Even working in a dental office, I’m not the most diligent floss-er.
That changed abruptly after seeing a certain middle aged man come into the office. He couldn’t have been more than 45 years old. He seemed like a pretty happy and healthy man, until he opened his mouth. Plenty of missing teeth all caused by bone loss. For those of you who don’t know, bone loss is caused by bacteria getting trapped in between the gum and tooth, eventually eating away at the bone. When you lose the bone, you lose the teeth. They can just pop out when you’re walking down the street saying Good Morning to a stranger.
Why he came into the office that day? He was getting all of his remaining teeth extracted to get full dentures. 16 teeth. In one appointment. I think that I was more terrified than he was. That was definitely true when I got the 16 perfectly white(well, bloody) teeth brought to me in a Dixie cup. This is probably my most hated part of the job. When the teeth are in the mouth, I’m good, but bring them to me in a little paper cup, and I get the Heebie Jeebies. We save them in a jar, a salsa jar(That still has the aroma of salsa) for dental students. Why this part disgusts me the most? Every time I open the jar, I manage to spill tooth juice all over my hands. Then I run to the sink, gagging, trying to wash away the smell of bleach, blood and salsa.
Anyhow, moral of the story? FLOSS YOUR TEETH! 
I have to take my 7 year old to the dentist tomorrow…she gets so worked up over a simple cleaning that at the last check up…when the doctor announced her permanent molars had grown in and it was time to add sealant to the teeth to avoid any future cavities…she said Oh, yes, we are going to have to use Nitrous Oxide at that visit. There is no way she’ll be able to hang. It took an hour to just xray teeth because she kept moving, and refused to open her mouth for fluoride. “oh, mom…I’m glad that’s over. It took 20 minutes with the fluoride!” 2 minutes was all it took…yes, we’ll have to pay to gas her next time.
That’s super common unfortunately! We always try to make the first visit fun for kids, but sometimes they just want none of it. Nitrous sounds like her best bet in getting everything done in a reasonable time. Make her less wiggly. Best of luck tomorrow!
If I wasn’t already an avid flosser – I certainly would be after reading this! Yucko!! Hang in there!