02009 New Years Resolution #25: Keep My Teeth
A few months ago, I visited a dentist for the first time in way too many years. Among the things I learned is that I had developed some periodontitis. Treatment (scaling and root planing, followed by the injection of Arestin into several sites in my mouth) was not painful or even genuinely unpleasant. However, it was inconvenient (inasmuch as the dental office is quite a long drive from home) and extremely expensive. Well, I'm not interested in having to go through that (or worse) again. Which brings me to my twenty-fifth New Year's Resolution of 02009:
I have resolved to make flossing a regular, lifelong, habitual part of my daily routine.
The truth is that until this most recent visit to the dentist, I had really never been much of a flosser. I always considered it to be a hassle. It was uncomfortable and generally unpleasant. Besides that, it was always easier to simply forget to floss than it was to remember to floss. Well, now that I'm faced with the prospect of potentially losing my teeth to gum disease, flossing has suddenly taken on much more of the feeling of a necessity rather than merely an inconvenient good idea.
So I'm flossing every day. It's not fun, but it's not awful. The bleeding stopped after the first few days. I'm not finding it difficult to remember to do it. I should have made this a habit decades ago. I didn't. Shame on me. Now I just have to maintain the practice and hope that it does the trick. I really don't want my teeth falling out!
I have resolved to make flossing a regular, lifelong, habitual part of my daily routine.
The truth is that until this most recent visit to the dentist, I had really never been much of a flosser. I always considered it to be a hassle. It was uncomfortable and generally unpleasant. Besides that, it was always easier to simply forget to floss than it was to remember to floss. Well, now that I'm faced with the prospect of potentially losing my teeth to gum disease, flossing has suddenly taken on much more of the feeling of a necessity rather than merely an inconvenient good idea.
So I'm flossing every day. It's not fun, but it's not awful. The bleeding stopped after the first few days. I'm not finding it difficult to remember to do it. I should have made this a habit decades ago. I didn't. Shame on me. Now I just have to maintain the practice and hope that it does the trick. I really don't want my teeth falling out!
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