It was back to the dentist today for a consultation and cleaning.
First she went over the examination results from last time, pointing out my problem areas and going over what we could do to fix them. Threre are a couple of areas of tooth decay, which isn't surprising since this is the first time I've seen a dentist in years. But she said we managed to catch things early enough that dealing with them won't be a problem.
A major concern is the wear on my teeth caused by grinding. I've had a lot of stress in my life, and I grind in my sleep a lot. In the near future she would like to make a mouth guard I can wear while sleeping, to prevent any more wear.
The cleaning wasn't so bad. First was a careful waterpicking, then the scraping, then the brushing. Dr. Stagg prefers not to use flouride, for which I'm thankful because I would prefer to avoid the nasty queasy feeling it gives me.
We bought a specially designed rotary toothbrush that will clean the teeth and gums more thoroughly, and a special toothpaste that's designed to build up a protective seal over the teeth.
I'm going back again tomorrow, for the first stage of repair work. She'd like to seal the problem areas, as well as remove my old mercury fillings and replace them with safer composite fillings. She'll work on the right side first, then in another week we'll go back for the same work on the left.
Eventually she'd even like to put me through one night of sleep analysis to see if my mouth configuration affects my breathing. Apparently some of my teeth never came in, and there's a disproportion issue between my mouth size (smaller) and the size of my tongue (regular).
So, that was my advneture in dental land 
Stay tuned for more of the same tomorrow. Same tooth time, same tooth channel!
