Went to my phobia dentist yesterday.

You would have thought I was going to the Electric Chair.

I sit down, they do all the x-rays and she comes back with "well, your tooth is fine, you have a deep filling, but it's all intact and everything looks fine, but the doctor will examine you after your cleaning".

I really don't like dental cleanings. I don't like anyone poking inside my mouth. But it is what it is and the more cleanings you have, the easier it is each time you go. The less tartar they have to scrape.

She puts this numbing gel on all the teeth (And I asked all my friends and even Alan and they never do this with them).

Not that she was killing me but when she probed, I yelled and I said "did you hit a nerve?" and she said; "I'm not near any of your nerves" and I said "so why does it hurt?" and she said 'well, I have to get into the gum line and you have tarter in the back where your brush didn't reach. It was more my nerves than anything else.

So she works on me for about 45 minutes. She did such a job, there is nothing left in my mouth. She got everything out. She scraped (but she is very gentle), but thorough. She dug around that back tooth and I was just fine. She said "believe me, if it was this tooth, you would have jumped out of the chair". My tooth has been just fine (as well as my head and jar, for the last week)

So my lovely phobia dentist walks in and says hi and examines me and says "your teeth are perfectly fine, no cavities, WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING, YOUR X-RAYS ARE EXACTLY THE SAME AS THE LAST TIME, YOU TAKE VERY GOOD CARE OF YOUR TEETH EXCEPT YOU DIDN'T COME IN FOR REGULAR CLEANINGS"

I said 'what about the back tooth", and I told him of my experience about one month ago (it's all cleared up for 7 days now, no more headaches, no more pain in the back tooth), And he examined my jaw and the TMJ and he felt the clicking when I opened and closed my mouth. and he said 'yeah, you had a bad TMJ flare-up, did you have any stressors?.

I told him about my son (can't really go into it, but take it from me, he has caused us a great deal of stress). Well the doctor listened and said "Oh my god, you poor thing, that DEFINITELY would cause a flare-up and inflammation and spasming. You've been spasming in your TMJ which affects the nerves, blah blah. See, I knew this, but I had to have HIM TELL IT TO ME. And I needed a cleaning. A really good cleaning.

He then said 'use anti-inflammatories when you feel a stressor coming on. Try and keep away from stress. (yeah, right,lol)

He also asked me what kind of tooth brush I used. I said "well, I did have the Oral B Electric Professional one by Braun but it broke so now I'm using the $20 electric one.

He said "No, not if you want your teeth to get rid of all the build-up and tartar".

He said "the ONLY toothbrush I recommend is the Oral B Professional, or the Smart Series 4000 or any of the GOOD Oral B electric ones. They cost from $99 to $200.

He said "I tell ALL my patients that if they want easier cleanings every time they come, that they HAVE to use the Oral B (good ones, not the cheap ones).

He also took out his sample one and compared it to the cheap ones. He showed me how different they work and how thorough the better one is for getting your teeth clean.

I will do anything not to have her dig so deep next time.

So I'm online seeing how much they cost.

That's my next purchase.

And (you'll find this interesting), last night (after I finished up with the dentist and walked around NYC for 5 hours), I went to the Neuropathy Support group meeting. I spoke to Steve who runs the meeting and I asked him "how are you with dental cleanings?" He said: "There isn't a dentist alive who will touch me with a deep root cleaning" and I said "why not"? and he said "Because when you have Neuropathy, you have damaged nerves and they are afraid of damaging them even more, remember Dolores Hart (who became Mother Hart), well she was an actress who later on in life got Neuropathy from a Root Canal. (Never knew this could happen). So Steve can only get surface cleanings and he gets a prescription of Tetracycline and opens up the pill and rubs the powder into his gums (I gather he does this every so often) to prevent infections.

And when she was cleaning my teeth, I asked the hygienist "are you giving me a deep root cleaning?" and she said: "Oh no, you would have to have the WAND for that (My phobia dentist does not use injections, he uses the WAND), IT'S GREAT!!!

I then asked her "well, why can't you WAND my whole mouth for this cleaning?" She said "do you know how much anaesthetic that would be?" I gather they only do sections at a time for a deep root cleaning. I had that done many years ago and I had to do this in 3 or 4 visits. And that was with injections. NEVER AGAIN.

to keep my gums in tip top shape I use a products that I get from GNC. It's called Silver Biotics. I just take a dropper full and place on my gums, and thankfully I've been doing just fine.

My doctor says "my teeth and gums are just fine'. People used SILVER way back before they used Antibiotics so it must have some kind of good effect on the teeth and gums.


So now you know about my experience with my TMJ. It's a come and go kind of experience, and I hope I never have it that bad ever again.

Melody