Overwhelmed and anxious about cleaning teeth

[ElizaDoolittle]

Hi
Quick back story:
I have always been awful with cleaning my teeth and dentist visits. I have previously had many issues in self care due to trauma and anxiety so avoidance was normal. However recently I have been working on healing myself and went to the dentist for the first time in 9 years.

I have to have 4 fillings! One is also super close to the nerve so that's fun...

This was a huge shock to the system for me obviously and I have since been working hard to brush and floss 2x daily (I even watched tutorials for flossing ?‍).

Today I notice that on my front teeth, some brownish stains near the top of my teeth toward the gums.

Am I doing something wrong? Or is it that I've just brushed enough to reveal the stains?

The whole process of brushing well enough, floosing correctly etc has me feeling very overwhelmed

 

[Spider]

I really love my electric toothbrush. I have an Oral B pro 1000, but there are other good ones too. So mine makes a subtle sound when it's time to move from one "section" of my mouth to another. So all I have to do is gently move the brush from tooth to tooth on the top right outer teeth. It goes vrrr vrrr and then I know I have to start moving the brush over the inside of the top right teeth, etc. Its mindless and I love it, lol. It cleans soooo good too, better than a normal toothbrush.

 

[Enarete]

Hi ElizaDoolittle ,

it sounds like you have had a rough time in your past and a lot of struggle with self-care. It's impressive that you decided to make a change and even saw a dentist after 9 years! Give yourself a huge pat on the back for that. Hope your dentist was kind to you?

I can imagine that hearing that you needed 4 fillings and have one being close to the nerve shocked you and you are super motivated to make everything possible not to have it happen again. At the same time, home care can be scary, particularly if you are new to it. Btw. watching a flossing tutorial is a great thing and it only shows that you want to do it right.

When it comes to stains, the best person to ask about this, would be your dentist. I coulnd't come up with a way to cause yourself stains out of sudden and certainly not with brushing and flossing. It seems more likely that they have been there before, but you didn't notice. If you had seen a dentist lately and they didn't see anything wrong with it, then you're fine.

You seem to do a great job at brushing and flossing, but you also mentioned feeling overwhelmed, so if you would like to read some information about how to take care of your teeth and gums, you can find them here:

How to prevent and stop tooth decay

Find out how to prevent tooth decay and how to stop existing decay from getting worse.

www.dentalfearcentral.org

How to prevent and stop gum disease from getting worse

Is flossing is pointless? How do you best look after your gums? Find out how to prevent gum disease or stop it from getting worse!

www.dentalfearcentral.org

All the best wishes