I have been going to Marina Dentistry for many years, and participate in their cleaning plan, which means I get a cleaning every 3 months.

Fascinating, their turnover of cleaning staff seems pretty high, but I have never really followed up with them about that.

I had cracks in a tooth, and that led to the tooth being ground down and a crown fitted on top of it.

Today was my cleaning, and I also decided to tell them how the tooth was still bothering me. I had noticed I wasn't chewing on that side of my mouth, and when I gave some attention to the tooth and the pressure of clenching my jaw, it felt like the tooth was actually flexing in some way, which was uncomfortable.

The lovely dentist (whose name I cannot remember and who I could not find on the website strangely enough) ground down the crown a bit, and I am already feeling better about the whole process.

It was also nice that the bacterial depth of my teeth was not as bad as was logged in the records, so we updated the documents, which actually made it almost seem like life was looking up from the teeth point of view.

And I'm trying the 1o day arestin antibiotic insertions into the pockets around two of my teeth, which also excited me as a long term intervention instead of the once-every-half-a-year style attempts I have had in the past.

For the next two weeks, no flossing between the 1st and 2nd teeth on the upper right side, and no flossing between the 2nd and 3rd teeth on the upper left side.

The dental hygienist also gave me an education about cleaning: suggested Oral-B electric toothbrush, 5 seconds a tooth, with brushing, use of a plastic tongue scraper (since metal might cut easier), and mouthwash in the morning and night, plus flossing at night.

Go teeth!

UPDATE: After a phone call to the dentist, since I couldn't remember whether it was no flossing for 2 weeks or 3 weeks, I was told I could floss tomorrow. This seems so contrary to what I was told before that she will call me later to address, and I will provide a further update.

2nd UPDATE: 10 days, she says. phew