Asklemmy

So I didn’t go to the dentist for about 15 years. I had disgustingly visible buildups of calcified plaque around my bottom front row, and was becoming seriously self conscious about smiling because of it. All my wisdom teeth were still in, but only a couple of them were visible at all. Then one day I took a big bite of a taco, and all of a sudden it felt like I got punched in the jaw at the mandible joint. So I went into panic/maintenance mode, and booked doctors and dentist appointments asap, catastrophising that one of my wisdom teeth had somehow grown up into my jaw and was going to dislocate it, or something. It was a fucking delicious taco, too.

Anyway, turned out my wisdom teeth were fine, if fact the dentist was amazed at how well my teeth were holding up considering how badly I treated them/ignored them. Only one cavity, the only cavity I’ve ever had in my life, and in a wisdom tooth that could be easily removed, at that. So I got that pulled out promptly, which was one of the most disgusting experiences of my life.

Turned out the cartilage between my jaw and my skull had gradually slipped loose, and the bone was rubbing up against bone. Six months of jaw therapy and multiple awful, painful, and bloody dentist visits later, my mouth is back to normal, my jaw doesn’t click any more, and my teeth are looking great.

And now, I cannot, for the life of me, fall asleep at night without flossing first.