I really cannot say it enough.
The importance of dental care in your life may be essential to your long term health, the health of not only your teeth, but your gums, AND your heart!
If you happen to have bleeding gums, your heart is being over-worked to constantly pump more blood to make up for the blood lost.
Not a good thing to have happen to you.
Our hearts, as I well know, after recently having heart palpitations, being placed on medication, and an expensive visit to the cardiologist, do wear with age, and some of it is normal and can't be helped, but do yourself a favor, get your mouth taken care of and in a healthy condition, and some heart problems may be averted.
In all honesty, I went a decade without any dental care, simply due to a fear of the dentist after experiencing crappy, mean spirited dentists as a child. He didn't care if his prodding around in my mouth hurt or not, I was simply supposed to shut up and take it.
Not the treatment parents put up with these days in the way their children are treated by a dentist, but back in the day things were a wee bit different than now.
In 2007 I finally bit the bullet and decided that I was being foolish and found a wonderful dentist that advertised as being a gentle dental dentist, and so I made the appointment and went.
I was treated with kid gloves and given wonderful care by he and his staff and they did whatever it took to keep my from experiencing pain.
In 2012 I took it one step further and had braces put on simply because I was not happy with the way my teeth had become disaligned over the decades, and also, I was beginning to speak with a lisp due to the teeth crowding my tongue. I can honestly say that even though this work was quite expensive due to us not having adult orthodontia coverage, that it was SOOOOO worth it in the end.
Now, I know that there are others of you who also fear the dentist, and your mouth may or may not look and smell awful because of your avoiding proper dental care, AND even with insurance some of the procedures necessary to get your mouth into a healthy state with a beautiful smile, can be VERY expensive. Speak to your dentist about this prior to him or her doing any work in your mouth and see what can be worked out.
The last thing I want to mention is that in many areas of the country there are free dental clinics.
My current dental technician said that on her days off from my dentist's office job, she works at a free dental clinic. They don't provide every dental procedure, but they can do a LOT to get your mouth on it's way to health and beauty.
Do a GOOGLE search for 'free dental care for whatever city, state or county you live in and see what comes up. Here are a few for random areas of the country, but DO GOOGLE a search in your area if this is something you need to take care of.
XOX
Please pass this information along to anyone you know who is in need of free dental care.