"Brush those teeth, little boys and girls, and they'll always stay healthy and strong!"
You know what, tooth guy? You lied. Right to my cherubic, toddler face.
I have had two — TWO — real cavities in my life. I have (admittedly) been lax on my yearly cleanings since my parents' dental insurance dropped me, but I bought me one of them 'lectric toothbrushes around the same time. Forget your analog toothbrush! Step into the future!
Anyhow, imagine my chagrin when my mouth, startlingly, began hurting something awful. I woke one morning to inexplicably find that sipping a cold beverage led to a sensation not unlike a knife traveling to random locations in my mouth. And pain makes me swear. A lot. I've been facing some serious mean mugs in public domains after taking a swig of ice cold something or other, and then reacting with a censorship threshold lower than a Tourette's tic. Whatever, man, it hurts! Ladylike posturing be damned.
Defeated by pain, I finally went to the dentist to see what was up. I could see the guy chastising me already: "You've skipped your annual cleanings for THREE years straight? Girl, your mouth's jacked. What's your insurance deductible for dentures look like?"
Instead, Mr. Dentist anticlimactically reported, "Nope, no cavities." Whuh? Ten x-rays and various biting on things and getting stabbed by things later, and it's determined I need a ROOT CANAL in my front vampire tooth! The horror!
"That's weird," skillfully assessed Mr. Dentist. "Nothing usually happens to those front teeth. Oh well, it's dying. Go get your root canal with such and such specialist guy."
"What??!? I don't even have any cavities! Why is this happening? Was this my fault? Could I have brushed more!??"
"Nah. It just happens sometimes at your age."
It just happens sometimes. Teeth just die. Like people who for no particular reason happen to drop dead. While in your mouth.
Article comments
1 - Joanne Huspek
Girl, get a second opinion. Dentists can be just as wrong as doctors.
2 - Marcia Neil
During mid-life growth spurts, smiles must stretch which means that the teeth re-position themselves from deeply set-in positions -- causing pain. They also move around, even fall out, but can be returned to the socket to be tightly held once again. There is literature that claims that teeth are alive, but the teeth dry out when outside the mouth, making them brittle things that can be swallowed if care is not taken during the re-arrangement "cracking" period of the growth spurt.
3 - El Bicho
"During mid-life growth spurts,"
So I should expect a growth spurt in my 40s?
4 - Joanne Huspek
I think that's a sideway growth spurt, El B.
5 - Marcia Neil
If space is limited, the teeth will be affected negatively growth spurt or not.