I won’t tell you how important our teeth are for us. They are our healthy body, our mood, and our peaceful life.
Today I had my tooth treated. Nothing special, except that I’m a dentist and I used to work there and treat others’ teeth. Now I’m a bit old and can write and talk about it. In my practice, they used different filling materials and anesthesia, and the approach to treatment was different. There are many other innovations and inventions now, but the main thing remains: a healthy tooth is always better than a dead one.
Yesterday, I just bit into a piece of meat and felt the tooth with the filling crack. It cracked so badly that the filling was still in place, but half the tooth was loose. And a real burning sensation started around it—pressing it became painful. I skipped dinner and decided to fast because chewing was so difficult. And it wasn’t a molar, not a front tooth. It was a lateral tooth. Such a tooth has its own characteristics. It always consists of two roots and two nerves. All night I imagined it, trying to guess where and how it cracked.
If it’s cracked in the middle, treatment may involve its removal, as the two roots will separate. If it’s cracked laterally and deeply, the nerves need to be removed and the canals filled. And when there’s inflammation, like mine, this procedure isn’t very gentle, as the inflamed nerve prevents treatment and will react. In those days, when I was practicing, arsenic was used. It helped quickly kill the nerve and give the dentist access to the cavity. Arsenic is no longer used.
Therefore, the procedure itself isn’t very gentle.
I slept peacefully and didn’t feel any pain, although I need special treatment—I have a low pain threshold, I’m very patient, and I tolerate pain, even if it’s very severe, like renal colic or appendicitis. So don’t ask me if it hurts. I won’t answer this question very well. I’ll probably say, “It’s bearable.” And that would mean, “It hurts, damn, what are you even asking?”
This morning, I was already bracing myself for a trip to the dentist, as you shouldn’t wait more than 24 hours for a broken crown—it’s an emergency procedure.
And I agreed with myself that the tooth needs to be depulped, which will significantly accelerate its decay and quickly lead to its loss. The filling will be large, and a depulped tooth lasts a maximum of five years, after which it begins to decay, since a dead tooth has no calcification.
Just like that, a tooth gets lost out of nowhere.
It cracked. I’m over 60.
What does this mean?
It means that if we, those born between 1950 and 1980, start losing our teeth in our 20s, then by the time I’m 60, almost 50% of our teeth will be gone, especially those lateral ones. And then the worst thing will happen: to have a beautiful smile, people will start filing down and destroying adjacent teeth to put in cosmetic bridges, which in 5-10 years will take away more teeth. By my age and a little older—70—a person will end up with full dentures or, at best, implants.
The later fillings are placed on lateral teeth, the healthier the body and the longer a person’s natural teeth will last, and that means health. But if they crumble—and I’ve had two cases recently where my teeth simply crumbled. One sadly lost its nerves and now sits like a stump, awkward to bite on, but it stays in my mouth. And the second—just today. Suddenly, not from hard food, without any prior symptoms, healthy, and then suddenly it crumbled.
Does this mean there’s a problem with my system and a calcium deficiency?
Perhaps.
And not only that, in my region there’s a vitamin D deficiency, not enough sun, and my eyes are going blind—we live in the north and in a snowy country, where even perfectly healthy people begin to suffer from a lack of vital elements in the body.
And no matter how much scientists study this, no matter how many vitamin supplements they recommend, it doesn’t help us. I actually thought yesterday, driving back to Toronto at 4 PM, sitting in the car, that we’re unlucky with the sun, when I had to turn on the car lights because it was dark. The sun’s already gone at 4 PM. If it wants to shine in winter, it’ll come out for two or three hours and that’s it. Anyone who doesn’t get to enjoy it is unlucky. And it’s like that for six months a year. There are many winter days when there’s no light at all, it’s dark in the morning. And then there’s snow, blizzards, poor visibility, snowdrifts, and all that other stuff that’s so typical of Canada.
So, about teeth.
Take care of your teeth. Keep them healthy as long as possible – this is the key to your good health and your good mood.
