be a zealot about dental hygiene

This has really paid off – only two 4s, everywhere else is 3 or lower.

Yay for me!

I so fail at this.

Unfortunately, I have never had very good dental hygiene. I’ve had a few fillings and am very inconsistant with brushing habits. I rarely floss, leading to plague buildup which could be detrimental considering that my wisdom teeth are impacted and susceptible to infection. It’s about time to step up my game.

Brushing regularly, flossing and poking around on a daily basis now. As a result, while my check-up today wasn’t perfect, I got an A- and no lecture about how I needed to improve. So I think I’m finally doing well enough with this to mark it as “done”. Man, how long has this one been on my list??

My 5s became 4s and my 4s became 3s. My hygienist and dentist were hoping for better, but honestly, I’m terrible at doing the whole routine once per day, much less twice. I’m hoping for all 3s or better by the end of the summer.

I am hoping that a new rotary head toothbrush will help.

My grampa may he RIP… was a member of the local(in Michigan) Exchange club and their public service was dental hygiene for all…. and growing up with this and having my (then) best friend’s dad being my dentist also didn’t hurt :>P

anywho… Time line roughly looked like this… nearing graduation from college I had been distracted from routine(read every 6 months) check ups… and then Went out OTR (truck driving for a few years for the omage(sp) to Grampa(other side of family) who was one of those “knights of the highway in the 60’s.

that time turned into nearly 4 years since the last check up by my dentist. I had many 2’s, a few 1’s, and several 3’s.
The time spent working on plaque(etal) and the basic x-ray updtaes ended up taking a little over 40 minutes in the chair (including chit-chat with the hygenist and the doc too).
They both asked what had I been doing during the last four years to keep my teeth so healthy. I shrugged and said – I’ll tell you exactly what I’ve been doing -you’ll probably be surprised…

1.) Oral B electric brush (rotating-sorta head) twice a day
2.) toothpaste is and has been for nearly a decade now non-floride(sp) typically tom’s (no plug just fact)
3.) real Aloe vera gel
4.) hydrogen peroxide
5.) orthdotist “pixie sticks” on occasion
6.) always try to brush the tongue too!

now the simple details… a couple cap fulls of Hydrgen peroxide always with the toothpaste (LOL I’d foam like a mad dog).
Sometimes I’d use the Aloe(similar amount to toothpaste) with the peroxide. [I learned the Aloe thing from camping friends in the 70’s Man do the teeth feel squeeky clean afterwards]
sometimes I’d brush with toothpaste AFTER the aloe… paste before the aloe just doesn’t taste as okay. Go figure.

The hygenist said that with the admitted level of tea or coffee/hot chocolate mixes I drank while OTR and afterwards my front teeth discoloration was not backing up the statement as there was no real staining. The dentist agreed. I offered to show them my 32oz thermal mug that showed the wear and tear of 2 years and 200K miles of use (giggles)...

anywho sorry for the earbending… keep up your effort and goals will be achieved! (thumbs up)

FYI, I’m gonna link to my LJ – hope you don’t mind….

I just got back from the dentist. They did a full set of x-rays in addition to the usual cleaning and exam, so I was there for two &%$ hours.

OK, so my QQT was to get all 3s or better. I did not make this goal, so I do not get to take this off of my 43things.

But…my 6 became a 5. Several of my 5s became 4s. And many of my 4s became 3s. So, there’s been progress.

I’m keeping the same QQT: all threes by the next appointment. This means:

Absolutely brush, and floss daily – can not slack for a day on the floss thing. And then, this is the one I still really fall down on – use the dang rubber tip thing every single day, not just a couple times a week, when I remember/feel like it.

This is actually possible, I think, to get all threes. Bringing the 5s down, the crevices in the inside back teeth – those are going to be the hardest.

It has a timer. My teeth are in decent shape and would like to keep them healthy for the long haul.

This would save me a lot of pain…