I had an appointment yesterday with a new dentist. I wasn’t too happy with my old one. My last visit I complained of pain in my gums, and he said “Oh it’s probably your wisdom teeth coming in.” Umm.. “I guess you didn’t look at my x-rays you just took? I had my wisdom teeth out a decade ago.” His advice was then to just wait, it will go away. Right.. sounds a lot like every doctor I’ve seen about digestive problems. Just relax, it’ll go away. Uh huh.
So I went to a new one and he is fabulous. I met his assistant first and she went through a whole series of questions about my health, dental history, and even asked what I was hoping to get out this visit. The new dentist looked over everything in front of me, asking me questions as he went. When I told him about my problems with digestion he immediately understood. He actually spent time with doctors studying Crohn’s disease and Ulcerative Colitis at the University of Alberta. He said there was a high correlation of gum disease/inflammation in people with inflammatory bowel diseases. He said it makes perfect sense, since gum skin is pretty similar to the lining of the digestive tract. He was studying these diseases to try and see if doctors had figured out better ways to treat them, so that he could apply that to dentistry. Obviously doctors haven’t been successful at all, so he didn’t end up getting much info out of that lol. He does believe diet and nutrition play a huge role in dental health and fully supported my current diet of no grains no sugar.
The reason I went to his dentist was because he is a gum specialist and I wanted to for once get help with my sensitive gums. My teeth are fine, no cavities, strong, no sensitivity, but my gums hurt. He reassured me I don’t have any signs of gum disease or recession. Then he started trying to think up ways to help me. He noticed I was a ‘mouth breather’ (I breathe with my mouth open at night) and told me to rub coconut oil on my gums before bed. This will help keep it moistened and reduce irritation. He also showed me how to brush properly (my old dentist was WAY off on that one!) and gave me a special little brush for the back teeth which didn’t hurt as much. Finally he told me about a mouth wash which has anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial stuff in it, but told me to wait until last to try that one.
I’m very hopeful with this new dentist to finally get rid of my gum discomfort. At least he’s taking me seriously and he’s trying to help. Honestly, that’s all I ask for!
On a down note, he noticed I have an infection on my tonsils. Ugh! And of course as soon as he points that out I realize my throat hurts a bit. Today I’m stuffed up and a lot more sore in my throat. Hopefully it’s just a little cold that goes away quickly. Unfortunately I have no chicken broth, since I spilled my last batch on the floor. And of course my yogurt batch turned out so gross looking this morning. For some reason it separated and has the consistency of sand in water. I’m gulping it down (with about an equal part honey) for the sole reason that it might help my cold.
I’ve also decided to lay off nuts for a few days. I was noticing that switching to almond flour instead of almond butter was causing some problems. Let’s just say I’m not digesting the almond flour at all. No point in consuming something I can digest, especially when it’s expensive. So I’m off nuts for 3 more days and then I’ll start again with almond butter and see how it goes.
