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September 14, 2005
These aren't my teeth...
Over the last year or so I've developed a nervous habit of griding and clenching my teeth. In particular, my upper front teeth nestled nicely just off-center into my lower teeth, and I'd suddenly notice that I was clenching them for all I was worth.
When we moved up to WA I made an appointment for a much overdue dental checkup.
One of the first things the new doc noticed was that (a) I clench my teeth and (b) I'd done pretty good damage to the front teeth. See there's a hard outer layer of tooth (enamel) and a softer body of the tooth (dentin). My continued abuse of my front teeth was very close to exposing the dentin - at which point the tooth would start to be compromised.
I went in this morning for two fillings, and while he had me in the chair, he did reconstructive fillings on two lower front teeth and the damaged upper.
He does good work, and you can't really tell that work's been done, only...
They don't feel like my teeth anymore.
I've noticed three times today that I've started to clench my teeth (a bunch of crap at work has me pretty stressed out - watch this space), but I was jolted out of the act by the realization that my teeth didn't fit together the same way.
This could be the best $150 I've ever spent... I'm not old enough to destroy my teeth. I intend to go on eating for a long time, and sushi-ala-blender just doesn't do it for me.
If you're in our general area and you need a dentist, I can recommend Dr. Maloof, with Winslow Dental group. Good work, nice guy, and good sense of humor.
Posted by dberger at September 14, 2005 9:40 PM