Dental is on my mind

I had already decided what I wanted to write about today, an upcoming dental appointment, but I couldn’t decide what to title it until about 3AM this morning; I woke up, walked into my office, wrote it down and went back to bed.

So what woke me up? I don’t know, but somehow my subconscious made the connection between my upcoming dental appointment and Glen Campbell’s hit song, “Gentle on My Mind”, from “Our era”. The song was released in June 1967 as the only single from the album of the same name. It was re-released in July 1968 to more success. Glen Campbell’s version has received over 5 million plays on the radio. Campbell used “Gentle on My Mind” as the theme to his television variety show, The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour between 1969 and 1972.

The dental appointment became necessary after a recent dinner date with my bride resulted in a very old dental repair falling out and needing to be replaced. In the old days , that repair would probably involve extraction. I vividly remember the frustrating struggle my dad had with periodontal disease and then full extraction in favor of dentures. But then, he was a lifetime smoker too.

Lots of people used to equate a dental visit with pain and have all kinds of anxiety before and during a dental visit. Or worse, who else remembers Tom Hanks’ role in Cast Away, where he is the sole survivor of a plane crash on a deserted South Pacific island and had to extract an ailing tooth by knocking it out with a rock…..ouch!

But not these days. We are indeed blessed to live in an era of “Gentle dental” treatment that allows many seniors the option of having their permanent teeth serve them their entire lifetime instead of automatically having them extracted in favor of dentures as was so common in our parents’ generation.

Good dental health is essential for good general health because it is the foundation of good digestion. In fact, the mouth is the beginning of the digestive system –and digestion starts there before you even take the first bite of a meal. The smell of food triggers the salivary glands in your mouth to secrete saliva, causing your mouth to water.

Once you start chewing and breaking the food down into pieces small enough to be digested, more saliva is produced. It has enzymes that begin breaking down food into a form your body can take in and use. When you’re able to chew your food more it helps with digestion. But without good teeth, it’s very difficult to make your digestive system work the way it’s supposed to.

Thanks to “Gentle dental” procedures to day, we seniors can enjoy wonderful dental health through these golden years with our permanent teeth.

Have you had a dental checkup lately? If not, it would make a great New Year’s resolution for 2020!

Thanks for reading All About Seniors…..see you next week!

Bill Milby is a Director of Visiting Angels® of Central Georgia, a non-medical, living assistance service for seniors. If you have questions or comments about this column you can reach him at william.mercylink@gmail.com or search for us at https://www.facebook.com/VisitingAngelsofCentralGA/