On 7 December 2020, I had to rush off to my dentist. The gum over a tooth was swollen and it did not look good. I had noticed the swelling for a while, but it subsided with a salt-water rinse but never completely went away.

I would have gone to see my dentist sooner but because of a partial lockdown, I put it off. (I am not one to put off going to the dentist, I explain below).

My dentist, whom I have been seeing for 20+ years, took one look at it and said I might need a root canal or extraction! I had an abscess, and the tooth may have been impacted. An x-ray could not confirm if a root canal or extraction would be the best approach. We had to wait and see and I had an infection that needed treatment first.

Here’s my reply to her (verbatim):

‘I am not losing my tooth. I have worked hard at keeping all my teeth with your help, so let’s do everything to save it. I have not lost a tooth to-date and I am not about to do so now’. (I was dead serious)

She was as stunned as I was and 3 months on, I still have my tooth.

My dental backstory

I got to know my dentist through my late mother. She was my mother’s dentist. My mother needed regular dental care and over her lifetime lost a few of her teeth due to decay or receding gums. And a similar fate seemed to follow my sisters’ dental journey.

I remembered thinking back then, ‘I better do everything I can to avoid the same fate’ and I DID. Little had I known back then, I was future-proofing my teeth.

I started paying more attention to my dental hygiene and made my dentist my primary dental carer. Even whilst working abroad, I would make it a point to see her during my visits home. It was important to me.

She is conservative and has a big-picture approach to dental care and I liked and appreciated it very much. Where other dentists had recommended that I remove my wisdom teeth to make more room, my dentist did not see the reason for it. And she had a sense of humour to boot.

Till today, I have all 32 of my teeth (without root canals) and I owe much of this to her and me of course, in my resolve to future-proof my dental care.

But that all went wrong somewhere that I got an abscess, but where?

False sense of security

Until 2018 I had been going for yearly dental check-ups. And most times I would have simple scaling done with a congratulatory parting sentence from my dentist telling me to carry on with my care routine.

I missed 2019 for various reasons and then 2020 was an anomaly of a year, dental consult took a back seat. This was the crack in my dental future-proofing process. I took my eye off the ball and sat in the security of my care keeping me well.

So, when I saw her in December 2020, she asked me about my routine and specifically about flossing and I told her that she had never insisted on it as my teeth always seemed in good shape and my plaque levels were never worrying.

2 things that were raised in my conversation in December 2020:

1.      I needed deeper scaling as there was plaque below my gums.

2.      My dental care routine needed an overhaul

At this point, my dentist admitted that it was her fault for not doing deeper scaling during my yearly visits because at first glance my plaque deposits didn’t warrant a deeper dive! She apologised and I accepted. I valued her honesty and trust her even more implicitly now.

We formulated a new and improved dental care routine for me.

Accountability and the rebel

What amazed me most from this experience was my dentist’s honesty. But that is exactly why I chose her to be my primary dental carer. I knew I could trust her and yes in this instance she may have missed the mark but here’s the thing, the teeth are mine and I am accountable for them.

I go to her for advice and consultation, but I am still responsible for them. To transfer responsibility to her would be trying to outsource my daily dental hygiene to her. Impossible.

Yes, I was a little disheartened at first to know that my dental care routine was below par. And that she did not insist on it earlier. But there was dental floss in my bathroom, and I CHOSE not to use it knowing very well it is dental best practice. And that’s my fault. I was lazy, pure and simple.

And I was in my comfort zone thinking my teeth were in great shape even though I had not seen my dentist in 2 years!

I now have a new routine and it’s a longer one but that’s what it takes to future-proof my teeth. I am a firm believer of ‘prevention is better than cure’. It has been three months and my gum and tooth seem well. This will be confirmed when I visit my dentist in 3 months.

At times, I notice my initial resolve waning when I short cut my routine, but I remember my conviction of not losing my tooth and that keeps me going. And that is the dental rebel in me. Lucky, I have not had to go to the extent of putting pictures up of bad teeth around the house to enforce my resolve. But if that’s what it takes to invoke the rebel I would do it.

The rebel in you

This applies to all parts of us. I use the example of my dental care, but it applies to our thinking, emotions, health and more.

Where do you need to invoke the rebel in you to see an idea or plan through to fruition?

Where are you succumbing to norms or have a false sense of security about a matter just like I did about my teeth?

And remember, a rebel is solely and wholly accountable to themselves. Rebels do not outsource their responsibilities.

The choice on how you navigate the future is yours!

I am here to help!