Oh, yes, brush and floss. Don’t grind your teeth or if you do get a nightguard and wear it. Wear it during the day if you have to. And try to find a good dentist that isn’t too much older than you so s/he doesn’t retire on you and leave you with a crappy dentist who just wants to talk you into expensive procedures that will cost you money and teeth.
Don’t like going to a dentist? Well, that won’t be a problem after they have to pull all of your teeth because of your neglect. Or be like me–take good care of your teeth and visit your dentist regularly, but lose them anyway because you inherited a tendency toward periodontal disease and put off getting a nightguard until it was too late to save them. I’m 38 and I had to have 5 upper teeth pulled last year, and am desperately trying to hold on to the rest (I anticipate losing at least 2 more upper teeth despite my efforts).
I go for cleanings and root planings every three months (I’m going tomorrow). Fortunately, they don’t need to give me anything prior to the cleanings–instead she uses a topical gel to numb me up. I understand that some people need drugs or gas to be able to have their teeth cleaned–I hope it doesn’t get that painful for me.
They do perio charting every year–that’s when they measure how many millimeters deep the “pocket” around your tooth is until they hit bone. If you have good teeth and no perio problems, your charting would have lots of 1s and 2s. When they measured mine before yanking the 5 teeth, there was a lot of this: 9, 8, 9, 7, 6, 7, on my uppers. My lower teeth are in better shape–I only have a couple of 9s and the rest are 5 or less.
Today I went and did the final fitting on my permanent plate before they affix the acrylic teeth. They look…fake. And due to the fact that two of them are front teeth, I will have metal clamps that everyone can see when I smile. The lab did a good job of making them unobtrusive, but you can still see them. Next Wednesday, I get to pick up the finished plate. I can’t wait, since I’ve broken one of the teeth off of my partial an average of once a week for the last 4 months and I’m tired of having to fix it.
Again, brush, floss, visit your dentist. Especially FLOSS. Did anyone ever explain the purpose of flossing to you? You think it’s only to get popcorn hulls out of your teeth? You must floss to remove the plaque that builds up below the gumline and prevents the ligaments between your gum and tooth from staying attached/reattaching. Once they explained that to me, flossing became a much more important activity. Of course, seeing the x-rays showing all the bone loss may have had an impact as well.
I feel better now. Thanks, tdn, for loaning me your soapbox. 
