It is recommended that you should have regular dental check ups at six month intervals from the time that your first tooth makes it appearance. This advice is often ignored with only a small percentage of people making the bi-annual trip, whether as adults or taking their children. Most of us wait until we actually have a problem such as toothache or sore gums before we decide that we absolutely must seek help. By this time the problem has usually escalated to the point that any treatment, whether minor or major will probably be painful to a degree, hence further reinforcing the idea that dental visits are something to be dreaded.

Research and surveys show how important it is to look after your mouth and all the different aspects of oral hygiene, ranging from the correct way of brushing your teeth and flossing, to the relevance of certain foods and drinks in your diet. Apart from cosmetic reasons a poorly maintained oral hygiene routine can affect your general health also since bacteria in the mouth will be transferred to your stomach and this in turn can lead to a variety of diseases. It has also been proven that having nice teeth and fresh breath does wonders for self-confidence and this makes a person feel happier and more attractive.

Good oral hygiene starts in childhood and I still remember that when our first child got her first tooth, I brought the cutest little thing for teeth brushing. It was a tiny little brush that you put on your finger and brushed the child’s tooth with, before they are old enough to hold a toothbrush for themselves. You must remember that children will still need help with brushing their teeth properly even when they are in school. You need to teach them the correct way to brush and floss and ensure that they understand how important it is to make these habits an important part of their daily routine.

Dentists who graduate on a dental scholarship or school for dentistry are always at an advantage since just the cache attached to them will ensure higher chances of a successful practice. There are some wonderful dentists out there and to be honest they are usually very nice people, in fact I know a few who are dedicated to their craft and always try their best, and although it is not their fault that I have memories of searing pain and blood loss, associated with a childhood visit to have a routine filling, I cannot get over the fear that each visit will be painful and that the pain will be long lasting.

My dentist is well qualified, having graduated from a top school of dental medicine and hygiene, in fact one of the topdental schoolsin the country, and I have confidence in his skills. However this does not make it any easier to get up the courage to book an appointment for a check up.

_ I was awoken last night by a searing pain in my tooth which came on so unexpectedly that it caused me to cry out. Hunting down some painkillers in the middle of the night whilst already feeling groggy and tearful was no fun and made all the worse with the knowledge that I had to wait a couple days before my dentist re-opened his surgery after the holiday period.

With the pain showing no signs of abating even after being hit by some pretty high doses of medicine, the next evening I decided that I could wait no longer and made my way to the local out of hours emergency medical centre. As bad as the pain, was I was still apprehensive about seeing someone other than my regular dentist since it had taken me years to finally build up a grudging trust between us. I had had a phobia about dentists ever since my teens when I had gone to see one for a routine filling and he had cut my cheek so that it became infected and gave me two months of painful trouble.

My regular dentist had attended one of the top dental schools in the city and had been offered dental scholarships to two other of the best school of dental in the country and had even considered accepting one of the medical scholarships from a medical college in the UAE. H had a gentle manner and nine times out of ten he succeeded in putting even the most nervous of patients at their ease and tried to make his treatments as painless as possible. He had started off with a small treatment room in an office building many years ago and now owned his own private practice which always had a long waiting list of potential patients to whom he had been recommended.

So there I was in the waiting room at the centre at eleven o’clock at night surrounded by other poor suffering souls waiting to be seen by doctors who would most probably wanting to be elsewhere at that time of the night, I know that I did. You certainly see the whole gamut of society whilst spending time in the emergency room and previously held convictions can be changed.

I used to think that most people who visited the emergency centres in the middle of the night (apart from the genuine cases like heart attacks and such) were probably the ones who were the worse off for drink and had hurt themselves or the victims of street crime. My narrow view was changed by the sight of small children with high fevers, teenagers with broken limbs, distraught parents with babies who would not stop crying, and people who had been hurt in various incidents such as car accidents and minor scalds. It was an eye opener just seeing how well the staff coped with everyone, especially the impatient ones which became abusive and were potentially violent patients.