[jghn]

All of these posts have me wondering how commonplace cavities actually are. I stopped getting cavities in my preteen years, about 35 years ago. The only change I made was actually brushing my teeth regularly, which very young me always tried to avoid despite my parents' best efforts.

I'm sure my consumption of things like refined sugars has gone steadily down in that time, but not as part of a conscious effort. Being a kid in the 80s meant you ate a ton of crap :)

[wingworks]

They're still pretty common, at least in the people I hang out in. You're very lucky you've not had any cavities since preteen. I've done allot to change my diet to strip out all sugars, refined carbs, acidic foods / drinks etc. But still get cavities.

It's a journey, sometimes a long one, to get to a spot with good oral heath. In my case, I had poor heath education. I didn't know what I didn't know. Like visiting the dentist is not equal to visiting a dental hygienist. Up until a few weeks ago, I had no clue what a dental hygienist was or if I should visit one. My dentist never recommended one, so I thought it wasn't needed. But I recently booked an apt with a dental hygienist at another practice, it was 100% needed.

From my understanding, a dental hygienist is more preventative work (and cleaning), while dentist is more the surgeon who does the fixing after an issue has occurred.

I learnt a tonne in my first ever dental hygienist visit. Basic things I wasn't doing for my oral heath. Like flossing... I never done it for years cos I thought it wasn't that big of a deal and cos I thought my teeth were to crammed together, but I learnt (and she showed me) that you can 100% floss my teeth and you defo should!

I wish some basic oral heath was taught in school, and that dental (at least 6 months/yearly checkups were free/govt funded), it's so important, and so expensive these days, even for a checkup.

It's especially tricky when you want to learn so much while at the dentist/hygienist, but know it's costing you $$$ so don't maybe ask everything. Personally the Teeth Talk Girl YouTube channel has helped me so much and gave me the courage to go back to the dentist (after not going for ~5 years).

I highly recommend the channel if you want to learn more on what good oral heath is. https://www.youtube.com/@TeethTalk