Tag: teeth

Talk about toothbrushes

Toothbrushes… they seem to be one of those things you can find anywhere and in all different types and styles, and it seems that it really doesn’t matter which one you pick, because they’ll all get the job done about the same. The electric ones seem to be the only real difference in quality of result… supposedly, anyway. I’ve never read a study on them, and advertisements don’t really use quality ones to express their preferred outcomes, so we may never know the actual facts of the matter. It certainly makes sense that they’d be more efficient, but it isn’t a guarantee.

Anyway, I have a comment on this: The greatest toothbrush I have crossed to this day is the Preserve recycled yogurt cups toothbrush.

First off, it’s being kind to the planet in a way. That’s great. They even ask to have the toothbrushes returned afterward for further recycling of the plastic. Even cooler.

Secondly, they have various levels of bristles softness. I use the ultra soft, of course, because I don’t need to be pushing hard on my teeth. We all have our own opinions for our own teeth, of course.

Thirdly, and this is the best part, they have a curved handle. Instead of being a straight stick that requires us to open our mouths wide to get to the back, this curved one makes it loads easier to brush anywhere in the mouth without opening up the mouth a whole bunch (and likely spilling) and without having to get creative with wrist angles. In a way, it is a lazy man’s non-electronic toothbrush. It’s awesome.

And, just for fun, fourthly, they come in all different colors. Beautiful.

Anyway, try them out. They’re aesthetically pleasing and ergonomically efficient, as well as kinder to the environment than other brushes and just plain neat. They’re only a few dollars. So far as so can tell, while you can get them at Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s always carries them for much less. Likely, any local health-type foods store will carry them, too… that whole genre of shops, you know. Preserve toothbrushes. They’re stellar and totally worth the quality price.

Post-a-day 2023

Fantasies

Some people fantasize about being rich or indulging in fancy yet unhealthy foods or about diving into physical or sexual acts.

Actually, that probably covers most people…

Anyway, about what do I fantasize, pray tell?

I fantasize about not having to brush and floss my teeth before bed.

To each his own, you know? 🤷🏻‍♂️

Post-a-day 2023

Nightmare…

“Honey…”

“What?”

“You’re bleeding! Your teeth! It looks like you’re trying for a horrible Halloween costume.”

Apparently, he had flossed his teeth rather hard, and then put in his aligners… which then were holding in all the blood in a very creepy way. It had seeped in between all the upper teeth on the right side of his mouth, and was a light layer of red on the front of each tooth with a dark pooling effect in between them all.

He went to rinse it out and was blown away – he’d had no idea I was serious about its being a lot of blood. “I could have given a blood sample with the amount of blood that came out of the tray,” he said.

Yikes.

Happy dreaming!

Post-a-day 2023

Aches and pains

My left shoulder has been giving me some surprising grief this past week, and I’ve also had a lot of trouble sleeping well. At the chiropractor today, she said that the shoulder pain was mostly due to my jaw’s being slightly out of place. She then did some subtle shifting inside my mouth, and I felt almost I stand relief in certain areas of my neck and shoulder. The rest, she said, would dissipate over the next day-ish, as it likely was pain due to inflammation that remained. So far, it has gone down loads more since she adjusted my mouth this morning.

She also mentioned that clenching my jaw might be a factor… something that I know myself to do sometimes at night, though I haven’t yet figured out when I do it versus not (because I definitely don’t do it all the time – I can tell the next morning whenever I’ve done it overnight). But she also is concerned that my aligners might also be the culprits…, which, unfortunately, wouldn’t surprise me. I haven’t been able to rest with my teeth together ever since I had my teeth straightened… I spend the whole day with my lips closed, but my teeth never touching, and I had to train myself to do that. Not sure it was what was best for me to have done, but it was what I did as my teeth got straightened out. However, they never aligned for me to set them together comfortably. I have to push my lower jaw out in order to rest them all together.

Post-a-day 2023

Dentist says…

I’m all clear. The black spots are just charcoal toothpaste that got into crevices that aren’t dangerous and that they will clear out at my next cleaning, if even needed at that point. Not black mold. The sore tooth is just sensitivity likely exacerbated by that same charcoal toothpaste. Just have to be liberal with sensory r toothpaste for two weeks, and it should be fine again.

Easy peasy, yet still a bit stressful until it is all handled versus just diagnosed. You know what I mean?

Thank you, God, for the easier and safer solutions today! Amen!

Post-a-day 2023

Dentist

I have an appointment in the morning at the dentist. I scheduled it online the other day, because they were already closed. You see, I have a side of a tooth that is acting an awful lot like a cavity. I mentioned that it hurt when the hygienist was cleaning it a few months ago, but she didn’t do anything about it, other than comment that it was clearly sensitive, so I figured it might just be okay. I thought it might have been another case of my guns going below the regular line on a tooth, and exposing a more sensitive area on the tooth. Now, however, I’m not so convinced.

To add to that, I noticed Friday that I had these little black spots on the top of one of my lower molars, and I started to freak a bit. Last year, the sealant on one of my upper molars had cracked, leaving black mildew(?) growing under the edge of the sealant. Since it was up top and not all the way in the back, no one had been able to see it, myself included. So, I had to go back three days later to get that fixed, and I freaked out meanwhile that I had mold or something in my mouth. It was stupidly terrifying. Now, I’m a touch worried it is another version of that. However, I’m also, in a lesser way, worries it is merely my charcoal-based toothpaste that is getting stuck in little ridges of the tooth, and it is really nothing to be worried about.

Whatever the case for both teeth, I am hoping that tomorrow morning will provide a clear answer and solution to the possible problems. I’m just hoping that they’ll do it then and there. I wrote why I was coming in in the booking, so I’m hoping they scheduled enough time for whatever needs to happen to happen tomorrow morning. If I have to hang out there all day just to get it all handled, I likely will. Hoping it doesn’t come to that, though.

Dear God, please, heal my mouth and its contents. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Uh-oh

Is this slight pain in my tooth a cavity?

God, forbid it, please, and heal my mouth, please.

I take such good care of my teeth and my oral health. Even the dental workers are surprised with how good of a job I do.

It could just be exposed too far down the tooth, and so it is sensitive. I do floss somewhat often…

Oh, God, please, let it just be that. Please. Heal us all. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Bleeding hearts

Man… if only I hadn’t already brushed and flossed a bunch and put in my retainers for the night. I could really do for a fig right now, what with the hugging quality of them and all right now. Alas, I’ll settle for some stretching and reading and going to sleep early for a while (before I wake up in the middle of the night to have my meeting… ugh…. haha.).

Post-a-day 2021

Reminders and Surprises

I think we are given exactly what we need, exactly when we need it in life.

I have not recently been earning loads of money. I began this week a short-term teaching position that pays much higher than my recent earnings. I was looking forward to getting a few things handled, financially during this time working here, earning more money. I also am prepping for some really fun new work to begin once this teaching position finishes this Fall.

However, I had a chunk of a filling – a filling that never should have been replaced, was replaced poorly, and has been falling apart ever since – fall out the other day, to the point that it must be fixed now, as I cannot bite effectively anything at all with any front teeth. I called the old dentist and asked if they would do anything about the filling. After an extremely frustrating telephone call, I thanked the office person, and evaluated my options. I needed to find a new dentist.

I almost immediately called the dentist who was recommended to me by a dentist buddy of mine (who lives out of town), and whose website I had rather liked. Of course, I hadn’t let all the frustration release yet from the first phone call, and so was practically sobbing as I chocked out my explanation of why I was calling their office. The office girl was wonderful, though, in all ways, and even got me an appointment for that afternoon. Suffice it to say that everything about this dentist’s office felt right. I signed up for the yearly dental cleaning etc. plan with him, and have a cleaning and check-up scheduled for next week.

The repairs on my teeth, however? He definitely listened to me and heard me in everything. He seems genuinely to care about my situation, rather than as though it is just a job. He does dentistry, because it helps make a positive difference in real people’s lives almost every day. So, the plan for fixing my teeth to the full way I want them to be long-term is just over eleven hundred dollars. And, from comparing prices elsewhere, that’s actually quite a decent price, since he’ll be doing teeth whitening with it. (Because, let’s be real here: I want beautiful, straight, white teeth. I’ve got the straight part finally, and they’re white-er, but not all the way to where I want them. And the fillings [both front teeth need them] are part of the beautiful aspect.) However, it is still $1100.

But maybe I can handle that, especially with the 6-month payment plan option.

However, something large and loud hit my windshield on the highway. I was shaking afterward, it had been so terrifying, and the crack so loud. The windshield insurance I had purchased took days to get back to me, at which point the crack had spread. They said they wouldn’t do anything for such a crack, as it was longer than only a few inches…. ‘So, what is the point of your windshield insurance? It would cost less to get a chip filled anywhere, than the fee I pay monthly for your nonsense insurance…. What are you actually insuring???’ And so, when I went to a glass repair shop today, they said the crack had now expanded too much for safety, and that they would not even plug it to stop it from running further…, but they would have done so, had I not waited on the response from the insurance place, and the crack hadn’t grown so much… UGH…

So, how much does the replacement cost? Oh, a thousand dollars. Because the car is too new.

I pray to God that the manufacturer’s warranty or something will cover some part of this replacement. I have an appointment with the dealership tomorrow morning. (They give shuttle rides from the dealership via Uber, but won’t give return rides. So, you can drop off your car to them, but you can never get it back…) This way, though, since I have an appointment, they can handle the other problems I’ve had with the car lately, of which I had to get videos, in order to prove I wasn’t making up the problems. But I have the videos now…

So, we’ll see how that all goes…

Anyway, so all of this is happening, right?

I go to a resale shop, meeting my mom there, to find some work pants for me. Yes, fitness is great, but not fitting into the only business work clothes I have is not great. So, I need new work pants…. aka more money needed to be spent… ugh…

We find nothing, and that’s okay. I trust the World and God.

As I am leaving, I am presented with a situation that reminds me of the value and importance of commitment, intention, and just going for it, no matter how odd or uncomfortable it may be socially or emotionally – when it is what needs to happen, just do it. That is how we help make the world a better place, step by step, day by day, interaction by interaction, person by person.

And all of my monetary frustrations, though they did not disappear, suddenly were not so important as they had seemed. No, I don’t know how I will manage all of this yet. But that “yet” is what makes all the difference. At some point, I will manage it all. I trust that, as I believe in myself and my life and the world around me. I am not here to suffer, but to make a positive difference in the world through being my whole, fully self-expressed self.

And so that is exactly what I shall do. I am nervous, but also calm now. I can only do what I can do, and stressing about something serves no one.

Post-a-day 2021

Timing

I was considering tonight how, even if I had worn my retainers to work, no one would have even known. And that isn’t because they are from Smile Direct Club, and so they are clear solid plastic, and, therefore, practically invisible when on my teeth, but because we wear masks, and so no one even sees my mouth, let alone my teeth at work. At the gym, sure I smile all the time during the tough workouts, but any other time people are nearby, masks are covering our mouths.

Which had it occur to me that this past year would have been the perfect time for people to get braces, both teenagers/pre-teens and adults alike! Think about it. Most people have either been going in to work or school with everyone in masks – teeth not seen – or have done video conferencing in which the video quality is not high enough for people to notice something so small on their screens, especially in group meetings, where even faces are quite small on the screen. 99% of one’s interactions would end without anyone being the wiser regarding the braces.

How cool is that? Same deal with having a baby, I suppose. Work from home, get pregnant, produce a baby, and wait until seeing people in person after it all, and suddenly start showing off this baby that you never mentioned to anyone outside the family. Totally bizarre, sure, but also hilariously reminiscent of high end people formerly sent away on extended visits to aunts or the likes in order to conceal pregnancy. But with a super happy ending instead, of course. Mom keeps baby.

As a note, my cousin actually kind of did that. I, of course, was in favor of her saying nothing about her pregnancy; just announcing the baby itself via a fun-themed party that no one would have guessed was about a baby (especially considering that no one would have known that she was pregnant in the first place). However, she did not do that. Naturally… haha.

Anyway, so, those are my thoughts this evening. Fix teeth. Have a baby. Get super fit! Re-enter society like nothing is new. What a fun way to spend a year of shut-downs…

Post-a-day 2021