There was a long time when I neglected going to the dentist. Then about 5 years ago, I had a dental emergency and I went to he local dentist. Since then he had me coming in for 6 month cleanings. Then the year before last he changed it to yearly cleanings.
My teeth are not very great in my opinion. They are yellow and see through or translucent and they look weak and there are some chips on some teeth at the front. I don't like them.
I suspect this is due to a few different factors:
- a high sugar diet from when I was younger
- neglecting the dentist
- never flossing
I changed so much of my habits over the past 5 years. I changed my diet. I started drinking more water and drinking water after every meal. I started flossing. I kept on top of the dental cleanings.
My teeth are not great but I do my best to look after them.
Then this summer something happened. There was so much. First at the start of the summer, my mother who I live with went batshit crazy (I m suspecting dementia with her) That was a stressful time. Then I got sick several times. It was sickness after sickness. Then I think maybe I had some sort of a slight depression or something. Work was also very demanding and there were weeks when I had up to a 90 hour work week. There were work days where I started at 5 or 6 am in the morning and didn't finish til 11 or later at night.
Throughout all of this I started going to bed without brushing my teeth. Not every night. I still brush my teeth most nights but then there are other nights and I am like - fuck this. There were nights when I was too ill to stand up and brush my teeth. There were nights when I was too tired to brush my teeth. There were nights when I just didn't care any more.
I am doing my best now to recover and pull myself out from this and I am brushing my teeth now every night. And also flossing.
Unfortunately my teeth are beginning to show the neglect what happened. Some of my teeth look rough. I think I can also see some tartar.
I am on yearly cleanings and my next cleaning from the dentist isn't until next year. I wonder if it would be OK to phone my dentist for a clean g when he had me on yearly cleans.