Modern Dentistry Is A Welcome Addition To The Aging

Nothing in my lifetime has changed quite so much for the better as dentistry.

I have always been a dentist’s dream. Constantly there if something wrong with one of my choppers. It all goes back to my childhood when my parents indulged me nightly with chocolate milk in a bottle. I can’t blame them, they just didn’t know the correlation between tooth decay and sugar. I’m not sure anyone had that knowledge in the early 1940s.

They did drag (and I mean dragged) me to a dentist when I was about 6 or so and I was a complete brat. I refused to open my mouth. By the time I finally did meet the drill, it wasn’t pleasant and neither was the dentist. He was an old man with a palsy, As he worked on one of my front teeth, he hit a nerve which killed the tooth. At that time, there was nothing to do but remove it.

He made me some sort of artificial tooth that constantly dropped out at the worst possible times. The old dentist thankfully retired and my parents took me to a “new guy in town” who truthfully was not a bit better. He came up with a perfect solution, or so he thought. He would pull all four of my front teeth and make me a partial. It worked for awhile but when I had it replaced some years later that dentist was also lacking in skill and gave me a very poor fit.

Enter into the picture, my husband’s cousin, a new dentist fresh out of school. He declared that if I wore that plate any longer I would have mouth cancer. He had also learned the latest technique of building a bridge. He realized my two “eye” teeth were in good shape and he fashioned beautiful front teeth out of porcelain and hooked them to the solid teeth.

“Bob” was a lifesaver. It was like I had my own teeth back although I never ate anything like candy apples or corn on the cob. The bridge lasted for many years and eventually had to be replaced, but that was okay.

My other teeth also rebelled against my early childhood tooth abuse. I had to have root canals and crowns. I got used to the whole process and outside of the pain in my pocketbook, it was tolerable. For all you lucky readers who have never had the experience, getting a bridge or a crown involves a lot of drilling and goop in your mouth to make an impression. The impression has to be sent to a lab and in several weeks you get the finished product.

Dentistry continued to improve and my daughter-in-law dentist in Albuquerque does many implants. Implants do require good bone structure which usually isn’t the case in an older patient although there are ways around that obstacle.

For a number of years, I had smooth sailing with my teeth always flossing, water picking, and brushing regularly. I thought I just might be home free.

Then along comes my heart surgery and one of the requirements is 3-D x-rays of all your teeth. The reason being that infection in any tooth will go straight to your heart during the surgery.

I was reasonably certain my teeth were fine; they were not! There was a small infection hidden under an old root canal and on the other side, there was a cracked root which was allowing infection into my system. I had no pain thanks to aging and nerves that no longer cared. A good endodontist was able to save the old root canal tooth. The other one had to be pulled.

About 6 weeks after my heart surgery, I went back to the dentist to get a new bridge made as the hole in my mouth was driving me crazy. I was prepared for all the goop and nasty stuff that would go along with getting the problem solved. Little did I know my dentist has a machine that can make a bridge or crown in a matter of hours. Instead of impression goo everything is done by computer.

When I commented on the strides forward in dentistry, he told me that it has not stopped. They are now working on a process to take blood from the patient and inject it into your mouth. Eventually you will grow a new tooth.

I’ve always been a day late and dollar short for most things and this is just one more for the list.

Meanwhile, may I urge all of you to take care of your teeth. Floss, brush, water pick, and don’t ever go to bed without completing the whole ritual. If something needs to be done, spend the bucks. It will be worth every penny. Get your teeth professionally cleaned every 6 months.

My daughter-in-law says it is not uncommon for a patient with perfectly manicured nails to rebel against the price of a cleaning and X-rays. Take it from someone who has been there, teeth are so important and you only get two sets. I know I just said eventually you might be able to grow a new tooth, but it will come at a price and is still a long way down the road.