So my teeth used to be heavily crowded and impossible to floss, plus as a teen I had very serious depression and executive dysfunction. My teeth were a disaster by the time I got braces on, and those things seriously impeded my ability to brush and stuff. I got them off a few years ago; one of my molars legitimately broke in half when I bit down on soft chocolate, it was so bad.
It’s been a lot of repairative work and I’ve been lucky to have access to it. I’m told I’m doing well on caring for my teeth now which is rad. But two seperate people, my dentist and one of his guys, made a funny suggestion.
“Yeah sis, you got this super strong toothpaste right, 1.1% sodium fluoride? Just leave some of that on your teeth every night, in your lil plastic retainees, trust me sis.”
This feels so incredibly wrong, like I didn’t even rinse my mouth, and now there is toothpaste on my teeth. I’m supposed to sleep like this? This shit is as bad as upper lip estradiol absorbtion. Why am I tormented by silly sensory suggestions lately? ‘Just leave the toothpaste on’…
As someone with terrible teeth I can relate. I use the exact toothpaste you’re talking about. (I don’t wear a retainer to bed though). I was told I only need to leave it for half an hour though (no drinking water or rinsing or anything in that time), not overnight. I did get used to it being on my teeth after a while, but talk to your dentist about that if leaving it on overnight makes it too difficult? It might be expensive to get the toothpaste, but since teeth are luxury bones, it will probably save you money in the long run as you’ll need fewer dentist visits.
Oh, a half hour each night sounds way more doable. I have acid rn from inevitably swallowing toothpaste out of my retainers! Also yeah, I’m fully resigned to $12 toothpaste for the rest of my days, since I don’t want another tooth to rot in half
Yeah, I’ve been there. It sucks. It was hell trying to convince the dentist to remove it (they wanted a very expensive root canal instead of the much cheaper tooth pulling). Try talking to your dentist about it, I’ve never really heard of “all night” toothpaste, so maybe you could find some compromise like brushing your teeth half an hour before bed or something.
What toothpaste? Does it help with bleeding gums? My teeth are fine, but my gums not, but instead of any toothpaste, all dentists want me to pay a few hundreds for a “deep cleaning”. I don’t see any issues with my teeth genuinely and don’t have the money, and my insurance doesn’t cover it.
Bleeding gums is a sign of infection and typically requires a deep cleaning coupled with antibiotics depending on severity
I wish the dentists would do anything, but they say I need to pay hundreds for the deep cleaning. No mention of any sort of medication. I am going to try to do daily flossing and see how that goes.
Yeah make sure you’re brushing at least twice per day and flossing daily maybe followed by a swishing with Listerine (not alcohol free). The issue is that a deep cleaning attempts to go low beneath the gum line and is a different kind of cleaning than a regular one.
When it comes to paying they may be able to either waive part of the fee or allow you to pay over time. The deep cleaning often takes more than one visit since the mouth is treated in quadrants. If it is painful you should be able to request numbing gel too.
I use a special flouride toothpaste to help prevent tooth decay, and if your gums are having issues, it could be because you don’t floss enough, it’ll hurt for a couple of days (or even weeks) but if you floss thoroughly every day your gums should do a lot better. I was also told by my dentist that when I’m brushing my teeth I should aim much lower down, touching the gums, instead of the top of my teeth to help prevent that sort of thing. It’s mainly about making sure you floss daily and stay well hydrated so your gums don’t recede. It hurts a lot at first, but after a couple of weeks it gets much better than before.
If you have a lot of trouble using regular floss, you can use something like these (I don’t know what they would be called in your part of the world, but they make flossing so much easier than regular floss):
I have those, but my teeth bleed so much after I don’t really want to use them. I’ll try to force myself soon. I know of the technique to also brush your gums, I’ve been doing it for many many years.
Can I recommend a water pick/irrigator? They aren’t super expensive, and really really effective!
https://www.waterpik.com/products/dental-water-flosser/WP-670/
I paid like half of the MSRP for mine.
It does suck for a while, your mouth will bleed a lot at first and it hurts a lot, but it stops hurting after a while (and is much cheaper and less painful than a deep clean). The hardest part for me was remembering to do it every day, you can forget a day every now and then after your mouth is used to it, but you need to do it every day for a couple of weeks at least. Also the hydration part is really important too, make sure you’re drinking enough water every day, it helps a lot with receding gums.