I grew up in the seventies and eighties in Britain. This was apparently not dentistry’s finest place nor time. Up until about 1988, I was happily oblivious to this. That was until I went to an Australian dentist who revealed the bad news – not only did I have really bad teeth (in that they have suffered significant decay and below-average dental work) but there was also a lot more to be done.
So began my new relationship with dentists here in Australia and the start of my tooth envy. Just to put you in the picture, apart from my front and bottom four teeth, most of the others have had some form of (usually painful) dental procedure. Some have relatively small fillings and others have more serious problems.
I have friends who have grown up here and they don’t have a single filling – not even one. How can this be? Didn’t we all eat lollies and forget to clean our teeth from time to time? Haven’t we all been guilty of over-brushing, under-brushing, using decrepit (sparse, even) toothbrushes, squeezing dry remnants of toothpaste from an empty tube? Yet many Australians remain dental-pain-free, fat-walletted and straight and white of tooth. Not fair, just not fair.
My dad has some false teeth, and some are his own. They sit on a wire construction that he slides in when he wakes up and takes out at bedtime. I watched this, horrified, when I was growing up and knew that that was not for me. No matter how old, no matter how financially-challenged I was determined to avoid that fate.
So when I found out that three or four of my teeth were no longer ‘viable’ I had to make an important decision – false teeth or implants. I have two tips, especially if pesky dental issues run in the family, have a private health fund and find good dentists. As a child I was terrified of going to the dentist and as an adult, well, let’s just say I don’t hate it or them anymore.
I still have tooth envy, especially when I see a beautiful smile revealing near-perfect white teeth. But I also have four implants, some replacement fillings with less silver, slightly crooked but nevertheless healthy teeth and a range of delightful dentists at my disposal who truly understand that there’s no place for pain in the dental chair anymore.
I’ve still got more work to be done on my teeth, so I’ll continue to be a work in progress. I’ve made dentists my friends in the hope that I’ll still be munching and chewing into my twilight years without falsies on my bedside table!
