M
Menopausal Magpie
Member
- Joined
- Dec 10, 2009
- Messages
- 52
OK. So. For those who don't remember me (it's been a while!), I had a gum infection back in January, and my NHS dentist told me I was probably going to lose that tooth, so I finally decided to take the plunge and go private, which I'd been considering for a while.
Best. Decision. Ever. Yes, it's proven expensive so far, but I am getting SO much more time and attention than I could have done from my former dentist. All credit to the NHS, and I'm sure there are many excellent NHS dentists (and yes, I could have looked for one, but getting ANY NHS dentist is pretty hard in my area), but this one was giving me suspiciously short, cursory exams, and when the infection cropped up, it was clear I was NOT 'doing fine' with my dental regime.
So, the new private dentist (recommended by a friend) has been LOVELY. She talked everything over with me, looked at the questionnaire I'd filled in from this site - I mean, she REALLY looked at it and took it to heart. The previously infected tooth has been extracted and is awaiting a bridge. (I opted not to have a temporary as I'm wearing a mask much of the time right now anyway!)
And so to the hygienist, yesterday, to have half my mouth done. She too was lovely, but it was clear when she was doing the charting that my gums were MUCH worse than my former dentist had made them out to be. So it started with 2s, and I'm like, OK...then to a 5, then an 8...and the very last tooth on the upper left back was a 10mm! ?
She assured me that it CAN be arrested - with care and attention and a revised cleaning regime from me at home - and proceeded to numb me up and start cleaning. This was almost completely painless, albeit the pressure and scraping were a bit disconcerting as she was doing it manually (couldn't use sonic, because aerosols). But she assured me it was nothing to worry about and she wasn't going to damage anything.
(I zoned out by - don't laugh - going through the plot of The Lord of the Rings in my head. I've sometimes used this method when I couldn't sleep. I got as far as Lothlorien before my attention wandered. I suspect any long book you know well might also work...)
When we were done, she cleaned me up a bit and then demonstrated (in my mouth) how to use four different sizes of Tepes effectively (I have a lot of different size gaps between my teeth apparently, and floss harps weren't doing the job), and then she sat me up and (on a model) demonstrated a better way to use my electric toothbrush. This was something my former dentist had NEVER done.
So.... I'm going back to have the other half of my mouth done in early December. The hygienist warned that it would take time - we're talking months - to get my higher numbers down to 4mm, which she says she'd be happy with as long as there was no inflammation.
I took quite a bit longer than usual to clean my teeth last night (ignore the two minute timer on the toothbrush, she said, that's a minimum, and doing it like she said I took just over four minutes). So hopefully, with work from me, this IS salvageable. But it's definitely worse than the old dentist told me...?
Best. Decision. Ever. Yes, it's proven expensive so far, but I am getting SO much more time and attention than I could have done from my former dentist. All credit to the NHS, and I'm sure there are many excellent NHS dentists (and yes, I could have looked for one, but getting ANY NHS dentist is pretty hard in my area), but this one was giving me suspiciously short, cursory exams, and when the infection cropped up, it was clear I was NOT 'doing fine' with my dental regime.
So, the new private dentist (recommended by a friend) has been LOVELY. She talked everything over with me, looked at the questionnaire I'd filled in from this site - I mean, she REALLY looked at it and took it to heart. The previously infected tooth has been extracted and is awaiting a bridge. (I opted not to have a temporary as I'm wearing a mask much of the time right now anyway!)
And so to the hygienist, yesterday, to have half my mouth done. She too was lovely, but it was clear when she was doing the charting that my gums were MUCH worse than my former dentist had made them out to be. So it started with 2s, and I'm like, OK...then to a 5, then an 8...and the very last tooth on the upper left back was a 10mm! ?
She assured me that it CAN be arrested - with care and attention and a revised cleaning regime from me at home - and proceeded to numb me up and start cleaning. This was almost completely painless, albeit the pressure and scraping were a bit disconcerting as she was doing it manually (couldn't use sonic, because aerosols). But she assured me it was nothing to worry about and she wasn't going to damage anything.
(I zoned out by - don't laugh - going through the plot of The Lord of the Rings in my head. I've sometimes used this method when I couldn't sleep. I got as far as Lothlorien before my attention wandered. I suspect any long book you know well might also work...)
When we were done, she cleaned me up a bit and then demonstrated (in my mouth) how to use four different sizes of Tepes effectively (I have a lot of different size gaps between my teeth apparently, and floss harps weren't doing the job), and then she sat me up and (on a model) demonstrated a better way to use my electric toothbrush. This was something my former dentist had NEVER done.
So.... I'm going back to have the other half of my mouth done in early December. The hygienist warned that it would take time - we're talking months - to get my higher numbers down to 4mm, which she says she'd be happy with as long as there was no inflammation.
I took quite a bit longer than usual to clean my teeth last night (ignore the two minute timer on the toothbrush, she said, that's a minimum, and doing it like she said I took just over four minutes). So hopefully, with work from me, this IS salvageable. But it's definitely worse than the old dentist told me...?