How are your gnashers?

I'm lucky Hygeinist-wise in that have never had much needing doing and my gums etc are 10/10, yet teeth........

Loopylou and Juliette, are you able to have veneers? On of my front teeth chipped. The dentist could have filled it, but it was not going to be stable. She suggested a veneer. I was sceptical, but agreed. It is fantastic. I went slightly lighter than the other front tooth because the Dentis said that it was beginning to deteriorate as well and eventually would need a veneer.

The cost was much cheaper than an implant and you do have to be careful not to bite off thread or cello tape with your teeth! x

You can ask for a hand scale rather than having the sonic scaler. I have that now as the sonic thingy left my teeth so sensitivev that I couldn't clean my teeth properly which rather defeats the object!

For sensitivity, I use Colgate Pro Relief, on my dentist's recommendation, and find that it works well!

Three months ago I would have said mine were fine - then a tooth broke so catastrophically that the remains had to be extracted, so I currently have a big gap, fortunately at the side so it is not very visible, but I am now faced with the cost of either an implant or a bridge, if that is possible.

I have been advised not just to leave a gap as I already have a very bad 'bite', which has caused problems and if the adjoining teeth move into the gap it will make a bad situation worse. I have an appointment in a month and whatever is done I will probably need a mortgage to pay for it.

I investigated veneers but too expensive and I have an overbite which might have caused problems with the fitting and how long they would have lasted. Unfortunately my two upper front teeth are discoloured from being replaced after they were knocked out when younger, so am lucky to have them.
Dental phobia not improving!

I had a root canal filling done from the top of the roots instead of the bottom two days before Christmas in a last ditch attempt to save a tooth otherwise it will have to come out and get an inplant.

I've twice heard top men from the British Dental Association say that if your teeth are good, you only need a check-up every year or two.
Also, you don't have to have your teeth scaled and polished. I had it done once and a chunk of tooth fell off so never been back.
Most people of my generation had our teeth ruined by dentists who were paid to drill and fill.

I agree, apricot, and I do get rather fed up with the apparent assumption by both dentists and dental hygienists these days that it's because we haven't looked after our teeth!

I agree with you Apricot. We had very few sweets, no sugar laden drinks and processed food, yet I haveh more fillings that my children. I blame poor dentistry in the 50s, 60s and 70s. x

Certainly not guilty of that Ana, first taken to dentist aged 2, so nearly 60 years of dental visits and problems have only arisen in past couple of years.....

Although I had considerable orthodontic treatment in the 1950s, for which I am truly grateful, my teeth were almost filling free until my 20s. For no obvious reason I needed endless dental treatment for decay in my 20s and have had no problems since, until the last few months.

I think our dentists have always treated us to the best of their knowledge but dentistry, like medicine, is constantly developing, so obviously dentistry in the 2010s will be better than that in earlier years