Giving up

I know that in the last few blog entries, I have touched on the fact that I have given up smoking. I'm not one of those who give up, then suddenly become very anti-smoking. Each to their own I say, but I am glad I did it, especially as I never thought I would.

It all started off with a trip to the Dentist. I go to Oak House and they change Dentists on rotation every year. On this particular day, I met my new Dentist Michelle. Now after a very thorough examination, involving lots of uncomfortable probing, scraping, and an x-ray. Michelle told me that I had quite obvious gum disease. I had been getting recurrent abscesses on my Wisdom Tooth and I had calculi under the gum line.

To be honest, it all sounded rather disgusting. The abscesses were very painful and I had had several courses of antibiotics. The Emergency Dentists that I had seen when the abscess flared up were reluctant to pull the tooth (due to the x-ray not working on one trip - so they couldn't examine the root of the tooth for ease of exit).....so to speak. On another visit, I had a cold sore, so the Emergency Dentist wouldn't touch me with a bargepole, just gave me another lot of antibiotics.

So, it was with some relief that I met Michelle. Within the first visit I had a plan in place to remove all of the calculi, deep clean under the gum line and remove the Wisdom tooth which, according to the latest x-ray, would be an easy pull, done in the surgery without a trip to the hospital Max/Facs Unit. However, Michelle was nothing if not honest. She very nicely, but very succinctly told me that there was only so much that she could do to improve my situation. The rest would have to be done by me and, the only way that I could prevent any further gum deterioration (apart from regular oral hygiene, which I was already doing), was.........to stop smoking!!!!!

I was gutted, I had smoked on and off for years. More on than off, I loved a fag and got enjoyment out of each and every one. I didn't want to consider stopping but, I didn't want to lose my teeth. I felt like I was between a rock and a hard place..

I left the Dentists feeling low. I didn't want to consider stopping smoking and put it to the back of my mind for a bit. I followed my treatment plan through. At every dental visit, Michelle would remind me that she could only do so much, and that I would have to make the effort too. She suggested that I go to my local smoking cessation group. I nodded and agreed but, had no intention of going to a group. When I was ready, and not before, I would do it myself.