You know, if I weren’t a logical person, I would think it’s time to stop chewing gum.
I’ve had three teeth now that have had various problems.
- I broke this one in half crunching down on a popcorn kernel. The half that broke off was irreperably shattered when I masticated the next bite.
- Another tooth simply fell apart while chewing gum.
- And the third tooth, several weeks ago, felt like the middle just dropped out of it while chewing gum. Suddenly, just like tooth two, I had some extra ‘crunchies’ in my gum out of nowhere, and gum kept sticking to that tooth due to the large hole that just opened up in it.
Downright weird! In the last two cases, I’d had a clean bill of health from the dentist on prior examination, but the decay was either disguised by an existing filling, or in the case of tooth 3, it was at an angle that was difficult to discern in standard X-rays.
Anyway, I got it repaired yesterday. I’m not normally nervous at the dentist, but for some reason yesterday I was nearly terrified. It was a very uncomfortable feeling, but after a lot of pain for several hours yesterday, the tooth today doesn’t hurt anymore and just feels a little sensitive to cold. And it’s nice that I can go back to my gum-chewing with no pain and no gum sticking into a hole.
But I still worry that I’ll end up like many of my relatives, with massive dental problems by the time I’m forty. And I brush twice a day and floss once a day! Then again, I didn’t get into that habit until I was twenty-five and began worrying more about my health. I guess twenty-five years of poor dental hygeine are just catching up with me…