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Not too much happening this week as I have been visiting the Dentist for multiple root canals. I had broken a couple of teeth recently and needed these repaired as well as a front root canal I had done when I was a kid had developed a rather large abscess making me feel under the weather for quite a while. That was a fun surprise....
The annoying thing is that I always brush my teeth before bed* and usually a quick brush mid morning or after lunch with water to dislodge any stuck food particles. I also use toothpicks after every meal. Yes, yes, first some educational stuff then you'll get the juicy "Stupid things I did as a kid" story after, so stick with me through the "Stupid things I did as an adult that you can learn from" sermon first. Now there is a reason for going into this - to show that I am not a slacker when it comes to dental hygene (or any personal hygene for that matter) yet I was still able to develop a ton of cavities some big enough to weaken my teeth enough for them to crack in two and fall out of my mouth. (*Why do people brush their teeth in the morning - food just had 8-10 hours to rot their teeth. Also why do people eat sweets before bed? Rotten teeth wish again?) And yet I developed cavities, a fair few. How? The cavities all developed between the teeth, often where they came together, where a toothpick could not reach but flossing would have. I almost never flossed my teeth. Secondly I have not visited a Dentist in 16 years as I could see no problems and I brushed regularly, ate well with very few sweets. If I had visited a Dentist he would have been able to catch these cavities when they were little more than discolourations on the tooth enamel surface. When was the last time you flossed or visited your Dentist? I recommend you start doing both regularly right now. Go on, go and make an appointment with your Dentist right now, it'll save you a ton of money and a lot of needles and chopping away inside your mouth. The way to avoid visiting your Dentist is to visit him regularly, at least yearly, probably more often and get little problems fixed before they have to call on Kennards hire to do the job.
The abscess though was a different story and again my fault but this time not through neglect.
When I was a kid - I don't remember how old I was but I do remember that I was less than 5' tall so it was a long time ago - I watched Starsky And Hutch on the TV and one day was playing around outside when I ran full speed at my mothers car and jumped on the frontplanning to slide across like on the TV. That only happens with highly polished cars. What happened is my bum hit the bonnet... stuck... and the momentum drove me face first into the windshield and I smashed the top off one tooth and loosened several in the front lower jaw. One of my first stunts was an abysmal failure. Back then I had to visit the Dentist, this Dentist was different he was (i) a sadist (ii) I was too unruly in his waiting room and he hated me or (iii) he hated children despite specialising in them. Looking back at the way he gave needles was truly horrific and a professional disgrace. Not knowing any better I took it and grinned a numb lop sided, puffy faced, drooling smile looking for all the world like a special kid. Anyway I had a root canal done and a tooth removed as I had crowded teeth. The tooth that had the root canal went slightly black and I had a cap put on it. leading a hyperactive lifestyle as a kid I broke it. My mum took me in to Dr Sadist again to get it recapped. I broke it within days. Seeing as a crown was very expensive for our family I was told I was going to have to live with a discoloured tooth. And? And nothing. OK! I went back to being an average Australian kid running around full speed. Fast forward 30 odd years and the tooth next to the black one had died at some point. I had a constant slightly runny nose, slightly enlarged lymph gland under my jaw (I only realise it was enlarged now it has gone back down), and mucus in the back of my throat, not to mention a high body temperature that may also have been attributed to my constant food input and accelerated metabolism through my diet. My new Dentist checked my teeth took x-rays and showed me the large dark area at my front teeth explaining that it was an abscess (rotting nerve and pus) and the bacteria would eventually eat through my jaw bone. My response - let's fix that first. Root canal on the dead tooth next to the black tooth, removal of as much material inside as possible, horrible chemical tasting drug injected into the now empty nerve canal in the dead tooth to kill the bacteria thriving under my teeth feeding on my jaw bone. A week later the tooth has been filled, the infection seems to have gone, my constantly annoying nose (several times when I have had dealings with Police they make reference to cocaine and keep me talking for a while to check if I am high) is clearing up, my lymph node under my jaw can barely be felt and I am looking forward to seeing how I feel when my body is not in constant battle with behind the lines micro-organism infiltrators. My bodybuilding efforts might increase somewhat too considering all that wasted energy going into fighting the bacteria that I could not dislodge can now go into growing muscle. Remember - go and see your Dentist root canals aren't fun, except for the sadist Dentist of my youth.
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