My appointment was scheduled at 9:30am, I arrived at 9:45am and I was late because I could not find where the clinic was. Was my first time there, this dentist is recommended by my friend. Arriving there late, the 10 o’clock patient have arrived and the doctor was attending to her. She was there for about an hour or more and the 10:30am appointment has arrived too. So I decided to tell the nurse that I will go pay my bills and have my breakfast and return later.
Returning at 11:45am, there were more patients! Gosh! How many did I have to wait just to get my teeth clean? Well, guess that is the result of it for me being late.
Finally at 12:20pm, I get to see the dentist, a young looking and friendly dentist. He taught me a few things today. Like why do we need to use a medium or hard toothbrush if the plagues are soft? Why do you need to brush so hard if the plagues are soft and easily removed? Well, you see because I use a medium toothbrush and it caught me that I do brush hard sometimes; telling me that will only hurt the gums. Just because we want our teeth to be clean doesn’t mean we need to torture our gums. He does have a point (well from a dentist lol)! Not just that, he told me that we should not use any alcohol substance mouth wash because it will make the enamel on our teeth weak. I never knew mouth wash has alcohol substance in them.
So the dentist checked my teeth and he said “Your teeth are perfectly fine, except for some stains at the back (that can’t be remove mind you), a small filling at the side, you do not need any scaling or cleaning by me at all.” Lol? I was surprised! The first dentist that tells me that! He did tell me that my front teeth are slightly in danger claiming that it is sharper than normal teeth (I don’t know how to explain this, but like erm… normal tooth are rounded at the sides, but my are sharp and two tooth side by side is getting even at the bottom). I suspect it may have been me grinding my teeth when I sleep in which my previous dentist told me of (not like I know I grind my teeth, then hit me that when I was studying part-time, I had a few nights that I got awoken up by my own teeth grinding. So I guess it was that. Lol). He keeps thinking that I chew with my front teeth. I told him I don’t, I chew on my right mostly. So I told him it might be the teeth grinding when I am stress two years back. He advised me to go for stress management lol. I suggested an easier method! EXERCISING!
Well, so it means I waited form 10:00am to 12:30pm to see him and have him tell me my teeth are perfectly fine and getting some tips off him. I got charge RM20 for consultation fees.
Leaving the dentist I went to Guardian and purchased an alcohol-free mouthwash by Oral-B. Came home and threw my Listerine away that I haven’t use for some time lol because I hated it that it is burning in the mouth and before I could not even finish 30 seconds gargling, I expel it. Guess it was the alcohol that did it! Learnt something new today! Next change, my medium toothbrush to soft bristle toothbrush!
Three basic steps to maintaining a healthy set of teeth;
Step one, brushing; remember not to brush too hard until you bleed. That means it isn’t good.
Step two, flossing; is to remove any plague or trapped food between the teeth.
Step three, rinsing; using alcohol-free mouthwash will do the trick. The rest just burns because of the alcohol substance.
Have you done all the three basic steps today for your teeth?