I HOPE SOME OF YOU reading that headline are now thinking, “Huh, what do you mean too old? I would hope that my age would have nothing to do with getting good or great dental care!?” If that is your thinking, I am in 100% agreement with you, truth is; you’re never too old to have a healthy functional smile. That doesn’t mean the same smile as a twenty or thirty year old but I hope I’m able to smile and eat what I want for as long as I’m on this Earth… don’t you?
Too Old For Great Teeth? I Don’t Think So
For some reason many Americans have been brain-washed into thinking that once a certain age is hit they are no longer worthy of having their teeth look good. Imagine if you went into a clothing store and the sales person wouldn’t sell you the clothes you wanted because: you’re too old! Crazy, right? Yet how many people think they’re too old to get implants so they can chew again or too old to do anything to make their front teeth look nicer?
I Believe In Making The Most Of The Time I Have
On occasion I’ll hear someone (often someone not really that much older than I am!) in otherwise good health with this mentality say something like, “Well, I’m too old to have that fixed and besides I don’t know how much longer I’ll be around anyway?” I feel so sad for these people when I hear this “too old” mentality. None of us knows how long we’ll be around or in good health but even if you knew you only had a year to go would you want it to be a year of discomfort and just getting by, or would you rather it be a year free of discomfort with the ability for chewing and eating what you want? I’d want the latter. One of my all time favorite patients was a spunky 74 year old woman who came to me two years before she passed away. Her last dentist wouldn’t make her smile look nicer because she was told she was “too old” even though she was in otherwise good health at the time. She confided in me that she had always wanted to do something for herself but had always put her family first and now that she could do something for herself she didn’t want “to go to her grave with her old worn snaggly teeth” (her words).
You Deserve A Great Smile
You’re part of an amazing new generation of people proving that we can all keep great oral health well into our golden years! While our ancestors were subsisting on soup by age 50, we can still be eating all our favorite crunchy foods for as long as we want. When it comes to cosmetic and restorative dentistry, it isn’t complicated and there’s very little discomfort. More and more seasoned citizens are keeping their teeth AND beautifying their smiles. You can too! Just don’t fall into the trap of thinking age alone is the reason not to have great dental care.
