The care of our teeth

[Deleted]

If there is one thing I'm a little fanatical about, that is of the care of my teeth. Well, that and keeping fit.

I brush two to three times a day, I floss regularly and go for check ups and hygiene (cleaning) appointments with my dentist every six months. I have 4 different kinds of brushes in the bathroom. I'm a little obsessed with my teeth, always have been. Maybe it's a fear of losing them?

The dentist tells me that there is no reason why anyone should lose their teeth at all. They are meant to last a life-time, and will do, as long as we take care of them properly. Maybe that statement does exempt unexpected oral diseases of some kind?

I'm just wondering what measures others might take to maintain that dazzling smile?

[lagatta]

Strangely, important though they are, our teeth are about the only part of our bodies that are not covered under the Canada Health Act.

Your dentist is full of it, simply because dental care is not a right here as care for any other body part is. Not everyone has teeth that are "good", even if brushing etc.

[Deleted]

It is strange that it is not included as part of our Health Care Service. Not sure why that would be. And it is expensive. My private health insurance pays for most of my dental care, I pay only a small percentage towards it.

[Deleted]

I went for 28 years without a dental visit, one of the reasons being that my previous visit was a total waste of time -- I had a filling that fell out within two weeks.

When I finally returned to the dentist (actually the University of Paris dental school), they were very disappointed because even though the filling had to be redone, my teeth barely even needed cleaning after all of those years.

However, the reason I went there was because of a toothache, so I had a root canal (ouch) followed by a crown in my one bad tooth. The crown fell out once, so they shoved it back in (free of charge), but I haven't been back in about 6 years now.

[Deleted]

Oh my gosh, Kerouac, that is a long time to go without going to the dentist. You must have taken good care of your teeth all those years. Maybe it's time to go for another check up now? I have known of people who will not go to the dentist and they do end up losing their teeth eventually. But much sooner than if they had taken some preventive measures to upkeep them.

One of my back teeth chipped a while back and I had to have a root canal and than a crown over it to protect it. It was quite the procedure. The dentist I go to in the City is probably the most advanced one in town. The crown was exactly the same as my original tooth. It was first mapped out on a computer and then molded and made by a highly technological 3-D printing apparatus to fit exactly.

Here is a bit more about it:

link

[patricklondon]

Time was - and until quite recently - that some people had all their teeth out as soon as they could and relied on false teeth for the rest of their adult lives. It was occasionally a 21st birthday present in some circles.

For myself, I floss and brush, of course, though the smile is hardly dazzling as a result (I wouldn't want it to be). I seem to have had too many teeth for the size of my jaw: I did get one completely redundant double-banked tooth taken out when the wisdom teeth had to come out, but what's left aren't perfectly aligned.

Still they are functioning and healthy. I go for a check-up about every nine months to a year (the advice here is that, cosmetic issues apart, there's no great health benefit to going more often, provided you're cleaning properly), and after a lot of fillings in my younger days, I've needed nothing doing apart from a quick scrape and polish - until a very small filling last time.

Plus, there is a crack around an old filling that occasionally opens up a bit (my dentist explained it all in great detail - quite an experience seeing a close-up of your teeth on a big monitor screen in full Technicolor - and sold me some ultra-high-fluoride toothpaste to rub on as an ointment when that happens, which seems to calm things down for a while).

[Deleted]

I know what you mean Patrick, about people who thought having all their teeth removed and replaced by dentures was the thing to do. It was a solution to not having to maintain their teeth, and yep, it was at that young an age - 21 or so that was the deadline. I know of someone who did exactly that at that age. Their excuse was that they got tired of having one filling after another after another. And lets face it, there were, (and probably still are), some unscrupulous dentists around who will do unnecessary work just to gain money. Especially if the government is paying, as it did and still does for those who cannot afford the basic work to be done (fillings and extractions for instance).

That crack you have around that one filling, really should be replaced by a new filling asap. Otherwise germs can seep into the bottom of the tooth and cause it to rot. And then you end up with having a route canal plus a crown on top of that too maybe...