OK. Let’s get personal for a moment. When I was young I used to love sweets. Heck, scratch that… I still loves sweets. Who doesn’t ?
I ate a few too many sweets. Lots. I used to go to the local shop in my school lunch-break and buy sweets. I loved them and I didn’t brush my teeth properly either.
As a kid, like many other children, I had a lot of work done to my teeth. I had a brace, fillings and lots of other stuff done. Then one day I had a filling and I had to have an injection in my mouth. I was in my early teens but it freaked me out. The dentist wouldn’t pull the needle out even after I went mental. He kept telling me that he’d have to keep it in my gum longer if I kept getting stressed out, but he kept the needle in there.
It put me off dentists for ages. I skipped check-ups. I didn’t go for years, but I did ensure that I brushed my teeth properly. Trouble was, I brushed a little too much and made my gums recede. Not good.
My wife convinced me to go to a dentist, so I did. The dentist had a go at me for skipping check-ups, then proceeded to tell me that my slightly receding gums were my fault and I should have gone for check-ups.
It was annoying. It was 10 minutes of a pissed-off dentist telling me off for not getting checked. So I decided to leave, and didn’t got back again.. for years.
I spotted a local dentist in the paper and again my wife told me to go for a check-up. I did, and he did the same. He told me that I should have gone for check-ups and there wasn’t much they could do because I’d brushed too hard. Try Corsodyl. Go away. That’ll be 80 quid please.
Skip forward to this week and again my wife told me that I should try again. This time I went to Jacme Oral Care and saw a different dentist. She was lovely. I sat down for my check-up and asked her if I could talk about a few things. I told her that I was pretty scared of dentists and I was fed-up of being told that nothing could be done.
She checked, and said that I wasn’t anywhere near the worst case she’d ever seen. The receding gums were due to over-brushing but they could put some cosmetic fillings onto the sides of the teeth. She also told me that I needed four fillings and one would need that “needle in the mouth” thing.
I trusted this dentist, so I went back today to have everything done. It took well over an hour and yes, that needle hurt a bit, but nothing else did.
Now my teeth are fixed. I’ve just got to stop brushing so hard. Moral of the story – if you don’t like your dentist, change to another one. Find one that you trust. If you trust them then you won’t be as stressed. Oh, and take care of your teeth. Don’t run off from the dentist like I did.