The Secret to Overcoming the Fear of Shaking - A Reminder that Maintenance is Always Important!

“It’s starting to shake!”, “Why does it move like this?” I was shocked by a sudden flash of pain. “Oh no, it hurts!”, “It’s bleeding...”, “What should I do?” Anxiety overtook my mind for a moment as I was trying to figure out why this happened. I’m not talking about getting injured due to an earthquake but it is a physical problem. I am talking about the time my precious teeth became wobbly. There is a gum disease called periodontitis, which affects half of the Japanese population over the age of 50. I had heard of this disease many times in TV commercials, but the fear of periodontitis finally came and smacked me across the face.

For starters, I had not seen a dentist in nearly 20 years until recently. I was proud that my teeth were healthy and my bone density was as good as an average 30-year-old man, so I used to just brush my teeth lightly. However, a few years ago, I began to suffer from a series of tooth decay, and I finally started to go to the dentist. Moreover, the tooth decay started in one tooth which then spread to other teeth in a chain reaction sequence. Then Judgment Day came: I was told that a couple of my back teeth had to be removed and I had to have them pulled out.

The tooth extraction made me consider my first dental implant, so I then decided to experience getting one in my mouth. However, I didn’t expect that I would have to wait nearly half a year for the fixation material that was injected in my gum to completely harden, but good things came to those who wait. The tooth root fortunately healed properly. Then after I had my back teeth implant done, I started to neglect brushing the back of my mouth because I thought that these artificial teeth wouldn’t decay. This idea was so naive and thoughtless, and the situation turned into a nightmare.

One day, I couldn’t eat anything hard because my teeth hurt. I thought it was another cavity, but after a while, my back teeth on both sides started to hurt when I chewed food. I could no longer chew gum or eat my favorite rice crackers. I wondered what was wrong with my teeth so I reached my finger back to touch them. To my horror, my teeth wobbled! I couldn’t believe it and I checked again and again, but not only did they wobble, the more I touched them, the looser they became on the gum. It was horrible... I was so afraid that my teeth were going to fall out so I urgently made an appointment with my dentist and went for an examination.

My dentist told me that I had periodontitis. Even more shocking, I was told that I was in the early stages of periodontal disease in my implants and my back molars on both sides were also affected. This was why I couldn’t eat hard rice crackers! As a result, the implants that were just put in now had to be removed. This meant that I had to have a dental implant procedure again, and it was quite an ordeal. I later learned that the implanted teeth have to be brushed with special care and the gumline should also be carefully cleaned, otherwise, periodontitis can develop easily.

That is where I started to learn about good dental hygiene. What I learned is that it is important to brush along the gumline along all the teeth including the back teeth, so I decided to change my way of brushing my teeth. I tried to not brush my gums too hard because I was afraid that my gums would recede. So, it is also crucial to brush your teeth after every meal as much as possible. I learned that periodontitis can result from the bacteria that forms from food residues that can build up in your mouth over time. Moreover, food residue can easily get stuck between the teeth and it cannot be completely removed just by using a toothbrush alone. Therefore, dental floss was invented so that you can keep your mouth clean more thoroughly. My dentist also advised me to use a more advanced tool called an interdental brush to clean the gaps between the teeth. Apparently, this is how much work we must do in order to prevent gum disease.

Implementing this dental care regimen that my dentist recommended is not easy because it takes time and it’s bothersome. I can’t help but think that it’s all just a big scam. And yet, my desire to chew food and crunch on anything that I want is stronger than my doubts about this dental care method. Therefore, I have decided to follow the dentist’s orders and spend more time taking care of my teeth for the sake of my oral health. I was actually pretty amazed by the results: In just three months, my gums became tighter and my back teeth felt firmer. Now I can even enjoy hard foods such as rice crackers and cartilage on both sides of my teeth. Hooray!

In short, maintaining the human body as it ages takes time. The older we get, the more time our teeth require proper maintenance than when we were younger, and there is no end to the list of other physical problems. However, as we have come to realize that body maintenance is a part of life, and becomes a way of life, we can even start to enjoy taking care of our own bodies. As soon as I felt my teeth had become stronger and younger, joy took the place of all the effort I put into bringing my mouth back to a healthy state. I eventually began to feel pleasure instead of anguish.

Taking care of the human body is perhaps like growing a bonsai tree with a long life. Daily care and understanding are important, and the results cannot be seen at first glance. However, as you continue to care for yourself, you will find that even though your body is growing older. And yet strangely enough, suddenly things look more beautiful than before. These days, I hope that the rest of my life will be like that.