For those of you not “in the know”, before this year, I had gone a fairly significant amount of time without having a teeth cleaning. When I finally did, the dentist gave me the dental smackdown, and informed me that I had horrible gums, and I would have to change my non-flossy ways, lest I live a life of gumming pre-chewed food. This was followed by two “deep cleanings”, which involved novacaine and a lot of digging beneath my gums with scary dental equipment, after which I was sent home with an antibiotic mouthwash and instructions to floss twice daily. Which I totally did. I had another appointment 6 months later, and apparently things had improved, so I was able to reduce to flossing once daily. W00t. Still not satisfied with the state of Sha’s Gums, though, my densist scheduled another appointment, which I had this Tuesday, and she said I still have bad gums, at least in my back teeth. Apparently daily flossing will no longer cut it (and I do floss every day, and I mean actual days; not the lying-for-dentist-every-day), so she told me to buy a proxy brush, which is one of those little pick things with bristles on it to clean out the enormous gaps between my back teeth.
I relayed my sad story to Jon at work, and he informed me that he had the same issue (i.e. good teeth, bad gums) and said that he bought a Sonicare tooth brush, which really helped him. So I made the trip to Target, dropped $100 (!!!!) on a friggin’ toothbrush and some Listerine. If my gums aren’t BEST EVAR at my next appointment in January, I may actually cry.
In unrelated news, at 5:30 this morning I was woken by the sounds of Spanish-language talk radio (complete with laugh track!) echoing throughout my apartment complex. This was no ordinary radio, though, this was total 100-decibel-cranked-up-to-eleven- *intake of breath* waking-up-everyone-and-their-mother-or-in-my-case-dog radio. After some investigation I went outside (carrying my cellphone for self-defense) and discovered that the sounds were coming from the Taco Bell parking lot, with which we share a wall. I briefly considered calling the police (there have to be noise codes in Mountain View), but decided I was too sleepy, and spent a minute or two trying to figure out if I knew how to say “TURN OFF YOUR DAMN RADIO” in Spanish, but instead put in ear plugs, and tossed and turned for about 30 minutes before getting back to sleep. Yo Quiero Sleep.
Fun Factoid: The guy who plays Deputy Garcia on Reno 911 was the voice of the Taco Bell Chihuahua. Apparently he made enough off of that ad campaign to buy a house.
Tags: dental hygiene, dentist, rant, sonicaire
Let me know how that toothbrush works for you. I was thinking of getting one.
My dentist told me to switch from Listerine to ACT because ACT actually (harhar) has flouride in it to prevent cavities while Listerine just helps with bad breath. Plus she told me to always use soft bristles. Happy brushing!
The Reno 911 / Taco Bell guy’s brother worked at Open Harbor when I was there. When Carlos had a standup appearance in the bay area, he sent an email out to the company urging everyone to go.
So far the Sonicare is pretty neat — seems to work well, and makes sure I don’ t brush too hard. The proxy brush is annoying and makes my teeth-cleaning routine about 5 minutes longer than it used to be.
I don’t have problems with cavities, just gum issues, and supposedly Listerine helps with that. But it makes my tongue hurt.