Recently I had an extraction done and it got me thinking; some weird questions started swimming around in my head. But before I get to my thoughts, have you ever had a toothache?
I have heard folks say it’s the second worst pain to that of delivering a baby; that I wouldn’t know about…yet. But OH MY GOSH, toothaches feel unbearable. I mean of course we bear it, but it feels awful. When my tooth hurt, I feel like the pain is even where the pain isn’t; it seems other body parts, far from my teeth, tender spots are aching too, seriously. Years ago on top of a toothache, my sister-in-law almost whooped my butt for taking almost an entire bottle of Advil in one night, trying to get rid of the pain. And of course, the visit to the dentist isn’t much fun either.
Up to grade 10 in high school, I had never been to a dentist. Then the school added a dentist office to the medical building and it was mandatory that we got checked. So the nurse checks my teeth and says “wow, you have really nice teeth, you take good care of your teeth”. Then she asked when my last visit to the dentist was; “huh, dentist, I have never been to the dentist ma’am”. She gave me this incredulous look and then proceeded to clean my teeth. Six months later I had my first cavity; I hate dentists.
Back then maybe the reason why I didn’t have any cavities and had really good teeth, was that I lived in the country. Going to the dentist every six months was not an option; but I access to almost every fruit on this island straight from the trees or the ground. We had cane, jackfruit, star apples, bananas, coconut jellies, oranges and the list goes on; you name it, we probably had it, even guavas. Childhood memories…hmmm. They say cane is good for the teeth and I had lots of cane back then; we sometimes had more fruit than food due to our financial situation, but loved it.
But as I said in the beginning, my recent tooth troubles had me thinking back to my first cavity and the good old days. In the days of old, (far back as biblical times) did they have dentists? If they did, what instruments did they use? How did people take care of their teeth, because I am sure they didn’t all walk around with rotten teeth or toothless grins after awhile due to unwanted cavities? And since Colgate didn’t exist then, what did they brush their teeth with, salt? What did they use to clean their teeth, chew sticks?
So why does our teeth decay? I know lots of the problems we have now stem from foods or so they say. With all those gross preservatives and additives, no wonder we get sick easily. But if we brush and floss everyday, twice and sometimes thrice daily, why does the condition of our teeth still deteriorate? Is there any way I can care for my teeth, so that I do not have to go back to the dentist?
Looking in, looking forward…
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