Look Ma, No Cavities!

I took a "personal" day today from work and actually used it to take care of personal things. What a concept.

It had been wayyy too long since I'd seen a dentist. After realizing that I had actually purchased pretty good dental insurance, I thought it was high time to go.

Now then, which dentist should I go to? That's easy: One that I'll go to. So I selected one with a nice sounding name but most importantly, one that was closest to where I live. I found one that's four blocks away. Perfect.

Actually, I don't mind going to the dentist. I sort of "zone out" and put myself in a trance while I'm in the chair, which is not unlike my normal state of mind anyway.

So, Miss Chatty Kathy starts in on my teeth. Dig-dig, chat-chat, dig-dig, chat-chat, scrape-scrape, chat-chat, scrape-scrape. X-rays are completed. (Hey, cool, they appear on a computer now. "Can you email them to me?")

No cavities are there, so apparently, I've been a good boy about brushing.

My grandmother, "Budgie", always had this peculiar habit with regard to dental hygiene. Once a week, she would sprinkle Ajax cleanser on her toothpaste and give her teeth a good scouring.

Don't laugh. She lived to the age of 92 with all her original teeth.

I have to admit that I occasionally follow Budgie's example. It sure leaves your mouth feeling fresh even though Ajax is . . . well . . . toxic. (Hint, Ajax tastes much better than Comet).

Here's another helpful hint. I asked the dentist what kind of toothpaste he recommended for keeping one's teeth as white as possible. (We keep hearing about those "four-out-of-five dentists surveyed recommend . . . " Well, I wanted to ask one of these four-out-of-five dentists myself.)

He said that a recent survey (see??) was done and out of all the toothpastes, guess which one did the best at whitening?

Ultra-Brite!

Yes! Remember Ultra-Brite from the seventies? That's what we always used at home. It sort of tastes like ammonia and it's super cheap. My mom still uses it. Ultra-Brite beat out the special whitening toothpastes like Rembrandt and all those others that cost mega-bucks.

I'll bet it doesn't work as good as Ajax, though.