My Deep-Cleaned Teeth

♫ All I want for Christmas is my deep-cleaned teeth.
My deep-cleaned teeth. See my deep-cleaned teeth.
Gee if I could only have my deep-cleaned teeth.
Then I could wish you Merry Christmas ! ♫

Happy Thursday December 17TH 2020 my friends. Christmas Day is just 8 days away. Next Thursday here on my blog I’m bringing back a Christmas classic – “The Legend Of Fluffy The Manx Cat”. Meanwhile on this Thursday let me share with you my experience with a deep-cleaning of my teeth. It’s my unintentional Christmas gift to myself. (I’m glad I have dental insurance.)

A couple of weeks ago I went in to my longtime Dentist’s office for my annual exam (with x-rays). I also hoped to get my chipped bottom tooth filled-in during that same appointment. (I had chipped-it while eating popcorn about 3 months earlier.) The x-rays were done all around, and then the Lead Dentist entered the room for the visual exam. After a minute or two she declared that my teeth were too dirty for a proper exam, and then she sort of scolded her team of hygienists for scheduling the exam without first doing a cleaning. (My last cleaning was 2 months earlier.)

So we scheduled 2 follow-up appointments for 2 weeks later (which was this week). 2 quadrants would be deep-cleaned on Monday, and the other 2 quadrants would be deep-cleaned on Tuesday. My chipped tooth would be filled-in following the first deep-cleaning.

I couldn’t remember, and they really had no records of me ever getting a deep-cleaning of my teeth. (It may have been sometime in the 1990s. LOL)

I’ve been going in for regular cleanings every 3, 4, or 6 months over the past 25 years or so. Apparently there’s a big difference between regular cleanings and deep-cleanings (formally known as “periodontal scaling and root planing with gingival irrigation”), and I now know that – having gone through the complete experience. My favorite part was the anesthesia which was injected with a needle-like instrument directly into the inner-cheek of my mouth to numb it. It numbed very quickly, and I felt little to no pain while my dental hygienist went to work deep-cleaning my teeth by quadrant.

The numbness lasted for about 2½ to 3 hours after injection, so that was a weird feeling around my mouth until it wore off. I had to wait for that to happen before I could eat, drink, or shave. I was almost talking like a ventriloquist as well – barely moving my lips. LOL.

I think the deep-cleaning was really more for my gums rather than my teeth. Hopefully any developing gum disease is curtailed, and it starts retreating. I’d like to keep my full set of 32 teeth for another 25 or 30 years.

Oh yeah – I forgot this part. My Dentist asked me if I knew that I still had my wisdom teeth intact. YES – I knew. I never had them removed because they have never bothered me before, and they still don’t bother me. She recommended that I consider removing them in the future. That was before she discovered that I am 53-years-old. That astonished her. She thought I was in my 20s or 30s. Really ? Teenagers get their wisdom teeth removed – not near senior citizens !