Four out of five dentists agree

Growing up I wasn’t so good with the flossing and brushing routine. My mother would scold and nag my brother and me to no avail. We just couldn’t be bothered to do much beyond brushing. Flossing? Forget it.

I'm sure the lack of flossing is at least partly why I had a series of very deep fillings when I was 12. This was back in the dental dark ages when not every dentist gave Novocain and so it was that all eight of those fillings were done au naturale. Did I mention how deep they were?

And so it was that I learned to dislike and fear those twice yearly visits. I would have nightmares a couple of nights before the exams and I would always try to undo months of not flossing by overdoing it for a few days. That always made my gums look awful, which in turn got me more attention, which in turn made me dislike going even more. You get the picture.

When I was 19, though, I read an article about periodontal disease in Cosmo magazine of all places. For whatever reason, that article woke me up to the fact that if I brushed properly and flossed every day, I could reduce my need for dental work beyond those check ups.

And so I changed my slacker ways and got on the floss bus.

It’s paid off too. I haven’t gotten new cavities since then and the only dental work I’ve had has been to maintain/repair those fillings (which by the way, even though that dentist scarred me for life, those fillings have endured extremely well – I still have three of the originals left).

I’m off for my semi-annual check-up and cleaning today. And I didn’t have any nightmares last night either.