In the 1960s, the Tooth Fairly handed out a dime for every baby tooth my sister and I lost. The family dentist was Dr. Witte who had an office a block from Main Street in Frederic, Wisconsin. I remember the waiting room. One time I was proud to announce to my mother that I had only one cavity! Dr. Witte was an older gentleman. All of the lead / silver fillings he put in my mouth have been replaced two times over.
In grade school in Luck, Wisconsin, we were given a stain tablet (GUM Red-Cote® tablets) to dissolve in our mouth. The purpose was to reveal how well or poorly we brushed our teeth. The purpose was lost on us kids. It was more fun to show each other how red our mouth was.
I learned to brush my teeth improperly and continue that technique for decades. I would scrub hard on the enamel with abrasive Colgate toothpaste. I don’t remember ever flossing until a long way into adulthood. It was only a few years ago that I learned the proper way to use a toothbrush to gently massage gums and to use ‘in-between’ utensils to remove stuff from between teeth.
My first experience with anesthesia was when I had to have my two lower wisdom teeth removed. My jaw was smaller than normal and they had to be removed to make room for the more important teeth. My mom drove me to an oral surgeon in Forest Lake. After putting the mask over my nose, they told me to count backwards from 100. “100, 99, 98, …” The next thing I remember was coming to with my cheeks stuffed with cotton.
Both my sister and I had crooked teeth. Mine were worse than hers. The nearest orthodontist was in Rice Lake, about 20 miles away from where we lived. There were numerous visits to have impressions taken, wires installed and tightened. To make the impressions, they mixed up this pink glob of paste and allow it to drip down my throat. The horror from gagging has not left my memory.
I had to wear the dreaded headgear with rubber bands! I was told the more I wore the headgear the faster my teeth would straighten. But I refused to ever wear headgear to school. I remember having to attached those tiny rubber bands to my teeth before school, and then off and back on to eat lunch. I wore braces for years. Had to have a couple of useful teeth removed because, remember, my jaw was too small. Imagine having braces while participating in high school wrestling matches. My face would be ground into the mat. I would often end the match with bleeding lips. What a relief to finally have them removed. I continued to wear a retainer for a number of years.
As I moved around the United States as a young man, I had various dentists. I remember a husband/wife couple who had a practice when I was living in the Detroit area. Nice people. They made a set of bite guards for me when I was suffering with TMJ. My jaw would pop and crackle when I opened my mouth. The guard was mean to help prevent me from grinding my teeth during the night. I still use the top bite guard to keep my top teeth from migrating too far. I lost the bottom one decades ago. My lower teeth have migrated over time. I had considered getting adult orthodontics, but the cost is too much and I’m at an age where I don’t care much anymore.
About 20 years ago I was having a dentist replace a filler in a lower left molar. He was using some kind of experimental relaxation powder-spray (as opposed to ‘laughing gas’). It did a good job of taking me out of the moment because when he asked me to bite down hard on his instrument, I bit so hard it cracked his instrument and cracked my tooth! The work was aborted for that day, but I came back a day or so later for him to finish the job. He was surprised I came back, but I figured he was the one who messed up, so I was going to make sure he finished the job. The tooth is still cracked and I’ve been able to survive without any additional work. My current dentist keeps wanting to put a crown on it. Every once in a while I get a nerve pain under the tooth when it gets exposed to something very hot or very cold. I suppose it is a matter of time before I have to force myself back into the dentist chair.
A few years ago I had my first root canal procedure. It was a molar, furthest back on my lower, right jaw. Sitting in the chair for the procedure was a very stressful experience. They used ‘laughing gas’ on me, but it didn’t seem to help prevent panic. Sitting way back in a chair without being able to cough up phlegm causes me to panic. The terror continued at my regular dentist who then had to put a crown on the bad tooth.
There was a time in my 40s when I used whitener. Gave me a white smile, however artificial. Due to all the orthodontia work done on me as a child, my gums have receded. That makes hot and cold sensations while eating somewhat painful. If I eat ice cream, I have to keep it away from my gums. The whitening process tended to irritate my gums and would cause constant pain for half a day. So I stopped using whitener.