You have to be careful with dentists. They make their money by doing procedures on and pulling your teeth. I'm not saying all dentists are this way as I've had good ones and bad ones, I had one really bad dentist. My old dentist had retired and she took over his office and inherited all of his patients. My old dentist had a very simple practice. He only had a receptionist and one assistant. He usually cleaned my teeth himself. I went to him for 10 years and never had any dental issues. Then the new lady dentist took over. She had her husband working reception and he is one of the rudest people I've ever met. He was not cut out to be a receptionist. Then she had 5 or 6 assistants and she never cleaned my teeth. Apparently, it was too lowly of a job for her to perform. Her assistants always did it. Next, she also had all of this fancy, yet unnecessary equipment -- like a camera on the end of a tube that you could stick in your mouth and be able to see inside your own mouth. Who the hell wants to see inside their own mouth?! I certainly don't. From my first visit with her, she found "issues" with my teeth right away. She started doing procedure after procedure on me, with each procedure creating a new issue that required the next one.
Plus, it required me to go see her at least once a week, if not more often. I wouldn't even be recovered from one procedure before she'd want me back for another one.
Finally, 4 months and over $3,000 later, I was sick of it. I went to a different dentist and he told me there was nothing wrong with my teeth. I didn't need all those procedures. He said she was probably doing that to most of her patients to pay for all of her assistants and all that fancy, yet unnecessary equipment. I started seeing him and never went back to this woman ever again. But for years I got calls from her staff wanting me to come back.
Also, my dad had all of his teeth pulled at age 18 and got dentures. He had some dental disease called pyorrhea, which I later found out is just an old term for periodontitis. It just means inflamed gums and loose teeth. It didn't seem to bother my dad at all. He never went to the dentist.
To the OP, I second those saying it's not too late. I got braces in my 20s and didn't really start seeing a dentist regularly until after I left home. From the above story you can see that my dad wasn't big on dental hygiene. When I was a kid, I only ever went to a dentist when I had a toothache. I didn't have regular checkups. My own dental hygiene habits are hit and miss. Sometimes I go through a phase where I pay close attention to it, then I go back to neglecting it again. My teeth are in pretty good shape though. It's hard to keep it up when you weren't trained to do so as a child. I have to think about it because it never became a habit with me. I usually forget to brush and floss before bed. Sometimes I remember after I'm already in bed and I'm too lazy to get up and do it.
Whatever you decide OP, I wish you well.
