Oral hygiene, orthodontists and dental care...

 Yesterday I went to take my youngest to the dentist for a checkup and it was a positive experience for her and it reminded me of when most primary schools had dental clinics, when I was growing up, and at primary school you sometimes got all sorts of treats in visiting them.

I remember back in the 70s that some would get little 'bumble bee' wads made by a dental nurse which had a tooth hidden inside as a gift to the child whose tooth had just been taken out. We could choose a colour of jellybean we'd get after the appointment and usually after our appointment, we would get to tell the next 'victim' that it was their turn to go and see the dentist.

I've had a long standing relationship with dentists starting with volunteering after school, when I was a senior in primary school, to clean the dentist's implements and enjoyed the experience very much. I also had to have braces when I was in Intermediate school (recessive genes from my late paternal grandmother I think) and that meant extra appointments with an Orthodontist (specialist dentist) for about 5 years and the results were amazing.

At that time, my braces only cost my family about $300 which was a heck of a lot of money in those days. Nowadays it would have been so much more expensive starting at around $3,000 for a full set of braces and I am so blessed that none of our children will have this expensive, still it is a recessive gene that I've probably passed on to them.

Over the years, I've had lots of sessions with dentists some costing me a couple of hundred dollars and others costing into a thousand. I suspect that some dentists are out to make a huge stash and charge accordingly but it also depends on the amount of work that they do on your teeth and the time that it takes.

I'm overdue for my 6 monthly checkup and I'm very much in favour of free dental care or subsidised dentist treatments for those on government welfare payments and the elderly. At present, it's only free dental care for children and young adults until their 18th birthday and then one is expected to pay full rates but it would be wonderful to see this service in our communities at reduced rates so that teeth can be in a smile for a lifetime...