Here is s story of a young individual who had recently taken care of a number of oral issues:
“I was a sugar addict and soda drinker at heart from the Midwest. A few years past I had a large cavity filled on one of the molars in my mouth. It was a very large cavity, but after the filling was set everything seemed to go back to normal. Like many individualizes I ignored proper oral health until it was too late. With my sugary diet, the years slowly chipped my tooth away to nothing more than jagged sharp edges. My tooth was slowly decaying away. I remember at one point chipping my tooth during a meal and didn’t think it was a big deal that needed immediate attention. However, after 2 years the chipping and poor oral health lead to a jagged and sharp decayed tooth – sharp as razors. I noticed behavior changes as an effect of tooth decay. I felt tired and exhausted all the time. Although there was no pain in my tooth until the very end, I would still cut my tongue or cheek by the sharp edges of the tooth.
Finally, I went into a local dentist to have the tooth looked at. They removed the filling to find that the tooth was dead having been eaten away by decay. They carefully removed the decay and put a medicine patch on the tooth to help disinfect and clean the area. I was scheduled for my first root canal two days later. My situation required a lot of antibiotic attention as well as a very long procedure – four hours to be exact. The root canal was followed up by the placement of a crown.
After the procedure, the next big shock was the cost of oral treatment because of my poor oral habits. If only I had had the proper oral health over the years. My oral habits have since changed. We each have our own ways of learning life’s lessons. Some learn from pain, others learn from books or from stories handed down. And, some learn by going through the process of experience. The consequences of poor oral health are much worse than the cost of proper oral hygiene. However you learn life’s lessons, appreciate it.”