I went to the dentist yesterday... not good news. The dentist filled THREE of my teeth on the lower right quadrant. He drilled for what seemed like an eternity, and the Novocaine didn't mask about 50% of the pain!

If this weren't enough, he said that my front right incisor is a goner. An abscess forming. My options, he said:

* Have the tooth silver-capped for that really Phat ghetto-licious look
* Have the tooth pulled for that sophisticated Alfred E. Neumann Look
* Do nothing and have the green foul poisons leach into my brain making me crazier than I already am, or
* ROOT CANAL.


He asked me, at one point, point-blank: "Do you drink a lot of Coca-Colas?"

"Uh... yeah?" I squeaked.

"About how many?"

"About..uh...one per day, mebbe?" [Oh, puh-leeze: let's try FIVE OR SIX]

"Well, I want you to to stop. That stuff is just eating away your teeth. "


What? And give up Tara? I love Cokes!! Cokes (and sweets) are perhaps one of my last pleasures, having already sacrificed Sex, Drugs and Rock 'N' Roll at the altar of dowdy, bourgeois middle-agedness.


I recently read the testimony of a man who had great rippling health in this seventies. "What's your secret??" the magazine quizzed him.

"If it tastes even remotely good, my wife won't let me eat it." came the reply.

O---M---G I know that your teeth are serious Mr Rasputin but I can't stop laughing.
Please Please Please write a book.

You've gotta take care of yourself and your teeth!! Teeth have a lot to do with your overall health. How long had it been since you'd been to the dentist??

Oh, you poor thing! You have my sympathy and understanding. My youngest kid came home from his first year of college and, over $1,000 and several fillings this summer, his dentist came to the same conclusion -- cut out drinking soda.

Oh, dear. I can feel your pain, having had my share of cavities as a child. As an adult, however, I've never drank sweet drinks and I don't have a sweet tooth, and I haven't had a cavity in years. Start cutting down on sugary stuff, you'll find after awhile that you won't even miss them!

I was just listening to Jillian Michaels' radio show and she talked about how difficult it was for her to give up diet Coke. She now makes her own "soda" by using sparkling water, pure fruit juice concentrates, without sugar, and a natural sweetener like xylitol.

When I was in college, I discovered Dr. Pepper, before that I was on a totally healthy, wholesome, organic food diet with no sugar (my mom worked at the local health food store and I didn't know any better - I never had soda or sweets or canned or packaged foods (for the most part) when I was growing up). Nine months of Dr.Pepper and I had gained 15 pounds and got 20 cavities when I got home from my freshman year away at school. I had NO CAVITIES prior to going away.
Dave, I would suggest that you at least try to start diluting your coke with diet coke, until you get to the point where you are drinking less sugar. I know the phosphoric acid in any soda is bad for you, but I believe the addition of sugar makes it even worse. Get more of your sweets from fruits. This is something that I am going to have to work on right now as well since I have totally gone off my diet lately. I've noticed that my blood sugar lows are much worse when I eat cereal in the morning for breakfast. I am going to have to go back to eating omelettes, etc, instead of the sweet stuff.

That's EXACTLY what happened to my son -- we never had soda in our house, though I know probably drank it at friends' houses during high school. But he just went hog-wild his freshman year in college, apparently. It's hard to break the sugary drinks habit, but it's worth the effort.

Poor Ras, I've got a friend who just heard the same news...he's NOT happy! It's a bad deal either way - Diet sodas containing aspartame, and sugar with the the high-test!

My sweetie is awfully hooked on sodas, and I know if he could just quit, he'd feel a LOT better, health wise, weight wise. If anyone has good suggestions on HOW to quit...I'm all ears!

Thanks for the counsel, deme... but the "Coke" I've been referring to IS DIET COKE! The dentist says this is just as pernicious to the ol' teeth.

Gotta chuckle at the DR. PEPPER: I attended BAYLOR UNIVERSITY for a time... in beautiful downtown Wacko Waco, Texas... It's chief honor is being the site of the Koresh shindig, but also where DR. PEPPER was invented in the early part of the 20thc. I was friends with the grandson of the man who invented it! Anyway, DIET DR. PEPPER was definitely the drink of choice for all BAYLOR sorority girls... An oft-heard joke:


Q. "How many BAYLOR girls does it take to change a flat tire?"

A. "Two. One to hold the DDP and one to call Daddy."

My DH would sympathize with your story, Dave. He's always liked sweets, and was not adverse to softdrinks. It never affected his waistline (he has an aggravating ability to stay slender), but certainly did a number on his teeth.

My mean parents would never let me have soda. And I was rigorously trained in the dull arts of milk-drinking, tooth-brushing, and dentist-visiting. For years, as a treat, I was permitted to drink soda exactly twice a year: at Christmas, which was the only time of the year we'd have it in the house (to use as mixer), and on my school's Sports Day, when I'd be given enough money to buy *one* bottle of my preferred poison, Tahiti Treat.

Fast forward to age of 52. I don't have a taste for soda and I've had a grand total of one tiny cavity. Am I grateful to my mean parents? You bet. Does my son get to drink soda? Rarely. I learned really well how to be a mean parent....

I don't like soda pop and almost never drink any (too sweet and hate all the bubbles). And I've had plenty of cavities - must be all that chocolate. ;-)

Maybe you could try drinking it with a straw? It would have less contact with your teeth that way.

I just never really saw the big deal in soda. I grew up in Vietnam til I was about 9, and I probably had all of 2 sodas til I came to the US, where sodas were available aplenty. Even then, I had access to them, and would drink them if I had to, but I just never really got used to the taste or the BURNING SENSATION that it left in my throat. I still don't get the attracted. If I had to drink something sweet, there are so many more appealing drinks (coffee blends, tea, juice...etc) granted, all are sugary and bad, but soda just tastes so gross! I really don't understand why people drink it at all.

I read somewhere that light colored soda is worse for your teeth than the dark stuff...more citric acid perhaps?

Sorry to hear about your dental woes, Dave. I have a mouth full of fillings and two dental bridges. (cha-ching $$$$) I can definitely relate.

But I still drink soda.

Reiha, did you ever see that magnificent movie starring Tommy Lee Jones, called HEAVEN AND EARTH? It was the true tale of Le Ly Hayslip, a Vietnamese girl who marrried an American soldier in the late-1960's.

There is that amazing scene in which young Le Ly, newly arrived in the States, marches, nearly in a trance, down the cool, blue-green fluorescent aisles of an American supermarket for the first time... Her eyes are huge as she sees all this towering super-abundance of every kind of food pleasure one could ever want or imagine. She eyes it all with a mixture of avid desire... and a wee bit of dismay at the excess and waste of it all....

I've never seen that movie, but yeah, America did seem strange and exotic when I came here. Apples (red delicious) were so rare that they were a special treat when I came here. As were hamburgers...I was a super skinny kid (who grew into a gangly adult) but as soon as we came here and were surrounded by American processed food (before the age of 9, I probably never ate anything prepackaged in my life besides the extremely rare bag of candy. My parents literally forced me to eat McD's and drink milk and Ensure in a misguided effort to fatten me up. Needless to say, I couldn't stand the taste and flushed what I could down the toilet.

I know this isn't a remedy and may just be advertising but does anyone know if the toothpastes currently being advertised that are supposed to restore tooth enamel really do anything at all? Velvet's suggestion about using a straw is an excellent one.
I, too, have difficulty staying away from Diet Coke. However the artificial sweetners do in some cases cause other side effects so I am trying to avoid it as much as I can. Sometimes I wonder if it is the Coke I like or the caffeine in it. I am currently trying to wean myself away from it and substituting strong tea for the time being. With the weather turning a bit cooler, the hot tea is quite appealing.

I wonder that myself. I've compared the label to regular toothpaste and don't see any difference. I wonder if Consumer Reports or Good Housekeeping has tested it.

I've done a little research and what I've come up with is that these cannot REPLACE lost enamel. The only thing they supposedly will do is to strengthen enamel which has softened. Hmmmmm. I'm going to ask my dentist about this. I'm beginning to think that as usual this is some very misleading advertising.

Uh-oh - then you and I is in BIIIIIG trouble! Start saving up for the dentures ...
Hmmm, how about getting a glass of water with each Diet Coke and swishing with the water in between DC swigs?

Yeah, truth is, I have neglected my teeth a bit. I've always brushed at least once everyday, but that's obviously not enough...

My personal fave is Cherry Coke Zero. Gotta have one can of it at night! Gotta have it.

Is this a man thing? I brush several times, never fewer than twice.

I have to ask my husband to brush before bed as well as in the morning.
(I call it marital consideration. He says everything is "marital consideration" when it something that I want, LOL)

I had a friend who broke up with her boyfriend because he wouldn't brush his teeth.

It must be a man thing - I have to remind my BF daily to brush his teeth. Honestly, how can he stand that fuzzy nasty taste in his mouth? The mere thought is nauseating. My brother was the same way.

I would think men would want to brush their teeth regularly, if only to entice their partners to want to kiss them more often.

Mebbe it is a man thing. I just find brushing and flossing so tedious, frankly. I do it, but have to consciously remind myself and force myself to. I don't especially like a minty taste in my mouth, either. YMMV

He'd better brush, if wants to do more than kiss.

If I see my man paying closer attention to personal grooming before bed, esp. applying fragrance voluntarily , it usually means one thing.

It's saturday night?

ROFL!!

Rasputin, sorry to hear about your mouth but thanks for sharing your story with us. I had to laugh when you said, in your opening post, that you "squeaked".

I'll share this tale with my husband. He used to drink 2 to 5 cans of Pepsi, then Coke (I only wanted Coca Cola in our house ). Then he switched to Zero Coca Cola but he still must drink several cans a day. I had quit the habit but I find myself lately drinking 1 or 2 cans of Diet Dr. Pepper.

It's the carbonation and the sweet/salty taste in the drink that is addictive, i think. The best alternative if you like bubbly soda is to switch to carbonated mineral water or club soda and drink it mixed with a bit of pure unsweetened juice.

Another idea - I brew Celestial Seasonings Red Zinger tea or possibly their Green tea and Raspberry/Hibiscus blends and then ice it. I drink the pitcher throughout the day.

Good luck if you decide to kick the habit!

My husband drinks soda on a pretty regular basis (almost daily), plus he has a sweet tooth and loves chocolate. He's 44, and despite not having gone to the dentist for at least 10 years before we got married, he doesn't have a filling in his head. (He does brush his teeth at least 2x a day.)

His grandfather was 102 when he passed and he had all of his original teeth with only one or two fillings. Dental health is definitely hereditary.

theminx - that is an interesting personal anecdote! Interesting. I think you're right - dental health, IMO, is like facial skin quality - at some point we are dependent on our genes, I guess. And congratulations to your DH's grandfather for making it to 102!