Hacker News Reader

Comment by xenospn | Hacker News Reader

Am I the only person around without any cavities or painful dentist memories?

Nope. My partner is one of your kind. Perfect teeth. Bloody perfect. She can do away with brushing for a month at a time if she wanted and won’t have a problem. Her dentist has told her multiple times she should model her teeth haha.

Me—and whatever I inherited on top of my B12/Iron deficiencies—I feel it if I miss a day or two. So many problems since I was young. And without proper orthodontic help in health insurance or our public health care my parents couldn’t afford much of the work I needed when I was young. Don’t get me started on outdated rural dentists and their torture methods... I mean... faulty anesthetic.

You are a lucky person indeed.

My wife is the same. Perfect teeth. She often forgets to brush. Perfectly white and straight and zero cavities. Me? Brush twice a day. Floss every single day. Chew gum between meals. Still get cavities.

Interestingly my children have the exact same tooth brushing regime. My eldest has had zero problems whatsoever, yet my youngest has a bunch of problems. Same household, same tooth brushing, same diet. Our doctor said some people just have weaker teeth but I don't know anything about the science.

I've no doubt this is true. However, folks often forget what kind of damage can be done by a decade of neglect. Yes, I have some experience in the area.

Nope. My great grandmother went to her grave at 102 with all her teeth and no cavities.

I’m 35 and in the same boat. Brush once a day or two. Get great reviews from my dentist every time. Just need to start flossing more for gum health.

Genetics are powerful sometimes.

> My great grandmother went to her grave at 102 with all her teeth and no cavities.

Did she have a sugar heavy diet or not?

She had a normal “live in Minnesota from 1895-1997” diet.

She ate little during the depression. She ate Supermarket sheet cake when that became a thing. No special diets.

Oh and Jello Salad. Lutheran potlucks and all.

I only had a painful dentist memory because I fell off my bike and landed on a tooth. Poor hospital doctor had to pick broken bits of tooth out of my lip and then seal it up again with superglue. Other than that, absolutely no dental problems at all. I put it down to the fact that when I was growing up, I hardly ever had chocolate or other sugary sweets.

There seems to be wide variation in tooth enamel in the general population. I have colleagues who have never been to the dentist, hardly brush and have never had a dental problem; other colleagues who brushed and flossed several times a day and ended up with full dentures before they were 25.

Are you exaggerating? Or were they really brushing more than 3 times a day?

Brushing obsessively and brushing hard will strip enamel that's been softened by acids. Brushing right after a meal can lead to damage because the enamel hasn't remineralized.

Never had a cavity in my life, for some reason, and it's not like I'm OCD about my teeth. I just brush multiple times a day, floss less often than that

I brush twice a day and never floss.

What's your diet like?

As a kid, kind of ate whatever, including sugary foods, but I'm not from the US so back then I think I ate less sugar than Americans just as a function of how much sugar there is in American food

Nowadays I try to avoid eating added sugars (i.e. drink my coffee black, no soda, rarely eat deserts), but otherwise eat regular food and try to eat "real meals", like my grandparents would eat when they were my age

Reply on news.ycombinator.com