Before last June I hadn’t been to the dentist in 19 years. I had a terrible experience at seven years old. One of my milk teeth (baby teeth) was making me have an abscess that was pretty painful and the dentist I saw said it needed to be removed... He also said that since it was a milk tooth it wouldn’t need any numbing injections... I don’t remember much after that. But what I -do- remember is the guy pulling out what I can only describe as a pair of pliers, a lot of screaming, a lot of pain and a lot of bleeding...

Anyway. Fast forward to today...

I braved it. There was no saving the tooth. The guy had it out in minutes - I couldn’t actually believe it. I had to ask them to show me.

THIS is what happens when you don’t go to the dentist for 15 years. People, take it from me... It might be a chore to brush your teeth - it might be exhausting or just too much when you’re so tired. And I get it. I really do. But you HAVE to do it. The consequences of not doing it are far more terrible than you think it is. You will lose teeth. They will crack and they will crumble. It’s a total of FOUR minutes a day out of 1440. It’s nothing. Two minutes in the morning and two minutes in the evening.

I’ve only started taking proper care of my teeth in the last couple of years. And it hasn’t been enough. For the love of whatever you hold holy - if you have children, make sure they see a dentist twice a year. If they’re scared like I was, talk to them about it and reassure them that there’s nothing to be afraid of. If that doesn’t work, speak to the dental surgery you use about having a talk with the dentist about your child’s fears and what you can do to lessen them.

Believe me... It’s preferable to the alternative.

(Apologies - I didn’t mean for this to sound like a lecture).

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