Dental Awareness Dayie on Transplants!

OK, so those of you who did not grow up with me don't know the extent to which I have had instruments in my mouth...dental that is, you cheeky monkey :) Over the years I have encountered: over four years of braces, rubber bands that popped my jaw out of the socket, a retainer with attached fake tooth (called a flipper), an implant (hence the title of this blog) that required bone grafting, and four wisdom teeth that turned into two infected sockets. Finally, when I reached grad school, for the first time since childhood, I had no more dentist, oral surgeon, or orthodontist appointments. I didn't even have bi-yearly cleanings at that point since I couldn't afford dental insurance.

Now, at the youthful age of 26, I have returned to health and dental insurance (hooray!) and have begun the process of finding a dentist who I like. This is something that is very important to me. I went through two dentists out here in San Diego already. One was sufficient. A little bit too suave for my toofer needs, but successful in reattaching my fake tooth, nonetheless. (Yes this bugger does in fact fall off every few years; ask Kyle Lennon who accidentally punched me in college during a wrestle match and sent my tooth flying!)

The second lady was no good. I'm not sure if it was her Eastern European bedside manner (think Zoolander daiye spa without the feather duster) or her old yellow couch, but things just didn't jive. And after she diagnosed me with two cavities (my first EVER), it was downhill from there. Unfortunately, one of said cavities shoots pain up my face every time I eat on the right side of my face, but my new dentist assures me that we will slowly work on that.

So, that brings us to Dr. Gray. I only give this whole back story to emphasis how truly meaningful it has been to me to find such a glorious dentist. He's kind, thorough, talks like the father in "Bye Bye Birdie." He's quite amazing. And he has the same name as my childhood doctor who I loved! (Dr. Bonnie Gray, you were my hero.)

I thought I'd just take the time here to mention a few new things going on in the dentist world that I was completely unaware of until this Monday when I saw Dr. Gray for my first cleaning with his staff. First of all, apparently they have soothing fillings that you can get if you first get one that hurts your nerve endings (like mine). Second, they started doing this thing to measure the gingivitis in your gums where they measure the thickness of your gums at each tooth with a rubber-like tool. Third, plaque can start to deteriorate your gums/teeth/bones within 24 hours! So, floss like you've never flossed before :) My dad used to say that was the one lesson he wanted to make sure we got, but did I get that? No! It was quite a wake up call for me.

So, the moral of the story is: if you haven't been to the dentist in a while, they have some really cool things going on there now! It's like a carnival! OK, maybe not, but still.

This photo's reasons for being here are twofold: 1. You can see the hard work that went into getting teeth like those! haha 2. That's my work photo. Gotta love it! Safety first!