Well, today I realized the pain in my front bottom teeth wasn’t going to stop on its own, so I started a long painful saga of trying to get an emergency dentist appointment on what is evidently Dentist Day at the golf course. (I swear, nobody’s open on Fridays!) Finally my dentist’s wife called me back and called the guy who’s taking his calls when he’s on vacation, and that kind man agreed to see me in his office even though he, also, is closed today. (Couldn’t get a tee time, I assume.)
He said it was a tissue issue rather than a tooth issue, that I needed a cleaning, but that it probably has something to do with a reaction to my toothpaste. I use the Rembrandt for canker sore sufferers, as it’s the only one I’ve found that doesn’t have sodium laurel (or is it laureth?) sulphate. Since I switched to the Rembrandt I only have a fraction of the canker sores I used to have. I get maybe four or so a year now (always when I’m traveling, for some reason) instead of almost constantly like I used to. He said the whitening toothpastes are drying to the teeth and you can have issues like this where they get oversensitive, I think. I don’t care about the whitening in Rembrandt, I care about not getting canker sores! I should have asked about that specific ingredient, but I didn’t think to, so I’m asking the Dope. All I want is a regular toothpaste that doesn’t have that particular foaming agent in it.
PS - he gave me some packets of peroxide rinse, said to switch for a bit to a toothpaste for sensitive teeth, and said it would probably stop hurting in a few days.