire life.  However, I brush regularly and floss some.

I’ve had a back tooth that chipped and it has a big silver filling in it.  Remember those?  So I knew that I needed to get it taken care of.  When we thought we were moving out of state, I just decided to wait to find someone new then. Fast forward a few months.  We didn’t move far at all so it was time to find a new dentist locally.

Why I’m Upping My Home Dental Care Routine

The dentist visit did not go well.  The girl who cleaned my teeth made me feel like I was 94 instead of 54.  Honestly, she went on about how I needed to take better care of my gums.  She informed me that I brushed my teeth too aggressively.  Who knew of such a thing?  My aggressiveness was not good for my gums so she gave me a Peradontax toothpaste for gum issues, an extra soft toothbrush, floss, and suggested that I get an electric toothbrush.

The other reason is that once the dentist came in she informed me that I needed a quite large sum of money to be spent on my teeth.  It was a “YIKES” amount.  The lower tooth could possibly hold a filling as a fix, but really needed a crown.  My two front teeth the enamel has worn off of them so they needed some work.  The doozie that really woke me up was that a tooth that was crowned had bleeding gums, was very sensitive when they used their little tool on it, and the X-rays were not good so I needed to see an oral surgeon.  So needless to say, I left the office feeling quite numb.

Since then I got another opinion and still need to have the work done, but I am just much more comfortable with my second opinion and his opinion wasn’t as alarming as the first.  September and October are filled with dental appointments.  In the meantime, I have started some new dental care routine habits.

How I’m Upping My Home Dental Care Routine

1. An Electric Toothbrush.  This makes it so that I am not too aggressive and I must say that my teeth feel really clean after I use it.  I had always hear that you should brush your teeth for two minutes and thought that I did a pretty thorough job until I started using this toothbrush.  It shuts off after two minutes.  Let me tell you it seems like this little thing is working on my chompers FOREVER.  I challenge you to set a timer.  You will also think it’s an eternity of brushing.  This article explains  why and the benefits of brushing for 2 minutes tice a day.
2. An Oral Flosser.  Yes, a friend who is a retired dentist recommended that I get one of these.  Like I said, I was not a good flosser.  This makes it so much easier.  I use it while I’m in the shower because it’s kind of messy.  I usually use it while the conditioner sits on my hair for a couple of minutes.  Nothing like multitasking.
3. Flossing picks.  Oh my, these are so much easier that dealing with all of that string.  They also seem to do a much better job.

Well, I guess we will see the difference in 6 months when I go back to get my teeth cleaned.  It will be interesting to see what kind of feedback I get from my home dental care upgrades.  In the meantime, I will be seeing a dentist more than I really want to.  Funny how visits like this make you realize that even though you think you are doing a good job of taking care of yourself there is ALWAYS room for improvement.

Until next time.  Remember to always have a little SASs in your day.

Hugs,