Health, of the Dental Sort

Health, if you have it, then you probably aren't thinking about it much, if you don't have it, then it's probably what you think about most of the time... part of getting older is realizing that you aren't as young as you used to be... that isn't supposed to sound funny, it's honest and true. I just don't bounce back as quickly as I used to, I am a pretty healthy individual, in-spite of the fact that I haven't done all the things I could have to take care of myself.

So in a "better late than never" attitude, I am kicking up my health routine, I've already talked about the big M that is working its way around my body now, (sorry guys, I know some of you are still cringing over that discussion), another part of my body that needs more care is my dental health.

Let me give you a bit of history, growing up, my family didn't have things like dental insurance, I don't even think we had regular health insurance, it was just too expensive for a big family, so things like going to the dentist just wasn't top priority, fortunately our genetics allowed for good teeth, we didn't have dental problems even though we did very little to take care of our teeth.

Well, when I hit 15 or 16, for some reason it was decided that we would go to the dentist for the first time, I know it's shocking to some of you, but that was just the facts of life for us. Believe it or not, I only had one cavity, a small one on a lower back molar. Unfortunately the dentist we went to had a terrible bedside manner, he berated me severely for having so much tartar on my teeth, like it was my fault! It seemed to irritate him to no end that I had tartar on my teeth and he was having to deal with it. He unceremoniously scraped the tartar from my teeth, filled the cavity and sent me home, well I went home with a toothbrush and a very sour attitude toward dentists. His negative words seared my soul and kept me from going to see another dentist until I was in my 20s.

Once I became an adult, I worked in an industry that was very hung up on appearance, I was a hairdresser. By then, I had very crooked teeth and was very self conscious of my smile, I just wouldn't smile, if I did smile, I kept my lips closed as much as possible. I also had a major buildup of tartar by then, mostly on the inside of my teeth, not so visible but I knew it was there. The company I worked for was a big company with deep pockets, they wanted to keep their stylists happy so they sent us to continuing education and they sent us to motivational speakers, my favorite one was Zig Ziggler. Ziggler told a story about a man he knew who had crooked teeth, he didn't smile much either, Ziggler asked him why he just didn't have it taken care of, well that man did have his teeth fixed and it changed his life, of course Ziggler elaborated much more on that story than I am here, never the less, it filled me with hope, I sat there with the dozens of other stylists soaking up that story in particular, I decided I would fix my smile too.

I'll cut this off here and continue with a part 2 in a few days... I have a reason for posting this particular story, I need to pick up where I left off on my dental health, I did get my smile fixed, at the cost of $1000's of dollars, it was worth every penny I spent and fortunately at the time I could afford it, but now with little access to dental care even if I had the money to go, I am having to take action myself, I have a plan in place that hopefully will get my mouth back into a healthy state and will also keep up my physical health.

Look for part 2 coming soon... :)

Disclaimer, I am not a health professional, nothing written on this page or website is meant to diagnose or treat any health issues, this is not meant to replace any medical professional's advice. I am only telling you what I am doing and what is working for me, follow at your own risk, I am not responsible for any damage, health issues or worse as a result of you trying anything I am using or writing about here.


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Wretha,

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