#dental issues

[reality-detective]

Xylitol is a natural sugar alcohol that boasts numerous benefits for dental health.

Unlike regular sugar, xylitol doesn't fuel the bacteria in your mouth that cause tooth decay. Instead, it disrupts their ability to adhere to teeth, reducing plaque formation and the risk of cavities.

Additionally, xylitol stimulates saliva production, which helps neutralize acids and re-mineralize enamel, promoting stronger teeth.

Incorporating xylitol into your oral care routine, whether through chewing gum, mints, or toothpaste, can contribute to healthier teeth and gums.

So next time you reach for a sweet treat, consider the dental benefits of xylitol and indulge guilt-free in its cavity-fighting properties. 🤔

[chronicallycouchbound]

If you have chronic nerve pain (trigeminal neuralgia) due to your broken wisdom tooth like I do, here’s my list of things to try for pain management. These things might help for other chronic or acute facial nerve pain issues, jaw pain, broken teeth, wisdom tooth pain, toothache, etc.

• Ibuprofen, Tylenol and most medications severely interact with my other conditions, especially my stomach conditions, so I avoid them as much as possible. Liquid versions aren’t as bad if I can find dye free, citric acid free, versions in flavors I’m not allergic to. These can help for a lot of people though, just ask your dr if you’re unsure.

• Brushing the broken area, gently, to clean out any food particles that might be stuck in it is hit or miss but can make a difference. It’s always sore for a while after brushing so that’s a con

• I make homemade clove tinctures with vodka and whole and ground cloves. I let it sit in a glass container in a cool,dark place for as long as possible and shake it when I see it (keep it with your spices you’ll remember it more). Then I take a gauze pad and get a dropper full and put it on it. Both cloves and vodka have anesthetic properties and can numb it for a bit. It’s a very temporary solution, also can cause soreness from pressure on the tooth.

• Hot pad on the cheek can cause soreness too (a running theme) BUT it helps a lot especially with cold sensitivity. After you remove the hot pad you can be extra sensitive to the cold or drafts in the air so that sucks too but it passes after a couple mins usually.

• Waterpik flossers are great for sensitive mouth issues, and clean out the tooth area with minimal soreness. Great but takes more spoons to do than toothbrushing and is less portable.

• CBD oil is hit or miss. I have other serious chronic pain disorders and just like many generalized pain management options, it can sometimes get rid of the headache I didn’t notice anymore or the joint pain I dissociate out of existence. Like yeah, glad thats gone but it just makes me focus on the other pain more. Some CBD options aren’t strong enough to do shit for me.

• Warm salt water gargle/rinse is helpful for me most of the time, and it is really important to keep any broken teeth very, very clean due to infection risk. The warmth and salt can help with the pain overall though and so far doesn’t have negative effects for me. It’s very mild in terms of managing the pain though, it’s like a soft gentle kiss on a boo-boo. Feels nice in the moment but when you’re done it usually just goes back to the pain your had.

• TENS units might work for you. I have several electrical abnormalities in my heart so I’m not allowed to use TENS but I’ve heard they can help. Definitely ask a dr first for this one though because I don’t know all the safety risks especially with facial pain

• Warm environments with no drafts or wind, ideal for this pain, for me is not ideal bc of my cardiac issues.

• Medical ultrasound machine, I’ve used these for other conditions in PT and they help a lot!! I don’t know if you can get these outside of a medical setting, especially for a reasonable price, but a provider might be able to help with this. There is the ultrasound goop they put on wherever they do it though so like, might not be fun and also might be a bit sore after?

• Last resort: adult beverages so I’m not paying attention to the pain. Works best for sleeping for me, but obviously has it’s drawbacks.

I avoid:

- Cold environments

- Drafts and wind on my face

- Cold foods

- Hard foods

- Sleeping on the side that hurts

- Chewing on that side

- Talking too much, chewing gum, etc.

- Going anywhere without at least one pain management option available

- Trying to sleep without a pain management option or plan ready to go

- Not brushing my teeth, at minimum I use mouthwash after meals

And some important reminders:

• Watch out for signs of infection and get treatment ASAP. Dental infections are no joke and can be life threatening quickly, especially if you have certain medical conditions such as heart valve disorders (like me).

• These recommendations are from personal experience, talk to your medical providers to see if they’re right for you. I am not a doctor just a humble chronically ill person.

• These are not a replacement for actual medical treatments for your condition, you should still see a professional if you can.

• Many insurances don’t cover dental, dental issues are more common amongst poor people, rooted in the idea that you can still work with fucked up teeth or without teeth . Hence why they’re called “luxury bones”

[ocean-in-my-rebel-soul]

I haven't been to the dentist since like. Early high school, so 14+ years, and I can feel two of my teeth Needing Attention. God, they hurt. Why is dental work so expensive??? And why isn't it wrapped up in "health insurance"???

[alynnl]

Health update:

I was able to go to urgent care a few days ago to get medicine to at least take the edge off the pain and reduce the swelling in my gums.

I’ve struggled with the side effects (tiredness, nausea) but I’m on day 4 of my treatment and this seems to have tapered off. I’m able to chew and digest solid food so I think I’m on the mend. Fingers crossed.

[silversneasels]

my TOOTH!!!!!!!!!! =_=

update: i got a root canal

[cr1mson5returns]

Today I somehow managed to shatter the baby tooth that never fell out on its own and led to my growing a little fang tooth at age 12, and I just feel like this is such a specific annoyance.

[muzzyca]

Ayo team Ehlers Danlos Syndrome I am calling on you to answer a question of mine.

We all know teeth is a rough subject for us, I have been diagnosed with "soft teeth" until my eds diagnosis. To my dentist it was the only explanation to my persistent cavities despite obsessive hygiene.

This is the second time I've lost a filling. This morning I pulled out abt half a tooth. Merry Christmas to me I guess.

Basically....

[oldfangirl81]

I am damn lucky. I am privileged. But that doesn't make it suck any less how much money affects the speed of healthcare in America.

I called the Medi-cal oral surgeon about my abscessed tooth. It is Dec 18 and the surgeon is gone for the next two weeks. The first appointment was Jan 4 for a consult.

I have one day left of antibiotics. And nothing for pain.

My emotionally abusive grandparents died in '22 leaving my folks some money. My mom decided to call the place she went too and see if she could just pay out of pocket to get me in sooner.

I have an appointment on December 19, tomorrow.

I am incredibly grateful to my folks but it also comes with guilt and shame. I just turned 42. And because of my mental health I have taken shitty care of my teeth and it is catching up to me.

But fuck for profit healthcare systems. There has to be a better way somewhere in the multiverse.

[simplykaren]

Vet side of Tumblr, have y'all seen any coat colors linked to worse dental issues in dog breeds, like tri color shelties supposedly having worse teeth than the other colors in the breed? Had a red dapple dachshund in today who had significantly worse teeth than her blue and tan dachshund sibling (the blue and tan is older than the red dapple too). Got me thinking on the topic again.

[12timetraveler]

The fun thing about being broke and uninsured is that six months ago I couldn't afford to go in to my dentist for a regular cleaning/exam where we may have caught this early.

So now, still broke and with little-to-no dental coverage, I get to not be able to afford the probable root canal that may need to be done at the Emergency Dentist tomorrow, or even to get the tooth yanked out.

So I just get to lay here sucking on off-brand tooth numbing gel and taking the maximum dose of Tylenol and being absolutely miserable for the next 12 hours.

[foreignobjecticus]

Rapidly going from vaguely not wanting this root canal to fucking do it do it NOW.

[jaygubz]

I was watching kid’s songs with my niece and it told her to brush her teeth to make them white and I kinda hated that. Some teeth are just naturally more yellow so if you can’t make them white is there not a point in brushing your teeth? I told her to brush her teeth to make them healthy but now I feel like healthy is such a broad word. Does a kid really know what being healthy does? I feel like I should’ve said like healthy and strong. I know it’s probably not that big of a deal but my grandparents, some of my uncles, and basically older family members neglected their dental health and my parents certainly didn’t help in discontinuing the poor dental health/hygiene in our family so I feel like if my niece was taught why we brush our teeth, why being healthy is important, etc. then it may help her in the future.

[entropy-sea-system]

put diclofenac ointment on my gums bc they hurt (deposits form every few months and my gums are already retracted so. orofacial issues go brr)/it hasn't helped much but. ugh yeah my teeth r probably 'body horror' to some bc of how retracted the gums are...

[woodelf68]

Oh god, this is me. The pain of the needle is not worth it. Plus I always had a really bad reaction after I was finally allowed out of the chair when my appt. was done, like hyperventilating and crying before I could even get out of the office. I assumed at first it was just a release of the stress after being forced to sit there and hold still while they did hurty things to my mouth, but each time the reactions got worse and lasted longer (and yeah, it was probably concurrent with my immune system tanking due to other stuff that was going on) and I finally asked on my next appt. if it could be caused by anything they were giving me. And the dentist said it was probably the epinephrine, so I couldn't have anything with that in it anymore.

So I go to the dentist and the appointment I had was not the appointment that I thought I was going to have (normal maintenance vs deep clean) so i warned the dentist "hey heads up I burn through dental anesthetics super quick and also I'd like to use as little as possible because putting the dental anesthetics in my body is the most painful part of the process unless I'm having a root canal or something" and she's like "Hmm. Okay. Is it just the injection site?" and I was like "no, it will feel like burning on the opposite side of my face and in my nose and eyes and stuff." And she was like "Hmm. Do you turn really red when this happens?" And I was like "I don't know, I can't really see myself when it happens." And she was like "are you willing to experiment with this a little?" And I was like "sure, no worries" and she injected me with one anesthetic and it hurt like a motherfucker and she and the assistant both went "OOOH" and she was like "Yeah you got really red right away let's try the other," and it was the same thing and then she was like "okay I think this is the one that will work" and it hurt a little bit but it was fucking NOTHING compared to the comprehensive full stabbing burning facial pain from the others and long story short the dentist was like "You're reacting to the epinephrine in these other anesthetics," which I guess is fairly common for people who have autoimmune disorders.

So I guess this is to say: If you get spreading, burning, stabbing pain when you are being injected with local anesthetics it's not supposed to do that and you should say something.

[lauratheghost]

Well, today did not go as planned (although I kind've expected something to go wrong lol)

My insurance doesn't cover crowns 🙃 so I need to switch insurance. My crown procedures got postponed, but they did prep two teeth for the future crowns, giving them new fillings, and it cost me $600 😢😭🙃 I'm paying it off monthly but yeesh...

They were originally going to do two crowns today and it would have cost $3000 👀

So I'm waiting on that for now. But the numbing shot just finally wore off and ouch, my mouth is angry at me. I just hope in a few days or weeks once the teeth calm down, eating will be easier / not painful finally.

That would honestly be worth $600 to me 😂

[leonineskies]

I don't think context helps