by Gabriele Conrad, Goonellabah, Australia
My teeth used to really distress me, and visits to the dentist even more so. Not because I was scared, but because I just didn’t get teeth, this part of our body that does not regenerate. It felt like my teeth were aliens in my body and didn’t behave how they should, but ran their own agenda.
- You start with one filling and then you have more.
- You keep getting bigger fillings as new bits of decay appear.
- Bits of a tooth might break off requiring reconstructive work.
- A tooth comes out, and of course it doesn’t grow back and you get a bridge.
- Another tooth comes out and you decide you can’t afford the bridge and leave the gap; and also, it is at the back of your mouth. But chewing becomes a bit more difficult and uneven, food can get stuck and the teeth on either side of the gap start leaning across.
- More teeth come out and you need dentures or decide to have implants.
- Your gums are not looking that great, they bleed a lot and your teeth are sensitive.
- You want to have implants but there might be problems with the bones of your jaw.
And so the list goes on.
I found teeth depressing and visits to the dentist a bit of a downer. They do a great job and I haven’t really had any bad experiences at all, but the relentlessness of the deterioration, no matter how slow and well managed, together with the perpetual catch-up and “what’s the bad news?” flavour of each dental visit, never failed to put a dampener on me.
This all changed when I started attending Universal Medicine workshops and presentations. I learnt about taking responsibility rather than taking my health for granted and considering myself mainly indestructible (except for my teeth, that is). And I got to understand that teeth are a reflection of my past choices, all of them.
As I started making more self-loving choices in the way I lived, I actually began to floss more regularly, rather than just the obligatory half-hearted manoeuvres I had previously executed once or twice a week. And because I knew and could feel that it was about me and for me, I started to enjoy looking after myself in this way and flossing daily became part of my rhythm, part of what I do for me.
I really started to appreciate my teeth for the role they play and what they are there to show me, whatever their state of health or lack of it might be, and that includes my gums, which, by the way, have improved out of sight.
And I found a great dental practice so I now look forward to my dental visits, and the level of care and attention to detail that I am afforded is truly amazing. No longer are my teeth aliens in my body; they are alive and communicating to me by the way they present. Visits to my dentist are not obligatory catch-up procedures anymore, but opportunities to appreciate what is being offered by my body and to deepen my understanding, appreciation and self-care.
Medicine and Serge Benhayon 
What you offer here is an opportunity to consider the fine detail we are willing to bring to our self-care and the option to see everything we do as an opportunity to deepen that relationship.
Awesome love it, amazing how much more insight we receive when we open up to love and its endless possibilities.
Something I can only confirm after yesterday’s visit to the periodontist – another level of care to go to has been offered.
I feel that teeth like our feet seem to get a raw deal as we tend not to take such great care of them as the rest of our body. But they are both very necessary for all the obvious reasons. I see some patients who have no teeth and no dentures and they have extreme difficulty in speaking and eating anything that is not smashed up for them.
Gabriele, I loved reading your perspective on teeth and agree to the hesitancy in visiting the dentist. Teeth aren’t visible until you smile, its a part of the body we don’t need to display daily, but do they project to others the self care we have for ourselves.
It’s the first thing I notice when I speak with someone and every time they speak, the self care and nurturing of themselves says it all for me. So this is what I must be reflecting to others too.
When I was younger, I ate, drank and smoked and my teeth were fine but there comes a point in time, where I had no choice but to take heed of what was going on with myself. I’m not at that point I need bridges, dentures etc, but they certainly cared for more lovingly than before. My evening rhythm of brushing is the same as I prepare to take my body to bed.
For me what I realise more and more is that teeth require just the same level of care and attention as the rest of the body. As age goes by, the depth of care changes, it is that simple.
You raise some great points here; unfortunately, despite all the dedication I have brought to my teeth over time, they don’t look that great and I can’t commit the funds on what is needed for veneers and braces, etc. That makes me realise that a lot of people might think I am not looking after my teeth from how they superficially look, bridges and crowns being reasonably invisible. Well, so be it I suppose – the care is still there and I have to put to rest what I cannot practically attend to. Incidentally, I have applied for straight beautiful teeth next time around!!!
What you share in appreciation at the end of your blog Gabriele is a far cry from how you felt about your teeth at the beginning. When we begin to self nurture and self care the level of commitment we can bring to ourselves and then to all others we are with is pretty incredible.
It is inspiring to read how your relationship with your teeth has changed and the appreciation you now feel for all that they share with you. I am much more diligent in how I care for my teeth but am now feeling that there is a deeper level to go to with appreciation not only for how they support me every day but also the reflection that they offer me in how I am caring for myself.
Every part of our body deserves the same attention and love. It’s amazing how it instantly responds and regenerates very quickly when we offer what it needs.
Our body is amazingly responsive once we get out of the way.
At my last routine visit to the dentist, a hygienist showed me how I could floss with more care and attentiveness, taking the angle of each tooth into account. Sure, it takes a bit longer, but I am having absolute fun with it as it is far more satisfactory and each move feels more purposeful.
The more we dedicate ourselves to the details, the more rewarding and fun it gets. I discovered this recently with a rather cumbersome 14-page form I had to fill in. Once I moved past the resentment and read each question with interest and openness, the form started to make sense and was done without an ounce of negativity..
That is so true – when we give attention to details they are no longer meaningless peripherals we once brushed off. They become alive and we can have a relationship with it.
“because I knew and could feel that it was about me and for me, I started to enjoy looking after myself” It can be very noticeable that when we start to truly care for ourselves, including our teeth, then our overall health improves.
Important with any diseases part of the body to understand what happened, why and use it as an opportunity to be be more loving with ourselves.
Kehinde it is spot on in bringing understanding to what happened. Every time I had a tooth pulled out, I used to get wiped out and I needed to rest deeply that day, a rest like no other. And when the tooth was gone, it felt like there was a big crater and emptiness left behind, and the other teeth were mourning, for the loss of another. Weird feeling I know, though being honest here.
Shushila, I love that you rested deeply after your tooth extraction, Sometimes we miss this very important step, essential for our recovery From recent experience, tooth extraction can be very painful too, but is also a massive clearing. The gap left behind symbolic of space and potential. As is said ‘watch this space’
Well, in that case I better start to embrace my gap – so far I have been fighting it, wanting it to not be there; thanks for the inspiration.
Like you Gabriel I came to appreciate and care for my teeth when I met a dentist that cared about me and my teeth and supported me to be the same. It took some convincing to build trust between us, but once I did, my teeth became integral to my self care routine. In twenty years I’ve had a couple of procedures, but no longer neglect my teeth or take them for granted.
It is said that if we ignore something long enough, it goes way – in the case of our teeth, that is a very poor prognosis indeed as they do not thrive on neglect and nor does the rest of our body and being. With the right support, everything can be turned around.
Well said – we do not thrive on neglect. If you ignore a leak it simply erodes in the background till you are prepared to deal with the leak, and of course the ensuing complication from ignoring the leak in the first place!!!
Well I think my teeth are one part of my body that is certainly slightly neglected, while I do brush the obligatory twice a day – reading your blog I can sense there is much greater levels of care that I could take in this area.
Whether we do things perfunctorily and because we should or whether we apply ourselves to even the minutest detail of daily life makes a huge difference to our health and vitality. The former is rather more duty-bound and feels heavy while the latter brings joy and aliveness, makes our particles tingle.
Taking responsibility for how we care for and look after ourselves sets a standard and a foundation of steadiness and solidness within. Committing to self care builds self worth and confidence.
Gabriele, thank you for your sharing – I used to be scared of dentists too as it hurt to have my jaw open and it hurt to have the fillings done and then later in it hurt to get braces and it hurt to wear braces. I would find it hard to relax in the dentist chair as I was so used to everything hurting that I would be bracing myself even when it was not hurting! But I did some across an amazing holistic dentist a few years ago who has made the experience completely different – she really connected with me and allowed me to feel so held during the treatments. She also helped me understand more about the teeth and how with the treatments there is so much going on in the body and the detox that follows that it was normal for someone as sensitive as me to feel raw and sensitive during and after the treatments. This was great to understand, and with that I am more caring and honouring of myself especially around dental treatments. What a blessing to offer myself!
A supportive and understanding dentist is a real blessing; an experience like that can turn our whole dental history around.
So true Gabriele, when you find a dentist that offers true care, the dental work offered can be so healing and supportive.
With the help of a supportive and caring dentist, every appointment turns into a healing session.
When we understand the bigger picture of why we do something and connect to the purpose of it, it shifts from being a chore to being something that is a joy to do, something we can look forwards to and feel the benefits all around. Even brushing teeth can feel like a tick box chore, but when we realise we are not just caring for our body right now but also laying a foundation of care for the future and beyond, with repercussions that are far wider reaching than we may initially have realised, it is amazing how the tooth brushing experience changes and is far more enjoyable. This of course can be applied to all other ‘chores’ and especially those self care ones that we can do out of obligation or because of the ‘this is what we do’ approach.
Chores, duties, obligations and rules come with a heaviness that can be hard to dispel unless we connect and do everything with presence; only then is there room for more awareness and joy.
Brushing our teeth offers us a marker twice a day (at least) of how we are feeling, how is our body going, how willing are we to look into our eyes without looking away…every moment is an opportunity to bring deep care and love to ourselves so we can walk that in our daily living.
I love that connection between brushing teeth and looking into my eyes – I shall try that for sure.
I always find it interesting how we can be so dismissive about a part of our body, and treat it with disregard, when every part of our body is as equally important to every other part, as without it there would be an imbalance with the way everything functions. Bringing our attention and focus to an area such as our teeth is deeply supportive, in more ways than we would imagine.
We can’t in truth piece up life or our body– “everything is everything” after all, as presented by Serge Benhayon and evidenced every day.
I have recently made some big changes to my oral care by committing to using soft picks (similar to floss) twice a day and exploring how to keep this new part of my routine simple and easy so I never forget. Now my routine is in place I am concentrating more on the quality I do my flossing with – from the function or remembering to do it, to now flossing in a way that is gentle and delicate. It’s like a healing for my whole mouth and changes the energetic quality. What’s been interesting is with this change I’ve been developing a deeper relationship with my teeth and gums, if they are bleeding there are things for me to look at to support my health and wellbeing as that is a sign from my body something is up. I also feel much more appreciation for this wonderful area of the body now, as well as the care from my dentist and his gentle encouragement to deepen my self care. I have also massaged my gums based on the Esoteric Massage technique of gentle anticlockwise circles which I have to say felt amazing. I am lavishing care on a place that was once neglected!
Taking care of our teeth and gums can be vey enjoyable and is certainly rewarding; and a lot chaper than having a lot of dental work.
Our teeth are a great reflection of how we care for ourself, it is the start of caring for our whole body, because the more we concentrate on one part and become consistent we realise that there are other areas that need our attention too.
We make a start with one area and keep going until the realisation dawns that it is one body which in its entirety deserves nothing less than our whole attention, love and care – just as much as we cannot in truth compartmentalise life, it is after all, one life.
How we care for our teeth is a great marker of how much self-care we are prepared to give ourselves.
Caring for our teeth can easily be put into the tedium and same-same every day basket but rushing through it and taking short-cuts is not only disregard of self and the body but nearly always much more costly down the track.
If our teeth are a part of our body that does not regenerate, then it stands that they will reflect the energetic quality of our previous choices and whether these were made with love or against it.
Like a monument to past choices, our teeth are.
Best thing I ever did having half my rotten teeth out – long gone my past rotten choices and now I have some beautiful dentures to match my beautiful choices
I have also changed my relationship with my body as you describe here gabrieleconrad from seeing it as an enemy and a nuisance to a good friend offering me constant counsel and communication.
We so clearly have a choice when it comes to how we relate to our body: resent it for not conforming to our demands and expectations, and for failing us when we’ve overloaded it, or adore it, cherish it, and treasure and align to its constant communication – and enjoy feeling more connected, and more alive, as a result.
I never had a lot of difficulties with my teeth or even fillings, so going to the dentist to me was as easy as going to the park. The only thing that really stood out was they didn’t want to stay in the line the orthodontist once put them. Of course moving teeth is just as much communication as are other signals from the teeth. Two years ago I went to see an esoteric dentist in Brisbane and the treatment I got there had such a big impact on me and my well being. She cleaned my teeth thoroughly and it felt like I let go of age-old stuff and I learned that crowded teeth are about holding on to things. So now 2 years later I have my teeth perfectly lined up and it is like I changed as well. The shape of my face has changed and I have a lot more space in my mouth.
That’s a great insight – crowded teeth signalling that we hold on to stuff, especially what doesn’t serve us any longer and possibly, never has in truth.
I love what you suggest here Gabriele, that holding onto anything never serves in truth. So why would we want to hold onto things, for comfort, not having to be aware and responsible? Holding on prevents us from deepening and expanding.
Thank you. When I was young I had to have teeth taken out because my mouth was too crowded – I am feeling now a lot of what that was about was holding back on expression too….holding on to stuff in many different ways…lots to ponder on and share…I know so many people who have had their teeth straightened because the teeth were fighting for space in their mouths. We don’t need to carry our stuff from one life time to another….. great to discard as much as we can and start again with a new slate next time around – and a great yes to deepening and expanding.
Our teeth reveal a lot about how we have lived, this life and the ones before. They support us to evolve and deepen our livingness.
Thank you for your comment Monika, that is an amazing experience and very interesting to read about. The body is communicating so much.
The body is like one big alien until we choose to be more present with it, then we realise the various body parts have been communicating with us all along – we just chose to not listen.
“No longer are my teeth aliens in my body; they are alive and communicating to me by the way they present.”
This definitely inspires me to not just take my teeth for granted but pay them respect and care for them.
Often, we do treat brushing our teeth as a chore and see it as a waste of time, but what this article shows us is that we can build a relationship with our teeth and that it benefits the whole body not just our teeth and gums. After all, it makes sense that if we are leaving things to go bad in the mouth the body has to fight the infection to keep us well, and sometimes it has to let the infection take over.
I used to struggle with visits to the dentist, getting extremely anxious because of previous experiences as a child. Now I have found a dentist that is caring and discusses everything with me and understands my anxiousness as soon as I sit in the chair. This has made a huge difference but I also know that my own self care with my teeth makes sure that I am offering my dentist and hygienist a set of gums and teeth that are lovingly cared for and this makes a difference when I sit in the chair knowing that I have done my part to support them in their work.
If we so choose, we are more than merely passive recipients of dental services but active co-contributors to the health of our teeth and gums and our whole body.
To welcome visits to the dentist is the only way to be – since taking greater care of my own teeth, I now enjoy the reflections of what this offers.
“Visits to my dentist are not obligatory catch-up procedures anymore, but opportunities to appreciate what is being offered by my body and to deepen my understanding, appreciation and self-care.”
Taking health for granted is something that is coming into my awareness lately. Our body does know how to do it, but because we so often get in its way instead of fostering and supporting its way, we are having to make an effort to be healthy. Sometimes it feels almost like we just cannot believe how truly amazing we are.
It is as though health was an extra task to take care of, on top of everything else, instead of the naturalness of everyday movements that it is.
Love this, it is true health can be seen as an extra task to take care of on top of everything else, we have to do and and can be neglected and put to the bottom of the pile until the body tells us in its own way that we need to look at something. In truth our health and wellbeing should be top of the pile and be a normal part of our everyday checklist and not left until we have a problem.
it is interesting to hear that teeth are part of our past choices, and to deeply consider that, but also to know that we are making current choices, and to deeply care for our teeth now sets a new and loving foundation.
It truly is wondrous how there is not one part of our body that does not communicate to us about how we are living, in any aspect of our lives, serving the purpose if we are open to listening, to deepen our relationship to honouring our body and being as such allowing a deeper connection to love to be lived.
Everything is there to teach and support us, if we but want to know.
Our wonderful bodies even teach and support us when we don’t want to know!
The body does not ever let up; always there it is, forever our teacher and mentor.
Until we depart for a while and back again we come with a new body to continue the learning!
It is great to hear your perspective on how it felt in the past to go to the dentist as I think many people can relate to you. That even though they did not have bad experiences the whole process is quite definite and there is so much that can go in the mouth. As a student dentist it is good to understand this and see that even though I know what is going on many patients might not know anything about it. It is good to feel and know there is a difference and that I need to understand and explain what is going on to my patients and take the time for that.
Understanding of what patients might go through and taking the time to connect and communicate is definitely a much better start to the whole process of going to the dentist than a practitioner who is solely focussed on the outcome, i.e. on function and the end result.
Our body reflects all of our choices including our teeth, which reflect not only the choices we make in this life but the choices we have made in past lives too, and through that we are able to deeply feel the patterns we have chosen and we have an opportunity to change the choices we make from now to those of a more loving nature that reflect the love we truly are.
“As I started making more self-loving choices in the way I lived, I actually began to floss more regularly, rather than just the obligatory half-hearted manoeuvres I had previously executed once or twice a week. ” When we learn to love ourselves more its amazing (or not) how much more care we take over even the smallest areas of our lives.
What we despise and rail against is not life but the results of the choices that we have made. We think we can’t enjoy this world but everything is possible if we are willing to change. Thank you Gabriele.
Everything opens up and changes when we return to and reclaim who we are. There is then nothing mundane about life, even the most repetitive and previously routine activities. Every moment offers more awareness and more expansion.
I think it really can make a big difference to appreciate our body, all of it and what it might be reflecting back to us about our way of living, so rather than something just being a drag or inconvenience there is the opportunity to learn and implement that greater awareness in our life.
When something is a drag, it drags indeed and is no fun at all; this mainly happens when we do things routinely and without being present in and with our body.
Also it needs to be noted that from a dentist’s point of view, dealing with people not dealing with their past choices can be quite a toxic process. If our dentists are not given adequate training to understand what they are working with here, then it is little wonder they have one of the highest suicide rates of all professions.
When we see what is there to be seen, without the usual veil of ignorance on, we can make the changes that need to be made so that we can immerse ourselves more completely into life.
‘Visits to my dentist are not obligatory catch-up procedures anymore, but opportunities to appreciate what is being offered by my body and to deepen my understanding, appreciation and self-care.’ Love it! How many of us dread going to the dentist, but what you are sharing here is that they can quite literally be a joy!
Having very similar experiences as Gabrielle with the dentist in the past and now not eating any sugar for years, it feels great to be finally taking deeper care of my teeth and gums as part of my daily routine. My receding gums are actually now improving and are much healthier, but it shows that the momentum of living the majority of my life in total disregard of my body and in a drive has long lasting effects that will take time to heal. The cool thing is when we take responsibility for our choices that created the dental issues, it is a great opportunity to heal much more than just our teeth and gums, but our emotional issues in life as well.
Many years ago I had a very bad experience at the dentist whereby I had a root canal and felt every stab while they were destroying the nerves. Afterwards, I was very shaken up and couldn’t go back to work. As a result, I couldn’t go near a dentist for a good few years. Then I found an all-female practice who were very understanding, and they helped me step by step to gain my confidence back. Now I find myself with a new dentist having moved from the area and will need to have a crown put on my tooth this March, still a bit nervous of having another procedure other than a clean but I cannot put it off any longer. I agree with the writer of this blog that there is more to our teeth than what we want to know and that like every other part of our body they are showing us our choices.
I have discovered that my teeth also let me know if my food choices are not suiting my digestion – they become super-sensitive and have dull ache all through them.
Our teeth are very sensitive and just like the whole body, always providing feedback on how we are travelling, what we have ingested and done that either heals or harms.
A gorgeous reflection of how the strength of our well-being and vitality is deeply rooted in honoring our sensitivity
What a great example of how everything in life is a lesson, everything to reflect and show us things that we need to know to grow, evolve and be more of whom we are.
A beautiful way to turn this experience around and not see teeth as a burden but as an opportunity to reflect to us our past choices. And of course, our current choices, therefore, matter so taking more care of yourself supports your teeth and you.
I used to cringe when I went to the dentist as I was always exposed in how disregarding I was with my teeth and gums, now I rarely have any problems due to the time and care I have put into looking after my teeth – having a consistent self-care routine is certainly worth investing in.
Such a beautiful blog on how doing the simplest of things like flossing our teeth when done in connection can literally change our lives.
My teeth have helped me learn that life is full of reflections and there is no bad one to receive. They have revealed how I continue on doing things I know aren’t true as long as I don’t suffer immediate pain, and how I will overlook the reality if things look good on the surface. Ah – the wisdom of the tooth is enough to fill many books. Thank you Gabriele.
Every part of the body offers enough reflection as it is and the body as a whole is a veritable treasure trove of wisdom.
I can fully appreciate the past dreaded annual check-ups with the Dentist and the hygienist that would continue to give me the same advice that I would ignore for another year. I should be toothless by now if I did not change the way I had been living. Now the annual visit is one of many confirmations of the self-care for myself I have chosen.
Same for me – I made a wide berth around any hygienist and say I did not need to be shown how to clean my teeth; after all, I had been doing it since early childhood. Little did I know and even less did I want to know about flossing etc.
A great example of how we can have a completely different relationship if we choose to visit a dentist/doctor regularly as part of our self-care routine, or out of necessity because there’s something needs fixing. And what I am finding is that having self-care as part of foundation supports us not to feel so out of control even when something does need fixing.
It’s the difference between not being at the mercy of one’s body when seeing it as a mere unit of function but rather appreciating and honouring it as a vehicle that the Soul can come through.
I do find I don’t pay enough attention to my teeth. I always have good intentions of flossing more regularly, but this usually only happens after each dentist visit – and the lead up to one (you know, where we think if we quickly start doing it, the dentist will think we always do it? Yeah, they’re not stupid…they know!!). It’s something to ponder why I don’t feel that my teeth deserve the same attention as the rest of my body.
Consistency might be the key here plus the fact that we are not flossing for the dentist but for ourselves and our health and well-being.
Great blog Gabriele. A greater level of responsibility and self care with my own health, brought vast changes to the state of my teeth and gums (even in my 60’s) – what was previously thought as normal tooth health, was soon exposed to be the complete opposite.
Distance comes a distant second once we have found a practitioner who is truly supportive and whom we can trust.
” Visits to my dentist are not obligatory catch-up procedures anymore, but opportunities to appreciate what is being offered by my body and to deepen my understanding, appreciation and self-care. ” It’s amazing how once we tune into self health care and feel the benefits of same, it then become a loving obligation which we appreciate how wonderful.
I used to get anxious every time I went to the dentist because of my childhood experiences. Finding a good dentist that is willing to take the time to connect is part of taking care of my body and making more self loving choices.
I never used to be caring with my body in the sense of going to doctors unless I was really sick or the dentist. Since I have come to realise how important and self-loving it really is to do this I go to the dentist and hygienist on a regular basis and it feels really amazing to look after myself in this way.
I have always looked after my teeth, however there is always a deeper level of care we can go to, brushing with more love, deepening our connection to ourselves as we realise that it’s not just about the act of brushing our teeth, because the health of our teeth affects the whole of our body.
It is interesting that teeth are often seen as difficult and toothbrushing and flossing like chores we don’t like to do. It is only when I realised it is an super important part of caring for myself to lovingly brush my teeth that this changed and the brushing, flossing and interdental brushing twice a day have become a loving routine instead of a chore I do on and off.
I have been resistant to flossing and can relate to the obligatory one or twice a week attempts and it feeling more like a chore than an act of loving-self care… but I am inspired to turn this around.
My dentist was a bit shocked on our first meeting as I don’t smoke or eat high amounts of sugar (high for me being sweet potato and the rare apple) I floss once and brush twice a day. I love my oral routine as if I don’t do it I feel yuck inside, not just my mouth but all over. I haven’t always done this but the more I appreciated bringing this care to myself the more normal it has become.
Quite telling of the state of our oral health worldwide when a dentist is shocked that a patient has good oral hygiene.
If teeth are a reflection of our past choices and we know we have not been living in a way that deeply honours the physical form we are enhoused within, then it makes sense that we close our eyes and open our mouths wide in the dentist chair in the dread of what is to come. It is not the pain we fear so much as the moment of accountability that comes with the discomfort of knowing we are not living true to who we are. I love how you have so turned this around Gabriele – it never is too late to take the simple steps that address this issue.
Great point – it’s the moment of reckoning, of accountability and being faced with past choices that constitute the basis for the physical pain which, of course, modern dentistry is well on top of.
No different to any other visit to a GP and identifying all the other choices that are played out in our body.
This is a huge turn around from the start to finish of this article. I was a no go to dentist style of person and really had no plans of ever going back unless I really really needed to and then I remember going and being impatient to get out of there again, just fix it and let’s get on with things. Dentists and teeth were a bit of a hassle and yet as this article is saying we can learn so so much from how our teeth are and how we are with our teeth. I have changed my ways and the dentist is a regular check up thing and I love the feeling of walking out with clean teeth which reminds me also that I am due to go to one now. My teeth are a part of my body and I know the more care I take with myself the more I can see what’s truly going on around me.
Caring for my teeth is an essential part of caring for my body as a whole, and does effect the whole body.
The accumulation is what has shown us has been out of sort for some time.
Our teeth are not unlike our body, when something goes wrong with either we have to stop and think how have we been living that has led to this.
Every body part and system has a story to tell, is a chronicle of the way we have been living. Serge Benhayon has said, “the body never lies” and it is at this juncture that conventional and universal medicine meet and enrich each other, to the benefit of all.
The role of those tiny teeth is an essential part of our health, and that understanding has had me caring for my teeth in a way that no amount of “clean your teeth” direction did. Purpose changes everything.
At any point we can choose to become aware of our body on another level and see how it can reflect to us the accumulation of our choices. Feeling the harm of these we can choose to then reimprint how we are with ourselves and recognize there are numerous opportunities to offer ourselves a new level of love and care in line with what we are worth, leaving the disregarding ones behind.
I couldn’t agree more, there is something about the presentation at Universal Medicine that really change your attitude and prospective towards main stream Medicine and Dentistry. I think its because you can feel that these Modalities are designed to support us and when you begin to support yourself you begin to feel grateful that there are people out there to help you. As opposed to coming with an air of entitlement, like they are suppose to fix you and that they owe you something that you are unable to give yourself.
There is a deadly arrogance in that air of entitlement and aloofness, as is in every move based on the sense that “the world owes me”.
Interesting … is there an underlying assumption that our bodies should take care of us (that we should be indestructible) and we just do whatever, or what about the alternative symbiotic relationship where we look after our bodies and they in turn do the same to us?
It certainly feels like we believe we are indestructible and the body gets dragged along and has to perform, no matter what fanciful ideas we come up with and what we do to it.
Each part of our body is worth our attention and although I had a scary start with the dentist when I was at school because of getting 8 or 9 nine fillings in one go without local anaesthesia, I more or less always have brushed my teeth dutifully and went to the dentist in this same way. In the last years this has developed into truly caring for my teeth and actually, it may sound weird, I love going to the dentist.
Not at all, I love going to the dentist too – it is always a great reality check and I feel truly supported and cared for.
Yeah, what were we thinking to neglect ourselves that much?
As with most other things, the longer we leave what needs attending to, the scarier and more unsurmountable it becomes in our mind.
Thank you Gabriele a great confirmation that everything matters, no matter how insignificant we think it is. Our bodies truly are a barometer of all things in our lives that affect us.
It is quite annoying that they don’t regenerate, or grow back. But then that is part of the beauty of it… they do call us to account with the build up of plaque, or small bits of decay leading to bigger and bigger fillings. No escape. So do we learn or allow the rot to continue?
Yes taking our health for granted is something I can relate to, especially when I was younger. I just didn’t think that I could become unwell, super tired on a regular basis or have something debilitating happen. Then when it comes to our teeth, we tend to take these even more for granted, thinking they are going to be there forever. But we do need to focus on all aspects of our body for it to flourish, be healthy and vital.
And so the list does go on and on Gabriele; for me your blog highlights the need to understand and appreciate what our bodies offer, learning and expanding from each and every ‘message.’
This highlights to me how every part of our body offers us the equal opportunity to deepen our connection to ourselves, honouring who we are, as such preparing a body of love that is open to receive the evolution on offer in every given moment.
I used to visit the dentist expecting him to ‘fix’ whatever needed fixing. Now I am aware of my own responsibility in caring for my teeth and a visit to the dentist can be a reflection of the level of self-care.
What an amazing turnaround Gabriele, to come to a deep understanding of what your teeth offer you. Like you I’ve learned hugely from my teeth and I now take care of both them and my gums in a way that would have been unimaginable years ago, and it’s not a chore I realised reading this evening, it’s part of my daily self care and I feel somewhat odd or that something is missing if I don’t do it. And it’s no longer about doing it so that I save my teeth or because I have to, it’s done with deep care and because I want to, which is a very deep shift in my approach in how I live. So my teeth have shown me so much, and I love them for it.
It is beautiful when we start to understand that our teeth are a direct reflection on how we have been living, and it’s an opportunity to take more care or our teeth and gums. Giving more time to cleaning them and building purposeful and regular visits to the dentist.
When we understand that it is our responsibility to take care for ourselves first then the love we bring to our body is reflected back to us in pure and honest communication.
Great point – we have a functional relationship with our body, full stop. And that falls way short of what the body delivers, moment to moment.
“Visits to my dentist are not obligatory catch-up procedures anymore, but opportunities to appreciate what is being offered by my body and to deepen my understanding, appreciation and self-care.” Wow what a fantastic approach to life and to dentistry. I love how you’ve described your relationship with your teeth as a living, breathing part of your body that communicates with you. Perhaps rather than a quick in and out visit, we have a lot more to learn from our dentists than we give credit for.
Definitely – dentists are there to support and my dentist does this exceptionally well and with utter and complete dedication.
I very much appreciate what my trips to the dentist teach me about, for example how I may grind my teeth at night, reflecting the anxiety, frustration or anger I may take to bed each night.
Great blog Gabriele, I’ve certainly started taking more care of my teeth, as I’ve started to get older I have realised how important looking after them are, and as a result I take better care of myself all round.
Yes, I used to shrug at the suggestion to have a dental hygienist support me with my oral care and thought I knew it all. All I was really doing was to live in disregard and disrespect and from a lack of commitment.
I used to absolutely dread going to the dentist. It was always a trip that ended in tears!. These days I realize that every time I visit the dentist I receive a healing. My teeth show me exactly how I am living and rather than fight that information I now use it as a way to heal and move on with my life.
How wonderful Gabriele that you are learning more about yourself through the love and care you afford your teeth; like you, we only need but listen to what our teeth and gums are constantly communicating.
It is very true Gabriele, our teeth and gums are no different to any other part of the body, communicating constantly what is going on. If we care to listen and respond lovingly, the relationship we can develop is a life-long meaningful one.
“As I started making more self-loving choices in the way I lived, I actually began to floss more regularly, rather than just the obligatory half-hearted manoeuvres I had previously executed once or twice a week.” Same for me too. When we start to make more loving choices for ourselves the array of changes that can happen without any trying, feels amazing.
Taking care of my teeth is like caring for my car, or getting insurance – it’s all part of our maintenance that forms a solid and supportive foundation. It’s caring for ourselves in the moment and leaving no path behind us of what needs to be dealt with.
“…teeth are a reflection of my past choices, all of them.”
This gives us a clue as to why so many of us ignore our teeth and do not tend to them with daily care. It is a reflection of our unwillingness to look to the past and take responsibility for the steps walked, if what we have walked has not been with great love and due care.
The unwillingness to look at past choices catches up with us sooner or later and our dental bills reflect that, as do our teeth and gums. Everything is stored in and reflected by the body.
I have always been called an ‘obsessive flosser” from my family growing up. They couldn’t believe that brushing my teeth at night was never enough and that flossing was something you did once a week. This idea of being an obsession was far from the truth as I had an absolute love of feeling the order and regard in my mouth no different to the detail I would take to ironing my clothes so they were not creased or apply my makeup and styling my hair. Over the years I have noticed that carrying a small toothbrush and floss in my handbag has been a great support when travelling or moving to a group meeting after a lunch when I am out of the work place. When we bring more care to our bodies the levels of awareness increase and so what was considered a simple tooth brushing session has now become a ritual of joy when I wake, travel in the day and prepare myself for bed each night.
Wow, I’ve never come across a better testimonial for the art and joy of flossing our teeth. I love the expression of “feeling the order and regard in my mouth” – it takes flossing to a whole new level.
Aaah dentists. Dentists know me well. I once went in and needed nine fillings. Nine!! As a kid I had some teeth work done and the anaesthetic wore off halfway through – I was terrified ever since. I get what you say about self caring as that’s one area where I changed the relationship with my teeth – I also gave up sugar. My last visit to the dentist was painless and with a clean bill of health, so to speak. My attitude has changed and the care I’ve put in has been confirmed by pleasant experiences and no more fillings 😁
The joy of embracing our body, how we care for it and what it is there to show us! It sure beats taking it for granted and living in disconnection from what we are literally walking around and living in every moment.
Which throws a different light on our so-called progress, doesn’t it? How come we so readily abuse the one thing that is always with us, our body?
I know what you mean about a tooth’s foreign qualities Gabriele, a bit like a rock formation that turned up in our body from out of the blue. But what I learnt from listening to you, is how so very often it’s the things we resist and misunderstand that have the most to offer us, if only we care enough to see what that might be.
Great point – every part of the body has its significance and history, is a living testimony of our choices.
Our teeth really do show us, don’t they and as you say they don’t regenerate. I’ve learned so much from mine over the years and it continues still, and how they are each day is such a great tell for how I’ve been and how I am and they always tell, whether it be gums or the teeth, they tell. How great is that, so now rather than being peeved or annoyed by it, I learn to see where I can take better care and what is going on with me and life.
There is always an explanation. We cannot explain human life from the human perspective… we must recognise that there is more at play here
Gabriele, this is great to read, what you have shared here is very interesting and makes me consider more why my teeth are as they are – with lots of fillings and not in the best shape, ‘teeth are a reflection of my past choices, all of them.’ I love how you have taken responsibility for looking after them. I too am now looking after my teeth and have regular hygienist appointments and found a dentist where it actually doesn’t hurt at all – she is patient and gentle and so I no longer dread my trips to the dentist, after many years of not looking after my teeth I am enjoying caring for them and having a teeth care routine in the morning and evening.
I appreciate the way you bring the word ‘space’ into it – “I allow myself more space to do other caring things for myself”. There comes a point when the rushing and squeezing and cramming subside and we move in a space of our own making, supported by the all we are a part of.
I alway found my visits to the dentist were filled with trepidation, like many. But this was because I knew the care I had taken in what I ate was not as great as it could be. It is funny how we do know when we are not making choices that support our health, and I guess the dentist is one place where we get a strong obvious reflection of how we have been living.
That is true, we do know when we are not making supportive choices and that goes for the consumption of certain foods and drinks just as much as for our dental health.
When I was younger I drank a lot of cola and ate sugar in enormous amounts. As a result I had eleven fillings through the years, and hated dentists – in the early days there drills were very slow and jarred my nerve endings. Gradually I have taken on the consistency of brushing day and night, not only because of the awful taste in my mouth when I don’t but because it felt right to do, instead of the ‘Oh I cant’ be bothered’ approach, I make sure I bother. I had gingivitis – my gums were red and receding but now I use those cute little inter-dental brushes and a good electric toothbrush, my gum health has improved enormously. Flossing has taken a little longer to get on with but having the plastic shaped floss holders makes it easier. In recent years, having found a super dentist who really took good care of me, I had the mercury amalgams removed and last year I had braces fitted with a view to straightening my teeth. That has been a very uncomfortable experience, but the braces are about to be removed this week and I’m looking forward to being able to smile openly, without shame about the state of my teeth!
It is great to know how much of the damage we inflict on our teeth can be reversed by taking responsibility, starting to self-care and the support of a good dentist.
I have had my fair share of rough and agitated dentists who have made me feel fearful in the chair. I now have a lovely dentist who is gentle and talks to me about everything she is doing. It makes such a difference and now I don’t mind making my 6 monthly visits.
It sounds like you couldn’t even imagine not brushing your teeth now Doug. Once I make something into a ritual and can feel the purpose of it, it becomes very difficult for me to ignore as I know, without a doubt, the difference it makes to how I feel, and the quality of thoughts I have.
How do you notice this yourself? Do you have a staining agent that you can use to discover the calculus?
That’s amazing and as you say, unbelievable that plaque can turn into calculus virtually overnight.
I reckon you’re right there, the body is miraculous and gives us many signs, once we become aware of it.
Brushing has become a ritual that has supported me from day dot. I have always found that like my house the body needs the time and care to be cleaned and appreciated for what it offers us each and everyday. Over the years I have noticed that the way I brush my teeth has changed… sitting down, choosing toothpaste that supports my health, changing my toothbrush regularly and flossing with more care and precision.
I know what you mean Natalliya. With a recent trip to the dentist, my toothcare has gone to another level. Each time I go to the dentist I learn more detail and care and ultimately love.
There is a lesson in everything in life including our relationship with our teeth, thanks Gabriele.
The body is the marker of our livingness, if we do not take care with it, we cannot but feel it one day or another.
I could not care about my teeth at all for a long time, they felt like a hassle to look after and frankly I did not want to know what was wrong with them. Not until I began finding myself worth taking care of, did I start to really enjoying taking care of my teeth. Now going to the dentist is a regular and consistent routine for me that I look forward to.
Thank you Adele. I can relate to what you are saying which helps me to appreciate how I am now taking care of myself and also allows me to consider some people I know who don’t seem to care about their teeth at all and to realise that it is probably their lack of self worth that is driving this and it is for me to love them without any attachment or investment in how they care for themselves.
We can only care for ourselves and leave other people the space to do as they please, just as we want to be given the space and freedom to do as we see fit, and all without judgment or comparison either way.
“I really started to appreciate my teeth for the role they play and what they are there to show me, whatever their state of health or lack of it might be, and that includes my gums, which, by the way, have improved out of sight.” An inspiring read Gabriele – bringing love and tender care to everything we do includes what I used to consider mundane things such as brushing our teeth.
There really is no such thing as a ‘mundane’ thing, coming to think of it. Is it possible that there are no ‘out’ times. and that everything is equally as important as everything else?
That’s an interesting idea, bringing playfulness to brushing my teeth, I will explore that and have some fun.
I love brushing my teeth with care, tenderness and playfulness and enjoying the sense of ‘cleaning my teeth for the world’ – with the knowing that how I clean my teeth, affects everything energetically.
Our focus on functionality is a killer, it takes away the joy of the small everyday things that we attend to and that can bring so much richness and joyous detail to our lives.
Gabriele, great to read this and feel just how ‘functional’ I still am with my teeth brushing and flossing. These are moments I could bring so much more love and appreciation to myself. Thank you.
Jane so true each moment is an opportunity to be loving with ourselves, especially in the seeming basic parts of life like brushing our teeth!
I got to thinking about the gaps between the teeth after reading this and how sometimes food gets trapped there.They even call them food traps. I had such a resistance to floss that often food remained trapped there. I am so much more aware now I see a hygienist regularly, how easily food does get trapped. It feels to me an opportunity to look at where, in my life and way of being, things get stuck and trapped and whether I make a diligent effort to clear the stuckness or just allow it to build up and affect the natural flow, clarity and sparkle life ought to have.
I love that description of what those bits of stuck food actually represent – that goes to show that “everything is everything and nothing is nothing” (Serge Benhayon) and that life is one and that everything needs attending to.
It is so true every single part plays its part as only it can do.
If we all presented to dentists with this level of awareness and responsibility just consider how less stressful and more enjoyable their jobs would be!
Reading this I have just come to realise that we either are comfortable being faced with the quality of choices that we make, or we are deeply uncomfortable. This then says a lot about the choices we are making!
That is truth in breath taking brevity and divine logic – in other words: what does it say when we are not comfortable with our choices? So uncomfortable in fact that we need to deflect and resort to red herrings and subterfuge?
Who would have thought that our teeth could communicate but, of course, thanks to your blog, it now makes so much sense.
Everything changes once the understanding comes that our body is communicating all of the time. There is purpose to every symptom and response we read in our body and it is loving us in our entirety – the choice regarding what we do with this, the responsibility we are open to, is then up to us.
First comes the self appreciation, then comes the greater attention and care to our bodies. One follows the other naturally. I loved reading this Gabriele. It made me smile!
I didn’t realised how important a dentist and hygienist is until I had a few treatments. The care and support given to me by both was valuable, just in two visits, and with own my care towards my teeth daily, my teeth look and feel so great. The care and attention I have been given has helped so much.
Taking care of every little gap between our teeth is like paying attention to every potential gap in the way we care for our whole body.
I like that, have never looked at the space between teeth like that. I prefer to call them spaces but the task is the same – attend to them and don’t think it’ll do or doesn’t matter.
And easily so because it is not a chore then but an enjoyable task to do for ourselves.
A lot of people I know do not like visiting their dentist and I can so relate to your blog. Learning to self-love and self-care, we can begin to see that every part of our body is worth taking care of. Each part has its importance and role to support our health and well-being. It makes sense to take care of our body the best we can because every part matters.
Although teeth may not regenerate, gums can, and with daily care we can have gums grow healthier. I was inspired by a friend when she told me she had been able to change a severe gum degeneration by carefully pressing down the gum line several times a day and also by having a healthier diet. I have done that too and used more inter dental brushes more often. My gums have not followed the downhill route my hygienist had predicted and I am actually enjoying the ritual of dental care when I must admit I used to view it as a bit of a chore.
Just goes to show that things are just not a chore anymore when we truly and lovingly do them for ourselves.
it is very revealing to have something that is so obvious and in our face so to speak ☺ reflecting to us daily the choices that we have made
“this part of our body that does not regenerate” So true teeth are the only part of the body that almost not regenerate. They do a little bit in the early stages of decay but if it gets a real hole there is no growing back for sure. I love how this part of our body indeed does show us our choices because of not regenerating the impact of our choices is forever visible.
Thank you for the clarification – if I understand you correctly,our teeth have an initial capacity to repair a very small amount of damage but cannot keep up with the continuous assault, in the many forms that come at them: sugar, acids, grinding and physical impact. Are they true monuments of our past choices then, be that disregard or true care? And oh so visible!
Yes that is correct and I would say so. They show us that we do not have to be perfect but that huge disregard does have its impacts on the body be it by the food we ingest, if we live with anger and frustration or stress in our day and thus grind our teeth at night but also by the overall way we live.
Thank you Gabriele, it has been a great reminder reading this the importance of our teeth, the focus that is required to look after them i.e. not checking out when one is cleaning one’s teeth. But to be present and know that not one task, no matter how menial it feels, is greater than another.
And your reminder is equally as valuable – the fact that no task is greater or lesser than another. With presence everything gets afforded the same quality, focus and depth.
Yes I agree, taking care of our teeth and gums means they become part of the reflection of how we are living just like the rest of our body. Flossing is not something that is always at the top of my list to remember but whenever I do it I can feel the difference to my mouth and gums and am surprised at how much my toothbrush missed.
I agree, the mouth cavity feels so much better after flossing my teeth; everything gets aerated and there is less opportunity for any bacteria to settle in and stay put.
I do know now, by living experience, that giving lovely attention to my body, always to the best of my ability, does reflect back to me the enormous wisdom my body carries within, a wisdom that was not visible to me in the past when I lived in dishonour and disconnection of my body instead.
Finding a great dentist makes such a difference. I love mine and make sure I see her every six months or sooner if there is a problem. I ignored advice to floss for years until my dentist told me I had receding gums and that they could be prevented from getting worse by flossing. Now it’s part of my regular bedtime routine. I did first see it as a chore, but now it’s definitely about looking after myself.
I was the same, not paying much attention to the flossing message; I didn’t get how much of a difference it actually makes to the health of our gums and how it doesn’t have to be this nuisance, another thing to attend to that I thought I had no time for.
I love the way you went from drudge and grudge to love and care of your teeth. The grudge and drudge stage made me smile, because I’ve been there myself. Once I started taking responsibility for my teeth I enjoying doing so and have a different relationship with them, less effort and frustration, more loving care and observation. And if I spot deterioration, I don’t feel dis-heartened, but simply respond much more quickly than I would have done in the past.
I have recently started to take more care when cleaning my teeth and flossing, after reading a couple of great sharings on the subject. I have noticed the more love I put into cleaning them and generally looking after their health (like any part of our body), the more they respond!
What an awesome transformation Gabriele. Now that is worth documenting. So much wisdom there.
Although I have not minded going to my dentist in the past I always saw it as a procedure to tick the box. I, together with my two out of three children are going to the dentist today and I am looking forward to it; it feels such a loving, caring and supportive thing to do for ourselves.
I can’t think of many other situations where you get a regular reflection like this.. every 6 months someone inspects a part of you and it reveals alot about how you have been living. As an accountant I am afforded a similar opportunity with my clients and it is beautiful when the client realises the opportunity inherent in the review rather than just seeing it as a chore.
Great point – appreciating the opportunity the opportunity a review offers, whether that be accounts or our teeth, blood tests or a woman’s periods; they are all great ways to take stock of how we have been living.
Looking after our bodies with attention and care is the greatest gift we can give to it. If we leave our body unattended, with our mind wondering in different ways than where our body is, it is forced to move in a space it is not in which leads to tension and deterioration of bodily parts, which might present itself in our teeth, another time a sore toe or even worse.
I love the way dental care and visits to the dentist have become so positive Gabriele. I realise how I have just considered my teeth something to be fixed rather than as something to be listened to. Now as I consider that there is something to be learned, I’m coming up with lots of aha moments.
I totally relate to the feeling that teeth are a bit of a downer as that was my experience as a young person; and like you I have discovered that it is beautiful to honour and care for every part of our body.
Your blog Gabriele and the following comments have me consider again “Everything is energy and everything is because if energy” SB as our mouth reflects past choices we have an opportunity to take responsibility in this life with the detail of being present not only when we brush and floss but with every aspect in every choice.
Hello Gabriele and it’s a teeth morning this morning. I just read another blog on the same subject. I use to avoid the dentist like the plague as they say but now regularly I book and visit. In fact I was there yesterday for a check up with the children as well. I’ve come along way over the past years, from not going for about 10 years to now going regularly and actually looking forward to it. There is nothing better than having a teeth clean from the dentist. I don’t know what it’s called but the rubber tip tool that polishes your teeth, I love it. Universal Medicine made a huge difference and it all comes down to how you take care of yourself and this part I now love to take care of.
Yes great points you make here Gabriele, and I agree the more responsible we are the better the whole dental experience. I also had a great fear of the dentist as when I was being worked on I felt like I was drowning and or choking, Then one day I spoke up to a very gentle and trusted dentist who was particularly gentle and caring with his patients; simply by expressing out loud, my fear has left me never to return. I now almost fall asleep in the dentist chair I am that relaxed.
I’ve always loved cleaning my teeth but have never liked to floss, its interesting to consider the choice to the depth of which I take care of my teeth and in a way clean up my past choices. It still takes me a concerted effort in order to “floss” but each time I do I feel a renewed freshness in my body. It shows the difference it makes when we look after the whole rather than the part.
… and especially so when we know it’s only a part we are attending to – it’s as though it is not letting us get away with that lack of focus and care.
It is only recently that I have taken to having regular sessions with a dental hygienist rather than dentist checks alone and that feels very supportive. I am taking my self care plan to a deeper level than it was previously. She is gorgeous too and loves her work which makes it a very enjoyable process.
To see every part of our body as a reflection of how we have been living, creates an awareness and sense of responsibility for every move we make, food we eat, word we say etc. To deepen our relationship with the body in this way is our greatest education and counsel.
Learning how our bodies communicate with us and the reflections they offer has been wonderful new level of awareness for me. It has been a total transformation from seeing the body as an inconvenience and something to only pay attention to when it starts to really shout out loud. Being proactive in our self-care founds a very beautiful relationship with our bodies and brings a much deeper level of self-awareness to life.
Gabriele I love following sentences: “Visits to my dentist are not obligatory catch-up procedures anymore, but opportunities to appreciate what is being offered by my body and to deepen my understanding, appreciation and self-care.” It is really a freeing feeling to see things as an offer from my body so that I get a deeper understanding from myself instead of being anxious or grumpy about it. That is also not so exhausting.
I don’t know why I find it so hard to floss my teeth regularly! I want to but I often get a feeling of ‘I just can’t be bothered’. What an exposing reflection this is because my level of self-care is only as high as my lowest part, so if I can’t be bothered to floss my teeth, I am basically saying to myself that I can’t be bothered to look after myself. That’s a pretty huge wake-up call.
Wow Gabriele – what an amazing turnaround! Thank you for giving me the prod I needed to give my teeth the full care and attention that they deserve.
It’s really about the self appreciation and how if we can start to value ourselves and say ‘I’m worth taking care of because it may also help someone else take care of themselves’ then its actually massive whats possible. I love how a disregard for teeth turned into a joyful rhythm of flossing and care. What a turn around.
For a tiny space there is much to appreciate about my mouth and my teeth are just one small part. You have brought my attention to my mouth Gabriele and I cannot but be thankful for how my mouth serves me!
This is just a delight to read Gabriele. Every part of our body is a reflection and has something to communicate to us if we are prepared to engage with what is being presented. If we do not listen, the body issue is there waiting to be addressed when next the body expresses. We then have a choice feel the body ‘alive and communicating’ with us – we become one!
You are right, we become one with the body and it is the most delicious feeling ever, this union with what is always with us after all.
I have always been particular with my dental care and would often be questioned about the routines I would set up to brush and floss during the day. This blog is a great confirmation. Thank you
Gabriele your blog has inspired me to book a dentist appointment, I have been putting it off for a while. I don’t have anything wrong with my teeth, but I do get bleeding gums. Which I have also come to understand through the presentation of Universal Medicine, it’s a reflection of past choices and how I lived my life. There are signs of neglect in the past, I have now introduced more loving routines to care for my teeth, but I feel I can do more with the support of a dentist.
I have found that a dentist’s or hygienist’s support is invaluable and truly supportive when it comes to taking responsibility for our teeth and gums and the finer details of true self care.
I’ve experienced this same approach Gabriele, not only with regard to my visits to the dentist, but to regular health checkups with my doctor. Once I began to see these checkups as a reflection of the way I care for myself, my whole approach changed and instead of seeing this as an obligation or something I did under resistance, I now embrace this as part of my health and self-care routine!
And that approach doesn’t only make things a lot simpler, it also supports whatever health measures are needed because as patients, we are willing participants rather than resentful or anxious victims. It’s a game changer.
When you consider it, the parts of our bodies can seem odd. Why is that there? Why does it behave like this and not ‘as it should’? But what I hear in your words Gabriele is that every part of our body has significance, meaning and a supportive message to tell us, just like your teeth. Imagine if we all listened to the wisdom each part has to bring, and understood it all relates back to the role we are here to play in the body of humanity.
I love the way you draw a parallel between our physical body and its components with the body of humanity that we are all a part of – symbolism is everywhere and just as much as every cell of our body is part of and contributes to the whole body, so every one of us is part of and contributes to the greater all we are a part of, the body of humanity.
When we are young we lie in wait, for the tooth fairy to come and deliver us a reward for losing or having a tooth out. But in reality, every part of our body, no matter how out of sight, is giving us a gift and telling us everything about how we are. Instead of seeing our practitioners as just doctors or dentists, in the future, we will come to see them as readers of the body, because in our bones, fibre and tissue we carry with us the a living book – the complete story. Thank you Gabriele, for illuminating the often neglected dental space.
“because in our bones, fibre and tissue we carry with us a living book” … how very true Joseph, the exact and detailed record of our nurturing ways or our neglect, whatever the case may be.
This is beautiful Joseph. Expanding on our own ability to read the book of our selves will also support the readers, the doctors and dentists etc, to delve into the part that requires further illuminating and healing without losing sight of the whole book.
I, like many others feared going to the dentist when I was a child because I had lots of painful procedures done. But in my adult years I have come to realise the level of pain is directly related to the level of neglect I have subjected my teeth to, so it is entirely my responsibility as to whether it hurts or not.
What’s highlighted for me today reading this is how we can look after ourselves as much as we like, but if any part of us is left out of this, or the level of care for that one part is less than for the rest, then this is the true level of our self-care. We can only be as caring as our lowest point. This offers great inspiration to ensure our teeth are very much included in this and no tooth must go unflossed.
“We can only be as caring as our lowest point” – that is poignant. And it makes sense as it is about consistency and an overall and right across the board approach to life that doesn’t leave any hidden pockets of neglect or abuse.
Regular check ups at the dentist are not just sensible from a hygiene perspective but dentists are also able to detect illness and disease through our mouths. I’d read on the BBC News website just yesterday that in 2012, the number of people diagnosed with oral cancer had significantly increased over the previous 10 years rising from 4,400 to 6,200. I thought of this blog as I read it and acknowledged how much we can take care of our health. It also prompted me to really appreciate the effort and care I now put into taking care of my teeth and general health. I also feel very appreciative of the role that dentists play in our society in caring not just for our teeth but general health too.
Yes, dentists do an amazing job, much more than just looking after our teeth and gums; after all, it is not true that body parts or systems function in isolation, inside of us is a great interdependency at play which we can either support or go against.
Those stats are pretty extraordinary. We have much to appreciate our dentists for.
imagine going to a dentist who understood that everything is energy, that everything is connected, and that working with teeth can be a wonderful process of evolving…. Wait ! I do believe that this is now possible… thanks to Universal Medicine
I agree, it is possible and it is happening, even if it is only a small handful of practitioners to date. But they are around and over time, there will be more of them and worldwide.
Thanks Gabriele for a thought provoking blog. I have mostly had a distant, mainly functional relationship with my teeth: they are there; I clean them regularly and remove particles of food when it gets stuck between my teeth and annoys me; I wish they were whiter but whitening treatments have never lasted very long on them; once a year I visit the dentist for a check up; and occasionally have to have an old filling renewed; end of story. Yet reading your blog has led me to my consider the correlation with how I treat my teeth and my relationship with the rest of my body. Mmmm, looks like there is a pandora’s box needing to be opened here ….
I love the way you describe your relationship with your teeth as functional; it makes it so clear that function is about ticking boxes and that there is a much greater depth of connection and care that we can go to, in all areas of life. It also shows that we miss out on so much richness and inspiration when we just settle for function.
Thank you Gabriele and Mary, I agree, a true smile comes from our whole body!
Just going through the motions doesn’t really work, we have all experienced it. Is it possible that when it is just about ticking boxes, we are not really present and no true benefit flows from it?
Your words remind me Gabriele, how disparaging we can be towards our whole body. It’s deficient and lets us down, and puts us on a slippery ever degenerating slope. Yet as you show us here when we bring self-care, it’s like it is being polished, becoming more lovely with every stroke. So the true illness we struggle with is not our body’s fault but a simple lack of self-Love.
Being disparaging towards our body feels like a very given up and resigned stance that does indeed equal a “slippery and ever degenerating slope”. And as you do rightly say, it is not our body’s fault but our lack of self care and self love that is so often the foundation of our dis-ease and or ill health.
Reading this again I am enjoying the comments too this time and this has me noticing an issue with my gums and reminded me that it is time for a visit to the dentist.
You have expanded my understanding Gabriele and commenters thank you.
It is always a great journey when we deepen our appreciation of ourselves and enhance our self care.
I cant say that I have ever looked forward to going to the dentist, however after reading your article Gabriele, I will now approach a dental appointment as an opportunity to appreciate it as a form of healing and an awareness of the choices I have made.
So true – my dental visits are a bit of an excursion as I have to drive for about two hours to get there; and thus I get the whole package: the journey itself, the care and attention I receive and then the trip back. I used to be very tired when driving home at first but now I just feel blessed to have made these choices and have the support to sustain and deepen them.
Imagine looking forward to dental visits! thankfully there are dentists that are tender, self caring and considerate when caring for their patients, I would almost say a joy to visit!
Caring for our teeth is certainly a very important part of our self care routine, thank you Gabriele for the gentle reminder.
Yes, I certainly do – they are a great opportunity for deepening my self care and staying present with me and my body.
I had to have a series of intense operations around my teeth and jaws, and instead of being a feeling of disaster or failure, it was instead a sense really of new beginnings and a possibility of re=imprinting this connection
That’s amazing, a real turnaround based on a deeper understanding of what teeth teach us and reflect.
Such a great way to view physical issues – without a sense of failure and instead seeing it as a new beginning, and opportunity to learn and grow.
I have always enjoyed flossing as it has felt like I was completing the final part of my teeth care. It was like vacuuming the house and then finishing with a mop of the floors.
I love that – a true breath of fresh air, creating space between the teeth and giving the whole mouth a good airing which makes it much harder for bacteria to hide and breed.
I agree and have had the same experience. It can be as slight as a minute lessening of my level of care and attention and before I know it, I am on a steady and slippery downhill slope – and that can relate to all areas of life and personal care.
I find taking the time to floss my teeth every night before bed has become a part of my daily rhythm that I look forward to, it is another way to bring more appreciation to me and everything else around me.
So true, all the many self-loving things that we can introduce into our daily rhythm are not chores anymore but a true joy.
Great lesson learnt – we just don’t get away with neglecting areas of our life or parts of our body, thinking that it is okay and we’ll make up for it in some other way; everything is interconnected and reflects of each other and thus, we better get on with it!
In the past I didn’t pay much attention to my teeth as well – the result was, my gum and my teeth were in a miserable state, I allowed so much disregard. And I realize more and more, that every part of the body is equally important and if I neglect one part, it affects the rest of the body. Since I go regularly to the dentist, my teeth are feeling much better and myself too.
I still have that relationship with my teeth that they are foreign and kind of off the radar compared to the rest of my body and I can feel the irresponsibility of that, in that I don’t want to feel my past choices and take responsibility for them being a part of me. I can feel the great healing that is on offer and have had that experience recently when I went to the dentist (previously a massive dentist-phobe) – with the intent to deeply care for myself and clear up decay that I was carrying – it was a joy-full interaction where the dentist and I hugged at the end! Thank you for this blog Gabriele – I am reminded that I have a much deeper level to go in terms addressing my teeth, how I have lived and what influence this has had on myself and others.
It feels great to clear out and clean up all those pockets of disregard and irresponsibility that we have allowed in our lives, whether they be physical, material or energetic.
Not only are teeth good for chewing your food, they are also a reflection of your past choices, that’s pretty cool.
So true – great to consider this connection too Joe, thank you!
Well said Joe. Teeth are one of the parts of the body that many dismiss as having a purely ‘functional’ purpose – you ‘have’ to brush your teeth because you don’t want them to rot because you need them to eat and you don’t want them to fall out. Brushing your teeth and looking after them doesn’t have to be made a chore because we ‘have’ to do it, it can be a way of appreciating and looking after ourselves as you said.
I recently had a great experience with getting to know my teeth much deeper than before. It happened after I decided generally to look more honestly and in detail at nuisances in my life. I met a dentist who is so very conscientious and gave me – for the first time in my life – a deep understanding of the “situation in my mouth”. This lets me realize the many connections and after effects the state of my teeth has on my whole body and life. This is amazing to understand, so I now am able to take the actions that are needed. Beside the fact that she showed me how to care for my teeth, what I am doing now with dedication. My choice to look deeper has lead to a much deeper understanding and responsibility for my body and my life. Accompanied by a beautiful new dentist whose conscientiousness is a mirror to mine. There is so much to learn from the teeth.
“The situation in our mouth”, teeth, gums and everything – there is so much to discover and learn in how every part of our body communicates what is working and harmonious and what is not.
On a very practical level, flossing does an amazing job and really works, something I could never quite get myself to believe in the past; and on the level of truly looking after ourselves with love and dedication it is an awesome reflection of where we are at, from what I have learnt and experienced so far.
Thanks Gabriele. A flossing convert for many years I feel like this process is showing my body that extra level of care taken after brushing my teeth. It’s like going to bed at night and taking that extra minute or two to make sure all the sheets are warmly tucking you in.
Good point, I like your analogy of taking the extra time to tuck ourselves in snugly, it fits looking after our teeth with love and care perfectly.
I also feel inspired to bring that extra love and responsbility to looking after my teeth. Although I have had problems with needing fillings previously I have got to a point where this is not the case and my teeth are ‘OK’ but I know that I do not follow all the advice I’m given by my dentist and hygienist, sticking to cleaning my teeth but not flossing or in between to look after my gums. I’m looking forward to bringing this extra care and attention that I deserve to cleaning my teeth. Thank you Gabriele.
What you have shared Gabriele has really inspired me to approach my teeth with more love and responsibility.
That is one incredible story about the very long root of one of your teeth and what it signifies. How amazing to have had Serge Benhayon’s reading on what was going on and to have it then confirmed by the dental treatment and the tears you could finally shed.
Thank you Gabriele for a great blog, I certainly got a jolt when my teeth started to get loose some years ago, since then I take much better care of them now, reading you blog has given me more appreciation and how much more loving I can be in my daily care for them.
A great if sobering confirmation of the fact that our teeth go away when we ignore them long enough.
I feel this is a great observation on how our teeth and everything else are a struggle when we put out struggle: “as you sow so shall you reap” makes a lot of sense really.
Re-reading your blog Gabriele, I could feel the disconnection in my body when I would regard my teeth as you described in the beginning of your blog, my teeth being a constant source of trouble and sorrow about life. Actually regarding my teeth as such, it would be a representation of how I feel about life in general, that it is a struggle and as per definition will always be. Thankfully I do enjoy life in full, as is reflected in how I go about my teeth in full appreciation of how they serve me in my daily life and what they present to me.
Perfect for me to read this today, as I have had a dulling pain coming from my teeth and gums all week, to which I played down, and thought it will pass. It has not passed and now that I am no longer playing it down, I can be more honest and say actually it is painful and it is draining me….I was still pondering on what this pain is communicating exactly, and then I read; ‘ And I got to understand that teeth are a reflection of my past choices, all of them’. I get a real sense of I am being asked to deepen the connection/relationship with myself and to be very gentle and tender with myself….
It is vital to find a dentist who is aware of the stressfull nature of their job… the statistics on the mental well being of this profession are there to be read; the procedures are both physically and mentally taxing and as a result, strain, back troubles, circulatory disorders and fatigue. So if you find a dentist who is aware of all of this, then you the patient will be receiving a more wholistic treatment that will engender a more connected relationship with your own teeth.
Are you saying that a dentist who looks after themselves supports a patient to look after themselves as well?
Thank you Gabriele for this inspiring blog. I needed to re read your sharing and the marvellous content within it as I have been putting off a visit to the Dentist for a couple of months! I can see that I need to take more responsibility for any issues with my teeth and the rest of my body.
No more excuses then for you!
Wonderful blog Gabriele – I used to dread going to the dentist because of fear of what next needed to be done to my teeth, and the expense.
But nowadays I am reminded of how my teeth reflect back to me how lovingly I am with myself, or not.
With more loving attention to my teeth I now seldom need any major treatment.
I have found this as well; the better I look after my oral health, the more positively my teeth and gums respond and visits to the dentist and hygienist are a confirmation of what has already been established.
But nowadays I am reminded of how my teeth reflect back to me how lovingly I am with myself, or not. Well my teeth at the moment are reflecting that I have to change something, not quite so clear on this but I am open and willing to look at what that might be….? If I was to have a guess, I might say it is to stop holding back my love, my love for people…. as is it harming to my body and to all others….mmm, okay much to sit with here!
Thanks Gabriele this blog reminds me I’m well over due for a check up, I actually don’t mind going along as my dentist is such a lively character and never fails to crack me up. I really get how we need to look at the body as a whole and look after every little bit with the same love care and respect it deserves from the top of our head to the tip of our toes.
So true Gabriele, I use to dread going to the dentist because they were expensive and I found it hard to want to pay this money for myself. For the past 8-9 years I have attended the same dentist and built a relationship with her that I trust and have been inspired to tend to my teeth in a more loving way that ever before. It has been phenomenal the changes that have taken place within me that are now reflected in my teeth. I have spent a number of $ on my teeth and I will continue to invest in my teeth and my health as I know how much clearing I have been supported with.
I know what you mean – it is easy to begrudge a professional the money we pay them but it doesn’t make sense, after all it was our choice to go and ask for their services. I wonder what we are really riling against in these instance?
I sense it is not wanting to take full responsibility of our unloving choices. The begrudging is actually towards oneself. Today there is an appreciation of myself and the service my dentist offers that sees me enjoying my visits and embracing the clearing and healing taking place with my teeth. A remarkable difference.
This is a huge point Marcia and something that I have also experienced over the years, however like you I see this as an investment in me and my body which has totally changed my relationship with me and given me an opportunity to appreciate myself on a whole new level.
So true Marcia,
I too have found it hard to spend money on myself when going to the dentist and felt a dread around facing the news. Approaching it as an opportunity for clearing and self love feels more supportive with a dentist that can facilitate this depth of healing and awareness.
Great re-read Gabriele, having just gone to the dentist myself, I have gone from having anxiety attacks to doing the breathing the gentle breath meditation whilst in the chair and on my previous visit the dentist thought I was holding my breath as I was so still.
Now I really appreciate that I am looking after my teeth and I no longer keep putting off my visits.
And the longer we put something off that we know needs attending to, the bigger the obstacle seems to be – until we take responsibility and make different choices.
I love that you have shared the appreciation you now have for your teeth and how they are alive and communicate to you how you have been living. This is such a beautiful way to view them. The detail you now invest in them daily is a deeply inspiring practice and a gorgeous offering of the dedication to the love and care you now choose for yourself.
Yes that’s so true simplesimon888, who would have thought brushing teeth with detail and dedication could be so enjoyable!!
I used to think that looking after my teeth was extremely boring and tedious and I can’t believe how much I enjoy doing it now. Just goes to show that a set of rules doesn’t go very far, it has to come from a true sense of self care and responsibility.
And then what a beautiful knock-on effect… that we enjoy our trips to the dentist rather than dread them! win win.
Our teeth and gum health is definitely a reflection of our general health and thus an indicator of the level of regard and respect we have for our own bodies. Caring for our gums and teeth is one of the most fundamental and important daily activities we can do to support our bodies – and often one that we can easily discount as unimportant and neglect to do with any quality or even sometimes at all. Our body is very practical and like all parts of our bodies we often take them for granted until there is a problem or something is not working properly. Our teeth very clearly illustrate this neglect in a variety of ways, from gum disease and fillings to dental abscesses. Then, like with any disease and illness, we have to feel how we have contributed to that problem as we seek to heal it and live with the consequence of our past choices. This can be most uncomfortable at times!
What you describe is a level of responsibility that to many people is, as yet, anathema or scary at least – and yet, taking responsibility and developing it further brings with it an incredible level of joy and vitality, not to mention increased good health.
I find my gums are real barometers for the way I am looking after myself (or not). It’s quite amazing how quickly the signal is sent back via a tender place on my gum, even the delicate inner cheek. I’ve also noticed that caring for my teeth has become more detailed and consistently so since I began going to Universal Medicine workshops – as has my general way I care for my own health.
Good point and great demonstration of the fact of how sensitive, delicate and responsive our body really is and that the signals are always there. And then we have the choice to take heed or ignore them until it gets much worse and we are forced to pay attention.
So true Gabrielle.
I was someone who could always miss a brushing of the teeth before bed here and there. Not a big deal I thought but it shows me how easy I can put myself into disregard. And Same as Rosanna now I am aware that if I’m in the slightest bit slack in taking care of myself, my teeth, my mouth, my gums are the first thing to tell me I am not honoring myself. And brushing my teeth with detail and dedication is now something I really enjoy.
Lovely inspiration from you Rosanna, Gabriele and simplesimon888. Since my adult teeth came through they have been very strong with no fillings or gum disease so I became quite arrogant about them, choosing to believe I didn’t have to floss because they were so amazing! However last year I went to my dentist and to my horror discovered I had the start of gum disease. With strict instructions to floss every day twice a day I came home feeling committed to doing this but after a few weeks, I became very inconsistent with it until it tailed off altogether.
Gabriele’s blog and your comments (as well as others here) have been such an awesome reflection and wake up call. How I look after my teeth is a reflection of how I look after myself generally – inconsistently. I have become painfully aware of this recently and have been making changes to support myself consistently, but until now I had forgotten that my teeth are part of the whole too and need more than the bog-standard brushing they get dawn and dusk. Thank you all.
Lovely to read your blog again Gabriele – and to remind myself how exposing our teeth can be. When we open our mouths and smile we are suddenly exposing to the world either our neglect or love of our body. Our bones are hidden away and no one gets to look at them but our teeth are there for all to see………which can be a little daunting as we age and our teeth are no longer that flashing white smile that all the advertisement portray when selling toothpaste. I have come to love my teeth in spite of the defects – they have served me well and now I can appreciate them and care for them lovingly.
Beautifully expressed Susan- I love what you have shared here. Brushing our teeth and caring for our gums with the love and care that they deserve is simply one of the many ways we can show our appreciation for our bodies. Whether we can see the effect or the effect of our choices is hidden away love and care is exactly what our bodies require to support its optimal function.
I agree Suse – and the more we build this love in one area of our body the more able we are to unfold further and live life in a way that honours our whole body in unison.
I have found as well that my teeth are responding to the increased care and attention, as are my gums. Just goes to show that every part of the body and all tissues and structures do respond to consciousness and that everything is energy before it is matter.
I too Gabriele have noticed that since learning to really care for my teeth, the problems have diminished and my dentist is happy with the way I look after them. I also know now that the state of my teeth is the result of unwise past choices.
Ouch, I know what you mean Gabriele – I can often sense my stubbornness when I am resistant to letting go of these ‘destructive patterns’. However, by committing to the Gentle Breath meditation I am slowly allowing myself to build more love in the way I live life and to feel the tenderness within – and slowly I am letting go of these patterns of destruction. Life is truly amazing when I have the willingness to let go.
It is interesting how we avoid or dread certain things because somehow, somewhere we know that facing them might expose a behaviour or pattern that is truly not okay – as is the neglect of oral care in this instance. And interesting how easily and quickly it can be turned around if we but make that choice.
Like you Gabriele I used to find going to the dentist quite depressing and I would become anxious as the visit drew closer.
Since becoming aware that my teeth are part of my body and the parts need to be equally looked after so that the whole is healthy, I have taken more responsibility for the care of my teeth.
Whilst reflecting on your blog I feel I still have “pockets” to clear and heal in regard to my teeth and mouth care. No doubt a work in progress!!
I really like the way you summed it up: “Since becoming aware that my teeth are part of my body and the parts need to be equally looked after so that the whole is healthy, I have taken more responsibility for the care of my teeth.” In many ways it could be said that it is stating the obvious, but then again – how many times do we not only not live according to what is so obvious, but actually go right against it?
I agree Gabriele, some things can seem so obvious in hindsight and seem crazy that we ever didn’t live according to them!
There are so many things that I have found to be obvious only in hindsight, and quality care of the teeth is one of them. It is an amazing feeling of release and expansion to see something that one has somehow neglected or avoided seeing before, and for me teeth have have carried a sense of shame and hopelessness, a very old pattern indeed, older than this lifetime.
Yes, going to the dentist has always been a bit of a dreaded date in the diary for me too. I have even been known to cancel an appointment rather than face another appointment and be told that “you could do better when it comes to looking after your teeth”! I am glad to say this has changed over the past few yers and I now go regularly to the dentist and find the consistent visits more of a support than anything else. I am encouraged by my own committment to the care of my teeth, and it takes all the stress and anxiety out of the picture. But like you Shirl, I too still have ‘pockets to clear’ – a great reflection and definately a work in progress!!
Caring for our teeth really reflects the amount of attention we are willing to give the details in our lives. The way we do this and the consistency we maintain is a great reflection of our commitment to self love. And, I agree Merrilee how can we not care for what is so much a part of the smile we share with the world.
Great observation – attention to detail as a reflection of our commitment to life and all its nuances and tiny specks, from the physically tangible to the energetic outplay,
How could we overlook our teeth as part of the whole … after all they are the center of our smile!
I love that Merrilee!
Our smile is such an important part of our way of communicating. It’s so easy to just choose to ignore certain parts of us – little parts that we can pretend don’t really matter much. It’s not like our heart right?
But this is just kidding ourselves. Each and every little part of us is a crucial part of the whole and we need to love and listen to what each part is telling us about how we are living. Each part – no matter how small it seems is an integral part of who we are.
I love that Simon, how you say ‘that every little part of us is a crucial part of the whole and we need to love and listen….’ This is so true. If a little part of our car isn’t working properly it affects the whole, and the car won’t run efficiently or at all, depending on what it is that’s not working. If we looked at our bodies in the same way, we would never ignore those little signs and signals that it sends to us. Crazy how we pay more attention to our cars than to our bodies!
Beautifully said Merrilee.
This is beautiful Merrilee, and something for me to remember. Having teeth that stick out more than ‘normal’, and being teased a lot at school, I always covered my mouth with my hand whenever I laughed or smiled – to hide what I perceived as an imperfection and so I couldnt be affected by hurtful comments. It has only been in the past 9 years of attending Universal Medicine presentations that I have come to appreciate my smile, and the joy it reveals in me and shares with others.
I can testify to the beauty of your smile Paula having been the recipient of it many times. It lights up a room, it warms and lights up those who are graced by it. You have beautiful teeth.
Well said Merrilee. Our smile says so much about us – so why wouldn’t we look after our teeth?!
That’s a beautiful statement Merrilee, yes, the teeth are the center of our smile! And how much they are a part of our communication. For example I found out, that through the state of my teeth, I have developed a tension in my face, as there is a permanent tension in my jaw. Through this, it my ability to listen to other people with an open heart is affected. How important is it to understand this connections and care for the teeth – also as a center part of our communication.
This is another confirmation that everything is interdependent and that what happens in one part of the body affects the whole body, whether we care to take notice of it or not.
Which makes it clear that nothing exists in isolation, everything is part of everything, down to the smallest detail and nuance, and I find that rather inspiring as a way to live my daily life.
“everything is part of everything” is a great attitude with which to approach the details and to begin to enjoy them as you have done with caring for your teeth Gabriele. I used to think of my teeth as aliens in my body too, and now I appreciate them and take more care of them. Thank you for writing about teeth, I like the way you look forward to dental visits, this inspires me to book an appointment with more appreciation.
Great reminder Gabrielle to see our teeth as a reflection on how we are looking after our body in full and our daily choices. It is important to pay attention to them.
As they say: ignore your teeth and they go away – and who really and truly wants that!
I love what you have said here Jane about your teeth ‘loving them dearly’ because this is a phrase we might link to many things but not usually our teeth and why would we not consider them worth as much love as any other part of our body?
Thanks for this blog Gabriele, its a timely read for me as I have a Dentist appointment next week.
We take our body everywhere and that is an undeniable fact – so it only makes sense to look after it really well and in all its details, down to the smallest ones.
We are so used to taking our bodies for granted that when something comes up, we are often annoyed and just want it fixed so that it does not bother and hinder us any more. Yet we forget that the body is our vehicle we go through life with, and that it deserves a lot of attention and care to the littlest detail. I see a lot of elderly people during my working day and am sometimes really impressed how well taken care of their bodies are, some of them being in their 80s and even sometimes 90s.
Wow Gabriele – even though I have stepped up my health care routines in recent years, your blog has left me wondering how many other parts of my body I am taking for granted. What a brilliant opportunity to reflect and discover more about myself … Thank you!
Just goes to show that we can always deepen the level of self care and the focus and attention to detail that make life so much richer and more enjoyable.
Reconnecting with any part of ourselves that we have been disconnected from is always a blessing, there is always more to open up to in this great teacher of ours, our body.
The way you talk about your teeth just goes to show that everything counts and that every detail is important; we don’t really get away with neglecting anything, even when it looks like that for a while – sooner or later it catches up with us.
I have always found cleaning my teeth a chore, and that is because I have hated my teeth, even though knowing for many years that they reflect the health of the whole body. What I did not know for those years was the energetic fact about them reflecting the way I have looked after my body, emotions and thoughts throughout my life. Since meeting Universal Medicine I have gradually come to realise the value of my teeth and appreciate those that are left for serving me, and when I look after them with real attention and care they feel so much more alive and I feel cleansed all through me.
I have also found that going through the motions of whatever it might be I am doing feels terrible, it basically means that I am not there and just executing certain functions, deeds and duties. Once I am present and engaged though, the picture changes completely and what used to be a chore and something to tick off my list of things to do, then not only becomes a pleasure but starts paying dividends. A true win-win situation if there ever was one.
I have noticed a connection between the health of my teeth and gums and not only self-care, but expression and acceptance. The mouth is the point from which we verbally express in the world, and the point at which we take in, or accept (or not!), the liquids and solids that sustain us – and the things we either grudgingly ‘stomach’ or happily say yes to. As I’ve worked on each of these three elements, my gums (my weak spot) have improved a lot. I am now attending my dentist’s for regular cleans, a practical part of my self-care reassessment that has helped enormously. Getting the right solution for pain management in the chair was part of this as I had been avoiding cleans because of the sensitivity.
I have come to realise that the more I shine the more my actual teeth shine and I actually love looking at them – they are gorgeous, solid and strong (with absolute beauty).
My teeth are certainly an indicator of how I have cared or not cared for myself in the past. As I develop a deeper level of care for myself it includes my teeth I am aware just how little real attention I gave my teeth, yes I cleaned them every day and went to the dentist every 6 months but there was no real depth to the care I gave my teeth. This is a reflection of how I cared for the rest of my body really the way I was caring for my teeth was loveless just going through the motions. With a deeper level of dedication and love for myself I spend more time caring for my teeth and appreciating them.
I went to the dentist today after 2 years for a check up and clean. I have always had good teeth, no pain, bleeding or swelling of gums but I could feel I was avoiding going to the dentist. When I was sitting in the dentist chair I could feel some anxiousness come up, so I chose to breath gently and accept what I was feeling and not judge the fact that I was feeling tension in my body. As I continued to choose to breath gently, I could feel my body surrender and stillness take over. I lovingly spoke to myself about the choice I was making to stay with my body and this appreciation allowed the feeling of stillness to expand. It was the most amazing experience! I have much appreciation for Serge Benhayon for presenting the Gentle Breath Meditation, it supported me enormously today.
I agree – breathing gently is really supportive when we want to disengage because we fear what might be coming; it is a direct route back to connecting with the body and not letting the anxiousness or nervous tension take over. And it must be much easier for the dentist to not have to work on somebody who is all tied up in knots on the inside, no matter how calm they might appear to the naked eye.
Yes, this is so true Gabriele – when the dentist finished my treatment he genuinely thanked me for being such a wonderful patient. I smiled and appreciated the truth that by me choosing to surrender and allow myself to drop into stillness supported not only me but all in the room.
Our teeth can really show us how we chose to live. As my dentist said once, your teeth showed clearly that you have tried it all and nothing worked. How amazing would be dentists taking pictures of different mouths, expose what is there and teach the world that taking care of the teeth require learning to love our body.
that is so true emfeldman
Thank you Gabriele for bringing a deeper understanding to the significance of our teeth.
No perfection required – just to enjoy our own company in full, body and mind in unison whilst engaged in the same thing and not off in different directions – how crazy if not insane is this so-called ‘normal’ way of life where a headless body executes certain functions whilst the head takes a trip overseas.
I am finding now that cleaning my teeth is a great way to bring me back to my presence and am astounded that sometimes I can clean my teeth and be totally absorbed in other thoughts. Now I bring myself back to me and observe the process which although can be less than perfect, is a really good marker for me.
Very inspiring Gabriele I love it ,thank you for sharing this with such clarity and knowing . The appreciation you bring to our teeth and honouring ourselves is beautiful to feel and realy makes sense to love all our body and treasure it.
Thanks Gabriele for your inspiring blog! Just reading this has made me think about how when we smile, its our teeth that are on show straight away, which is quite ironic how its easy to ‘forget’ about your teeth when there’s no obvious indication to tend to them… We pay more attention to facial skin care perhaps than our teeth, but our teeth are just as much on show as the skin on our face… It’s about equal attention to caring for all areas of our body… spherical self care!
Spherical self care – that is great. Just goes to show that every detail counts, every part of the body and every action, thought and intention – there really is no getting away from it. And once even just a tiny bit of this spherical nature has been experienced – who would want to?
Hi Gabriele, I have had nearly the exact same experience as you, except I am not quite down with the regular flossing part yet! Feeling inspired;
It’s worth it – absolutely.
My teeth are a daily reminder of the bad choice I made to smoke so many cigarettes in the past. The habit is long gone, but the stain of nicotine is still on my teeth. I have thought about getting them whitened and perhaps I might look into that, thanks to your blog Gabriele.
I have neglected my teeth all my life and sugar has taken its toll. At 65 I have five teeth left and I have a name for each one and care for them individually.
Lack of cash didn’t help, I had a top plate made in the UK and a bottom plate made in the Caribbean and regularly had a few gaps in between. I did learn that eating sugar was the culprit and removed that from my diet thirty years ago,
I recently went to the free for pensioners Government Dentist in Mullumbimby hospital. I had an old filling fall out and he fixed it for me. We discussed the age of my false teeth and he gave me a voucher for a complete new set at the local Dental Technician. Wow! I don’t know myself, I can eat apples and sweet corn without a knife and they have become my teeth, I only take them out to clean them and I love them.
I used to dread the idea of going to the dentist when I was in my teens for fear of something being wrong, but over time and with regular check ups I soon got over that. I now have a solid relationship with my dentist and decided to have braces a little while ago, which meant I had to pay close attention to everything to do with my teeth. I found that it was a great way to look after, value and appreciate them!
It’s interesting how we neglect certain areas or parts of our body that are reflecting back to us something that we are avoiding feeling. The body is absolutely fascinating, and so ridiculously smart.
Yes, I agree – the body is very intelligent and will always show us what needs attending to.
I enjoyed coming back to this blog as the first time I read it I started to give flossing another go. As others have mentioned I would only have done it once or twice or not at all in the past. Now it has become a daily routine, just to get into the details of what needs cleaning out and I am often surprised how much there is to clean out! Such a level of cleaning need not be a chore, going to that level of depth and care for ourselves is not hard and can actually be something we enjoy doing.
Yes, with focus and awareness looking after our teeth is not a chore at all but a lovely thing to do for ourselves.
What an important subject you bring up Gabrielle- teeth, and the visit to the dentist: one that is often ignored, disregarded or dreaded. Great reminder of the reflection our teeth have on the choices we are making in our life. The more loving attention to detail we give to our teeth the more care and nurturing is felt in the body.
Wow Gill that sounds amazing. I have the same problem with tightly packed teeth.
Yes, I agree – without the great dental and medical care that is available we would really have to look at our choices a lot sooner and a lot more closely. We would also be in a lot of physical pain and generally experience heaps more discomfort.
On the other hand, when we combine the outstanding care with self-responsibility and more loving choices, the outcomes are miraculous and very personally rewarding.
This blog is great because it brings to our attention the importance of great dental hygiene and the connection to our past choices or karma. The state of the self care, love and health of humanity has been reflected back to us as whole by the state of our dental health. Thank god we have developed such amazing dental care and technology to help repair and heal the high level of disregard we have been running on for so long.
So true, our dental care does help quite literally to cover the cracks in our self care, without this technology we would have a much starker showing of how we have been living. A bit like how our health would be shown up much more clearly without all the pharmaceutical interventions that are the daily necessity of so many people.
From early in life I used to enjoy going to the dentist (no treatment necessary), then in teenage years I started to dread being told time for the check up (not good, fillings required) and in my twenties not so bad, but grinding my teeth (cracks appearing) meant more sensitivities. In my thirties not so good – fillings and removal of teeth. Forties more fillings and a gum guard – teeth more sensitive. Implant. Fifties – Finally I started to listen to my body more, bringing self nurturing, self love into my life (most of the time). I just had an appointment with my dentist – guess what! No treatment – Wow! A great sharing Gabriele thank you. My teeth have certainly been a clear indicator how I’ve lived my life so far.
You make your teeth sound like the rings in a tree trunk, every one of them marking clearly what has happened.
Great analogy Gabriele, it is true teeth clearly mark what is going on in our lives, how caring we have been with ourselves and when something is not right, it is marked by our teeth just like the rings on a tree.
Wow, this is a powerful blog. My teeth have been a ‘forgotten’ or ‘overlooked’ part of me for most of my life until recently, where suddenly I have felt to ask ‘what’s been going on that my teeth have suffered such disregard in the past?’. In reflection, I have felt overlooked and forgotten in my life and I have been in disregard of caring lovingly for ‘me’, very exposing. Taking responsibility for the way we care for our teeth has really touched me. Time to look more deeply at my past choices and to lovingly commit to appreciating and caring for my teeth. Thank you Gabriele.
What a great albeit somewhat sobering insight – your teeth are reflecting how you have been holding yourself and having had the courage and honesty to realise that, you are now free to make different choices. Teeth are great, aren’t they?
It’s interesting to consider how closely our teeth reflect how we are living, to me I would always see them as something that is semi indestructible and so needed less care and attention taken with them. However each time I would go to the dentist I would be reminded to take better care of my teeth. Reflecting on this it does show me the importance of the way I take care and treat every part of me. Now I feel inspired to see the dentist and really enjoy it.
You are right, it’s perfect, very enjoyable and super simple. And it makes sense.
What great evidence that once you started to take care of yourself and take responsibility for your health the condition of your gums have improved and you now enjoy looking after your teeth. Perfect!
Absolutely – our teeth can reflect our lack of self-care as well as our choice to self-care.
Good point – once we are back on track and lovingly look after our teeth, they reflect back to us this new level of commitment and self-care as well as all the amazing and fulfilling changes that we have made in our everyday life.
It is great to consider that the state of our teeth represent our past choices, therefore taking the utmost care for them will heal our hurts that might be reflected by them as will it give us the opportunity to celebrate the self caring choices we have made that are reflected by them.
Absolutely Ariana; our choices have the power to change and transform anything, particularly our bodies – to me everything we do either heals or harms us, can support us or bring us further down.
As teeth are a reflection of my past choices, I feel they need a lot of attention and care. I always go to the dentist twice a year and I take care for my teeth every day. Reading your blog I’ve felt I can deepen the care for them because they serve me every day, I would not be able to talk loud and clear, digesting food would not be easy and my smile…so Gabriele thank you for giving space to our teeth.
Yes, life is much greater when we take care of our teeth – it is not really possible to exclude anything that needs attending to if we really want to live more fully and responsibly. There are just no carpets that we can sweep things under, it doesn’t work.
… great reflection, teeth are truly amazing
A great reminder that every part of our bodies need equal loving care and attention…even teeth!
– especially teeth, if I may say so.
Gill and Stephanie, you make great points. I too find myself brushing with total disregard. It was great to read this blog and reconnect with my teeth.
Teeth are indeed an amazing reflection of where we are at.
Last year I felt that something was different and not quite as it should be and my dentist told me that my teeth had shifted in position which caused gaps and the difference I was feeling.
He instantly nailed the cause by asking if there was inner tension in my life and if I was kind of trying to grit my teeth and force myself to do things.
By honestly looking at what caused the tension and the pressure I treated myself with and working on it, I have established a much more loving relationship with my self – and in the process my teeth have shifted back to their normal position – without any treatment at all.
This is amazing Michael what you are sharing and how everything really is inter-related and what a great blog to talk about teeth and how important they are. I know we have teeth before we even learn to walk and a skeleton has teeth so I guess its a deep part of our structure. I have seen my jaw shape change over the years. It used to be hard and puffy at the back of the jaw where I held so much anger and tension and how I know this is because if I get angry or frustrated now I can feel a tension in my jaw.
At night when I do my face cleaning ritual, I use my fingertips and press gently to release tension from the day from the back of my jaw towards the chin. It sure helps and I appreciate that I take time to do this every single day and how this small simple task actually supports me. I go to bed with a loose jaw and not a tight stuck feeling in my teeth.
That is quite a story, Michael. And how great that your dentist was open to looking at the energetic side of how your teeth presented and that you could then address it simply and practically by the way you live and conduct yourself.
That’s amazing Michael. your story fully confirms what Serge Benhayon presents – “Our bodies are the marker of truth” and “the way we live is the best medicine”.
Michael this simply shows the power of self reflection, addressing something your body is telling you and being honest so wonderfully. It is incredible what we are capable if we are willing to take responsibility for our lives. Thanks for sharing.
That is what I call a great dentist, the kind of dentist that I would want to see.
Wow Michael that is amazing, and what a great dentist.
Thank you Michael, who would have ever imagined – you change the energy and physical matter changes, it is a miracle!
Great to catch this lack of regard Gill and I feel inspired to appreciate my teeth more fully at every joy-full tooth brushing session with your simple words – “thank you teeth”.
This is an aspect of appreciation that I’d never appreciated was possible – and yet I know that, if I’ve cared for my teeth in the morning, it sets the way for the rest of the day. I do this as part of my rhythm but sometimes I brush in resentment of having to do it and have to stop myself and start again – it’s just so practical and simple. Thank you Gabriele – you’ve presented the bigger picture and one to be shared with my dental hygienist when I next see her.
My gums are talking so loudly to me. The moment I haven’t flossed for a few days, it reacts and it starts to bleed in certain parts. The reason I haven’t flossed then is because ‘I did not feel like it’ and ‘I can do it tomorrow’. Today I decided to make a new choice. I bought a new package of tooth picks and from now on, every day, I put a tooth pick in the morning next to my bed so every evening when I go to bed, I will find a tooth pick. There is already one waiting for me tonight and my gums…they love it!
Yes, consistency is definitely the answer here, as with so much in life – or should that be everything?
What a great idea Mariette, I love it when I am being fed back the love and care I have for myself. There is something quite magical in feeling the love for you in the tooth pick next to your bed. It seems a small detail but the amount of love in that detail is truly felt.
Our teeth certainly show our long term choices in a much more visible and self evident way than, perhaps, do other parts of our bodies. I love the immediacy of the reflection they offer – and it’s always there when we look in the mirror, too. Like you, Gabriele, I have learned in maturity to be much more regarding and appreciative of my teeth and not just so that I don’t end up with ‘the toothless crone’ look as my body ages, but, rather because I now choose to accept and work with whatever it is that my teeth, gums and mouth are indicating that needs to be discarded in terms of past choices. And because they are part of me, also!
Amazing blog and what a great subject – BIG Thanks Gabriele.
Teeth flossing for me has always been a chore and a bore. I had the “can’t be bothered” attitude and the gums would bleed and ignoring it felt easier.
When a friend came to stay with me and was big into flossing she came with a “lived experience” she was walking her talk so to speak. She was taking care of her gums every single day and had some basic knowledge to share of why it is important to floss. I started and then committed to it as part of my end of day winding down ritual. Things feel cleaner and clearer and not just in my mouth but in my life.
I feel responsible now at a deeper level and if I think about it the gums surround my teeth as a support so it tells me how important they actually are.
I agree Bina – my approach to the topic of teeth is one of not being bothered, but I can see from this blog the wisdom my teeth (including my newly growing wisdom teeth) could give me about the way I am living. As a kid, I had lots of fillings (about 7), and 2 different types of braces: now that they have no ‘problems’ so to speak, I tend to leave them be, but I can see how this could impact my dental health in the future if I continue this way.
Thanks for the additional insights about flossing – and yes, I used to find it extremely tedious and boring and thus, I hardly ever did it. Great to know and experience how radically things can change, and with ease and joy.
this is inspiring Bina I am yet to floss but can feel it is super important that I start.
Well said Bina Pattel. Cleaner mouth, resembles cleaner life.
Bina, I too have discovered a much deeper appreciation for flossing. When I connect with the fact that I am clearing my body, not just my teeth, of what I may have taken on during the day, it brings a much stronger sense of purpose and intention to this everyday routine.
My first experience in the dentist’s chair was quite enjoyable because the dentist took time to be with me and he showed me in a playful way how to care for my teeth. My parents then followed this through by helping us kids be aware of how we brushed our teeth. It was a fun family time, not a chore. As a result of this I always treated my teeth as a part of my body that deserved loving attention.
Wow, I find that amazing, the way you were introduced to caring for your teeth in a fun way. You should be going to all the schools and show the kids!
Appreciating a part of us , that as Gabrielle says is for most people an incomprehensible downer, is a really big step for us all. We just take for granted that it is an unfortunate part of life, but yes as Gabrielle says … even this aspect of living can be appreciated. This is a very important step that we can, as a society take, and if we do, then possibly the longevity of dentists which have the highest suicide rate of any profession, will be improved.
Your comment about the suicide rate of dentists is a shocker cjames. The negativity many take to the dentists chair has an enormous effect on the lives of dentists and emphasises my own responsibility to be fully appreciative of those who support me in self care.
EM for Am
Thank you cjames2012 and Catherine for both your comments and likewise I also get a sense of my responsiblity when on a visit to my dentist, for usually I go with the attitude, oh it’s that time again, I’d better make an appointment for a check up….!
I agree, cjames: what do we unleash on dentists when we visit them. I love my dentist and hygienist and building those relationships was integral to a deepening appreciation of my teeth and the rest of my mouth.
I feel a new level of caring for my teeth coming on. I do floss and clean regularly and I have recently visited the dentist but I feel after reading Gabrieles article I can deepen my connection and not treat them as separate, they are part of the whole.
Teeth are certainly part of the whole and they let us feel it when they start to break down and give us an ache or two. Much better to not wait for these emergencies and look after them lovingly, they are certainly worth it.
Yes they are and so are we. Thanks Gabriele for your blog – it has strengthened my commitment to be more present when brushing my teeth.
I like this comment and I too feel the same.
When I was younger I often was scared of going to the dentis as like you said ‘“what’s the bad news?” flavour of each dental visit, never failed to put a dampener on me.’ It wasn’t the actual dentist that scared me, it was the fact that it seemed like every time I went there was always something bad to be said resulting in more appointments which I tried to avoid at every cost. However recently I’ve been able to see that if there is something to be done on my teeth then I should embrace that as my teeth can then improve and I can learn from it.
Gabriele I noticed when brushing my teeth recently just how exquisite it can feel to take true care of oneself in a simple task such as cleaning ones teeth. Yet I’ve certainly taken my teeth for granted in the past. What a reminder that the teeth offer a great reflection on our past choices. As others having shared it shows how everything is equally important and that taking care of one part of the body only truly supports us if we take care of all other parts as well.
Great points here David and something that I can really relate to, teeth are one of my indicators of how I feel about myself.
I like that Amina, it actually feels like that to me too. The more I love looking at them the more I actually feel that I have build a relationship with me and accepting who I am.
It’s so easy to put focus into the parts of our lives or our bodies that we like. But to look after every part with the same love, care and dedication no matter what they look like – now this is a whole new level of care. One I look forward to embracing.
Love this too Gill. I am going to use this to reflect on my days as well!
I love this article because it reminds me that every part of my body is as important as every other part. It is interesting how we often consider one part more important than another, for example we might put on face cream but totally neglect our feet or our hands or our teeth.
My dentist visits have now become something that I look forward to as I get to feel how supportive and caring this is for my body and my smile 🙂
Gabriele I am inspired to support myself more and take responsibility for my teeth and what is truly supportive to that area of my body. I currently are very perfunctory with them and never floss! Much more to develop!
It has taken me a long time to appreciate my teeth, and like you Gabriele, I considered them to be aliens. While I might take wonderful care of the rest of my body, my teeth were considered to be out of sight and out of mind appendages, even though my teeth are ‘out there’ for all the world to see. You could say there was just a little bit of conflict around the issue of ‘teeth’.
A couple of years ago I started to listen to what my teeth and gums were saying to me. The disregard for my teeth and gums showed up in bleeding gums, stains and gaps between the teeth. I discovered that my teeth ached continually when I was stressed, holding my mouth, jaw and grinding my teeth was causing all sorts of problems. Like you, I found a great dentist and oral hygiene became a focus, as did attention to what was going on in my life. Now, I love my teeth and gums and they show it.
Thanks Gill, I will look one of those things up!
Yes, Victoria, I feel that teeth represent the nooks and crannies and details of our lives also. By the way, pixsters dipped in 3% hydrogen peroxide are an awesome cleaner for the nooks and crannies and have my dentist singing my praises to the heavens!
Hi Gabriele, this blog has left me with much to ponder. There is much about my teeth and gums to reflect on. I constantly put off (delay) my visits to the dentist, there always seems to be something else that needs attention first, work that I choose to not think about. A big ‘revelation’ around my teeth and past choices. Wow, it’s time to make an appointment and attend to what needs attending to. Thank you.
“Visits to my dentist are not obligatory catch-up procedures anymore, but opportunities to appreciate what is being offered by my body and to deepen my understanding, appreciation and self-care.” This is beautiful to read- thankyou. How often do we compartmentalise parts of our body?. When I lived at home I dreaded visiting the dentist – a family friend – who I now know was very rough – so rough that it put my mother off going to the dentist literally for her whole life. Since moving away I then found dental visits didn’t have to be torture. I too have a great dentist and hygienist now and drive 100 miles to make my annual visits.
I went to the dentist the other day and as I was sat in the chair, my hands curling into fists because I was getting more and more uncomfortable and anxious, I remembered your blog and relaxed, listening to my dentist’s advice and within 5 minuets of sitting down, I was finished and on my way – no need to panic or fuss, just accept the situation and the healing being caring for myself, by taking myself to the dentist.
I can’t remember going to the dentist when I was young being celebrated or with enthusiasm to support your body and look after it. I can remember it being a place that was going to hurt me and to be scared of. After attending Universal Medicine I came to understand that it is important to look after yourself and your body, in all areas as each part of the body represents an area in my life. To embrace all aspects of my health is taking full responsibility for myself and deeply nurturing myself. One that I have truly started to appreciate and love. Every trip to the dentist, doctor, nurses – which ever it maybe it feels awesome no matter what the outcome is as I am wanting to go to look after myself. A far cry from being scared and afraid of what the outcome will be.
I love that, very inspiring – mapping and reflecting on one’s day by the way we brush our teeth in the evening. And it makes so much sense when we know that “everything is everything” as Serge Benhayon has presented.
I never liked going to the dentist when I was younger, but since attending Universal Medicine and taking more responsibility for my health, I have felt it to be a privilege to go to the dentist and enjoy getting my teeth looked after. Now If I miss brushing teeth once, I can’t stand how they feel. Thank you Gabriele and thank you Universal Medicine.
Throughout my life I’ve had quite a process with my teeth – removals due to having a small jaw, braces, bleeding gums. Upon learning that bleeding gums were representative of the disregard I had for myself I was then able to look at these areas of disregard and make the necessary changes. As a result of doing this, my gums bleed no more! Even though at times the visits have been a little less than pleasant I’ve found the dentist to always be very patient and caring and having regular visits is a wonderful way to self-care.
I never feared going to the dentist, but in truth I never realized the messages our teeth communicate to us about the choices we make and the way we live. Taking care of my teeth was just something I did because that is what you do. I do know that by the way you brush you teeth reveals how present and gentle you are while brushing your teeth. I also remember dentist Rachel Hall talking on her website about flossing, and had this hilarious metaphor about not flossing is like taking a shower but forget to wash your arm pits. And that was about it for me with taking care of my teeth. This blog shows me that there is a lot more to taking care of your teeth and what they express. Thank you Gabrielle.
It is a generalisation but, on the whole, people hate going to the dentist. Why is that? Could it be that we don’t like having to take responsibility? Not just for our teeth, but for our own health, our lives and everything that we do – which is exactly what our care of our teeth reflects back to us. No wonder most people don’t like going to the dentist.
I love looking after my teeth and see it as a great opportunity to care for myself. This week I visited the hygienist who said that I had the cleanest teeth she had seen all day, and this just confirmed the development and deepening of my rhythm of self care.
That smile says it all Janet! There is a just rhythm in that phrase…’deepening my rhythm of self care..’
I am so long over due for a check up, and feel I need to face my fears of the dentist. Just the other day one of my amalgam fillings came out, I felt that this was a sign for me to visit the dentist and take more care of my teeth and address any fears I may have around my teeth.
I’m due a check up and all this talk of teeth has brought attention to mine, I can feel them as I write getting ready for the appointment and more care and attention.
Crawling into bed without brushing my teeth used to be a very common experience for me. As for flossing, never! (Except when I had a raspberry seed or mango stuck). But after making subtle changes to my self care routine, I found that I couldn’t go to be if I hadn’t brushed. I also committed to flossing several times a week – it really doesn’t take long, just a commitment – and it feels so self loving to not neglect a very important, not to mention visual or ‘in your face’ area of my body.
This puts a trip to the dentist in a whole new light, thanks Gabriele.
Our relationship with our dentist is an important one, and I think that to show an interest in our own dental health and the way we care for our teeth definitely builds that great relationship with them.
This article reminds me that I am so overdue for a dental appointment it’s bordering on self abuse. In a busy life it just seems to be a thing that takes a back seat. My dentist is a real live wire and always fun to see, so best I get on the blower and make it a priority.
Gabriele reading your blog the first time round,has been a real game changer for me in how I now approach my dental visit, I have chosen to make a 4 hour round trip to see my dentist because of his gentle approach and his sound workmanship. When I went earlier this week for my checkup I felt more lighthearted about my visit knowing that it was a way of taking care and supporting myself, instead of how I use to see it, which was, that was a necessary chore in order to keep my teeth for a long as possible.
It’s funny how there are certain parts of our body that we can easily ignore and not attend to with the love and care that we could with other areas. And I can also put my hand up for ignoring my teeth and taking them for granted, which is surprising given that I had braces as a child and know how much effort went into my teeth at that point in my life. I have since developed a new found relationship with my teeth, but I can feel that there is room to go deeper in deepening my connection with this part of my body. Thanks for the reminder Gabriele.
I have been feeling that when I brush my teeth I often rush and just want to get it done. So this week I decided to sit down while I brush my teeth and enjoy the feeling of my tooth brush cleaning each of my teeth. It has helped me to stop rushing and bring more nurturing to my teeth care. Thank you Gabriele for your awesome and inspiring blog.
I too enjoy the feel of each tooth being cleaned Bianca and when I take the time as you have described, my appreciation grows and I find the ‘stop’ supports me to reflect more broadly about my day or how I will be in what is in front of me now.
Awesome Gabrielle, your new approach to the dentist is contagious, I can feel a new way of living with my teeth and the dentist there for me.
What a beautiful turn around – thank you for sharing Gabriele. I had had a huge resistant to dentists due to my experiences as a child through wisdom teeth extractions, and having a ‘plate’. And as a result I have in the past neglected to care for my teeth, and associated dentists with pain and ‘torture’. I am now learning and appreciating how caring for them, be it actually making appointments and flossing, feels so much more nurturing to me and confirms the love that I hold for myself.
A great point Carola, making a dentist appointment is a big part of self-care – it says to me that I love myself enough to take the time to get my teeth checked and not wait until there is a problem.
Ladies what you share is inspiring, for many years I have put off going to the dentist regularly due to my experience as a child – the memory of pain. But when we look at it, it is about our self care routine, it makes so much sense.
Understanding and respecting our body in full and what each part reflects or expresses, is a sure way to increase our motivation to make more loving choices.
Right on Danielle, beautifully said. There is also great potential in our body to develop our awareness and be with all our particles as they dance to the rhythm of the Universe.
Absolutely, the way we move our body carries great power in determining the quality of our body and our life.
We underestimate how each choice is marked in our body as in Gabriele’s teeth example. One day we will all know instantly Danielle, what each part reflects and expresses and therefore take greater responsibility. Just appreciating this reflection builds our common understanding of the power of our bodies.
Absolutely Bernadette, life will be so different when we all begin to choose to be aware of how every expression and every action impacts our body and even the people around us.
That is a gorgeous turnaround in how you used to feel to how you feel now : )
This is so important what you have shared ‘I got to understand that teeth are a reflection of my past choices, all of them.’ That our body (including teeth) reflect all our past choices. When I heard how nail fungus was because of disregard we have lived in, this made perfect sense to me as well, we can buy all the creams and lotions for dis-ease but the true healing starts with looking how we have lived and changing that to a more self-caring and self-loving way of being.
‘I learnt about taking responsibility rather than taking my health for granted and considering myself mainly indestructible (except for my teeth, that is).’ Reflecting on this comment too I can also see how that my very adolescent attitude of ‘I’m indestructible’ allowed me to neglect my self-care for many, many years. I traded on the fact that my teeth were great, only to find in later years that I’m a ‘gum person’ and there are weaknesses there I could have attended to sooner. It’s a form of self-abuse, really.
I have definitely fell into this way of being and neglected taking care of myself and my teeth, it was very disregarding and it came to the point that I actually disliked the way I looked, I had to start making more caring choices towards my body, but what I found was this wasn’t only limited to cleaning my teeth but actually took the form of taking care of every aspect of my life, for example taking care of the state of my room, etc. Nowadays I actually enjoy spending the time on myself to clean my teeth, in a deeply caring way.
I loved your description of flossing before self-care, the ‘obligatory half-hearted manoeuvres’ – that describes my old MO to a tee, if I was flossing at all! Like you Gabriele, I was slapdash in my care of my teeth until I learned about the importance of self-care with Universal Medicine. Even up until recently I’ve needed to take this deeper to address issues with my gums. Thank you for willing to be vocal on a subject most of us shy away from – our own deficiencies.
Me too Victoria. I would floss following a dentist visit but it would quickly drop away. I hadn’t joined the dots, but it has been since I started to really take more care of myself that flossing my teeth became a daily ritual – it actually doesn’t feel right not to floss now.
Indeed, Universal Medicine has taught us that there is an energetic imprint to all we do and say. Understanding the true impact of our choices brings with it a deeper sense responsibility and purpose.
I have had some recent issues with my teeth and needed a root canal. I debated whether to have this because of the cost or just have my tooth pulled out. The general consensus around me was to just have the tooth out so I pondered on this for a while. I too have changed my relationship to my teeth and feel that they are communicating to me on a regular basis! I ended up having the root canal as I felt that if that particular tooth was removed the imbalance in my mouth would be significant and this would not be a loving or supportive thing to do! I also find that cleaning my teeth is a good way of bringing me back to me.
So true! Teeth are that ‘what’s the bad news?’ part of your body. Rarely do you hear of people going to the dentist without needing any work done. But then that simply reflects our lack of true responsibility.
Thank you Gabriele, you are a living proof, that our choices we make and the way of life we lead due to them is what influences our health and well-being far more than anything else.
That is awesome, Gill! I have a similar problem with tight teeth and would love to play with a machine that shoots air, instead of dealing with shredding floss and bleeding gums. Thank you for sharing this inspiration.
Gold, me also! My hygienist explained the other day that another difficulty is build-up of mineral deposits between teeth that accumulates between professional cleans, making it even harder to run the floss between tightly packed teeth. There’s a lot of detail to be explored with teeth and gums – maybe they’re symbolic of the detail we need to pay not only to them but to ourselves in all the corners, nooks and crannies of our life.
This absolutely resonates with me too Gill! I have resisted with tightly packed teeth and flossing because I go gently gently then bam, the floss shoots to the top of the gum and hurts and sometimes makes them bleed. Reading this blog and these particular ‘tight teeth’ comments, allows me to feel how I need to go deeper with my tenderness in my self care and to maintain the flossing and attention to detail – rather than ‘flossing’ over and not doing it regularly. By the way, I do use piksters daily, like teeny little dunny brushes and they have helped – but still not skinny enough for some areas.
It wasn’t until I was in my 30s that I really learnt how to floss my teeth. I am sure I had been told countless times from my dentists over the years but I usually just did the obligatory floss. Then I began going to a dentist who walks the talk. She lives the care and love she is sharing with her patients. This was a turnaround for me. Finally I could hear about the importance of flossing, because of the fact that she was living this level of care and love for herself.
Me too Vicky. In fact I think it was from my very responsible dentist that I first heard the phrase ‘only brush the teeth you want to keep’. Now that was a kick up the pants! When I heard and felt that, the floss went into overtime.
‘Only brush the teeth you want to keep.’ I love it Victoria, I’ve not heard this before but yes, I want great teeth so it’s up to me to take super good care of them, it simply makes sense. I love what you proposed in an earlier comment too about the exploration with teeth and gums, ‘maybe they’re symbolic of the detail we need to pay not only to them but to ourselves in all the corners, nooks and crannies of our life.’ The absolute importance of taking care of our teeth, the responsibility in that, reflected back in our life, now that’s something awesome to consider.
Ouch Victoria, that is so true, it really puts the responsibility back on us to take care of our teeth and feel what they need. Teeth are really about us taking care of details and after many years of just doing enough I now clean and care for my teeth as part of my regular self-care, and it makes a huge difference.
Wow! I love that quote. Thank you Victoria
I agree – no matter how often you are told or shown how to do something, if the person telling you doesn’t lovingly and joyfully live it, the message arrives with all those incongruences and doesn’t ever deliver.
Just like you Gabriele, my visits to the dentist in the past were a bit of a downer. When I was a kid my experiences with the dentist were not very pleasant, but more very painful and awful experiences to go through. I always cared for my teeth, I brushed my teeth daily, I flossed my teeth etc., but all out of fear for these painful visits to the dentist.
My relationship with myself has changed in the last years and so has my way of treating my body. Now I treat my body with loving care and I enjoy being with me while I brush or floss my teeth. This had also an effect on my visits to my dentist twice a year. It is a part of this loving care I take for myself and the way I treat myself. And this had an effect on the condition of my teeth as well, my gums are in a excellent condition and there is less teeth decay to treat.
I had an opposite experience – I was fortunate to have good teeth and no holes so I never feared a thing. My childhood dentist and his assistant were gentle and caring too, and wholistic. They would send us off with a little handful of raw nuts or a piece of fruit. Though it’s sad to note, despite this lovely start, the self-abuse came in later in life anyway. It must have been there as a momentum, perhaps from lives lived before where disregard was strongly ingrained. That’s what it feels like anyway.
I’ve always brushed my teeth daily, but almost took them for granted. A new dentist took over my dental practice about 7 years ago and had a very different way about him. After some resistance, I now have a loving relationship with him. This dentist taught me that teeth matter and persisted in showing me how to care for them diligently. He expected me to have regular check-ups, see the hygienist and use the best tooth brushes and other dental aids. When I needed a treatment out of his area of expertise, he recommended specialists. Each one I’ve seen has been truly amazing. One of them even advised me against having expensive and purely cosmetic treatment. I very rarely have dental problems, feel truly blessed to know my dentist and now work in partnership with him. I’ve learned that self care means all of me, not just the parts I choose to see.
So true Kehinde when we work in partnership with our dentist it makes such a difference to how we feel about our teeth and about visits to the dentist. I know I can get very anxious at the dentist so I find it helps to tell them and then they are aware of this. I have a new dentist and he remembered on my first appointment that I get neck ache so when I went for a check up this time he had a special support ready to put on the chair which made a huge difference to how my neck and back felt.
So true Alison, it is a partnership. You were open and expressed your anxieties and fears to your dentist, he remembered and gave you the support you needed, beautiful.
Re-reading your excellent blog Gabrielle, I suddenly shuddered when you said…”.I just didn’t get teeth, this part of our body that does not regenerate. It felt like my teeth were aliens in my body and didn’t behave how they should, but ran their own agenda”, because I started to imagine what it would be like if other parts of our body started to behave the same way! Imagine a waiting room full of people with decayed arms or legs, waiting for removal or replacement!….. Urghhh!!…. Fortunately, most of our bits go soldiering-on, with perhaps the odd minor service here and there, for most of our allotted timespan on this planet. What this says to me is what a truly miraculous design the human frame is and despite its apparent and sometimes inconvenient shortcomings, it generally comes up trumps if only we just listen to it from time to time and do what it suggests!
Love your humour Jonathan. You sum it up brilliantly: ‘What this says to me is what a truly miraculous design the human frame is and despite its apparent and sometimes inconvenient shortcomings, it generally comes up trumps if only we just listen to it from time to time and do what it suggests’! So simple, so true!
Great point – what indeed if every bruise turned into gangrenous matter and just rotted away, or stayed black and purple! As you say, our bodies really are amazing.
A great testament here in this blog to a very significant falsity in the way so many live. That is, telling ourselves oh we have bad teeth, or oh, we are lazy, angry, shy, stupid and so on. It is a falsity because it limits the way we live and by taking such simple, caring steps to treat our bodies differently (such as gently), we actually can change so many features that we think are fixed and the way life’s meant to be.
Gabriel your blog has confirmed what I’ve been feeling about my teeth. I just reluctantly went to the dentist after a 2 year gap. My gums had been bleeding and were sore. Previous to me booking I felt how it was an area that I had been paying little attention to. I could feel a resistance in me to facing my past choices. After going my presence to self care stepped up, and appreciation for my teeth stepped in. Once I decided to take responsibility for my past actions of disregard, it felt quite natural to take time with my teeth and place a new rhythm of care in place.
I can certainly relate to the reluctance around going to the dentist – I have always hated the experience, but I am slowly learning to consider the benefit to my health over the dislike of the procedure.
Thank you for sharing this Kim. I can really feel the importance in facing up to our past choices and taking responsibility for how we have been with our care or lack thereof. A wonderful and inspiring turn around.
Kim, reading this and Gabriele’s blog today reminded me of why we find dentists and teeth in general challenging, they show us how we live and they really show us in a way we can’t ignore, as they don’t repair themselves, they decay. How dare they!? But in doing so they stop us and we are presented with a choice to accept our past choices and address how we care for us, so they’re a marvelous opportunity for us to really see and feel the consequences of our choices and to be shown that self care has an impact. I’ve had a real journey with mine and they quickly show me when I don’t take care, and today as I write I can appreciate that where once I didn’t.
Hi Jane, yes I can say the same as a dental student. I just finished my first internship in the clinic observing and assisting and it is absolutely fascinating to be able to look into peoples mouths and see what the health of their teeth is. Most of the time it is not so good. I always find it so interesting because people sometimes dress so perfectly but then as they open their mouth you can see they do not always take the same care for their teeth.
It’s really great to read how your dental experiences have changed Gabriele. I’ve had many years of dental work, which started as I still had 5 milk teeth in my twenties. It’s interesting what you say about karma as during the 8 years of seeing consultants and receiving treatment, it came to me that it was time to let go of being a child and time to grow up; as the fact that the natural process of baby teeth falling out and adult teeth replacing them had stopped. This continues to be a theme as I claim and learn to hold strong in who I am as a woman and what I stand for. In this development I am forever supported by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine. I am amazed about what our bodies can tell us about the choices we have made.
That’s a great confirmation for you shevonsimon. The body certainly communicates with us.
It’s interesting how as a society we ignore what should be the obvious and override it as being silly. Of course it makes sense that if your milk teeth are not falling out then there has to be a reluctance to let go of childhood. In the case of my son it took a lot longer than his peer group to get his first wobbly tooth. It was only after we talked to him about what this could possibly mean and the fact that perhaps there was a buried fear about what growing up meant, did he start to lose a tooth. The second one followed soon after but it is only nearly a year later that the third one is ready to come out.
Great point, great reflection; I kept two baby teeth which were never replaced by adult teeth and I had forgotten about it until I read your comment. And every detail has a meaning, so thanks for sharing.
I love going to the dentist, I have really built a relationship with my dentist, even though I see him once a year. I saw him yesterday and it was so much fun. I lay in the chair for about 2 minutes and that was it. I want to steel your teeth he said. He always compliments me about my teeth. I said next time I will book two appointments, so we have some time to chat. It is always too short but in this case, it is a great sign!
I quite enjoy the dentist too; it’s a sense of going into the workshop for a quick oil change or changing the spark plugs (so-to-speak), that leaves me feeling all nipped-up ready for the year ahead.
Mariette I smiled reading your comment and Gabrielle’s blog. I have spent an inordinate amount of time in the dentist chair. I’m due back tomorrow for 1 hour. I have found dedicated practitioners and have now a partnership of sort. I do my best to take care of my teeth and they do their part. My teeth say a lot about my past choices, this is karma I have to live with and learn from.
That’s amazing – my brother had ‘perfect’ teeth as well for a long time but the mistake he made was that he took them for granted and didn’t care for them well enough, so ended up with some problems down the track. And two minutes in the dentist’s chair, that must be an absolute world record!
I have always feared the dentist, to the point of not going. When I had to go a few years ago I made sure I found the right dentist for me to support me and slowly I was able to go more easily. It has been in recent years since meeting Universal Medicine that I understand how my teeth are another part of my body letting me know what is going on inside, which is down to my choices, and the importance of making these visits part of my self care routine. Thank you, Gabriele.
Thank you Gabriele for the timely reminder to care deeply for our teeth (mouth, gums etc)
I enjoyed reading your blog; however I must admit I still have a sinking feeling when visiting the dentist!
Gabriele it’s great to read a blog about teeth. I spent many years hating everything about teeth as mine were prone to decay – and the pain that can arise with a toothache is something else! I totally agree that teeth are about past choices, and are a great reflection of how we live.
I look forward to going to the dentist and I take my children at the same time. It hasn’t always been this way. Before I attended Universal Medicine presentations I went many years not going to the dentist. I thought I didn’t have any problems so arrogantly didn’t think there was any need. When I did go, I was told that I had been brushing my teeth too hard. These days I am much more gentle when cleaning and flossing my teeth and it is great to feel the appreciation which I have taken for granted as going to the dentist now is such a natural thing to do for myself and my family. Thank you for sharing.
Teeth, a part of the body that does not regenerate, how obvious and yet a bit of a revelation as well as it is not something I ever gave much thought to. From there it is clear that the teeth reflect all the past choices, which gives me a bit of a shiver as I have made some pretty bad past choices which weren’t at all supportive of my teeth or my overall health. It is more than useful to have the teeth showing me the way I have been and how much I have been caring for myself. Just like the saying about the mirror, the teeth it would seem never lie. Great blog Gabriele.
It is interesting how we rarely speak about our teeth unless we have a toothache or some problem with them. They are mainly a forgotten part of the body so it was really great to read your blog and to gain greater awareness around my teeth. It is definitely time for a check-up.
Indeed it is a part of our body we don’t think about unless it is not functioning properly and then we might give it some attention. It is a different perspective to be mindful and preventive, honouring how they allow us to digest life with.
Thank you for sharing about your teeth and how they relate to your health overall. I can feel how the care you have given to this part of you has overflowed into the care of all of your body! I agree Universal Medicine is truly inspiring in presenting that when living in connection to our bodies we become more aware of what it is telling us and how to look after our health. Way to go!
Gabrielle you have captured so well one of the key learnings I have had with Universal Medicine. To see that the body is always – as you say “alive and communicating to me” by the way it presents. I love how you have shared that you have gone from your teeth being these alien like features in your mouth, to a integral part of your body that equally deserves your self-love and self-care. Our body is so fascinating and constantly communicating to us and I too have been inspired by Universal Medicine to connect much more deeply to my body and listen to what it has to say. It’s one of the best conversations I have ever had!
I too really appreciate taking care of myself first. That is now my understanding of true health and responsibility. Our body really does talk to us if we listen – it simply takes us being open.
Going to the dentist has not been one of my favourite things to do in the past. It has always been done out of duty/ obligation or need for a procedure. And there was a feeling of anxiousness re what needs to be done and dread re the cost.
Thanks Gabriele you have made me see going to the dentist in a more positive, and confirming way of how I have been with my selfcare and self loving choices for the health of my teeth.
As I read this I realised it was a good reminder to schedule another dentist appointment- this was something I had been wanting to do but putting off because it wasn’t ‘urgent’.
this is such a great article and very supportive to read – I am yet to floss. I just pulled a face as I wrote that and having spoken recently to a dentist about the reasons for it I am going to have a lesson in what is required and start supporting my body in this way too. Awesome to have read this and feel how self loving it is to truly care for our teeth.
Thanks for this blog Gabriele, it is so true that how we are with our teeth offers us a reflection of where we are at with our relationship with ourselves.
Gosh this awesome blog really brought up reminders for me on how I used to go into panic mode and brush my teeth with great gusto a day prior to going to see my dentist. (The gentle dentist I had then saw through that every time) I started to grind/clench my teeth at night time in my mid to late teens my teeth really started to give me signs to ‘wake up’ and revisit my oral care regime. Having my first extraction of a healthy tooth because of this constant clenching was a big shock to my system. It was several years later while attending a healing session with an Esoteric practitioner that I was in the midst of making a decision to have an implant -(my dentist had put in a temporary implant at the time) I’d naturally held back as I felt that so much was draining and clearing from my body. Now I have an understanding that our teeth also show us very clearly about choices we make in our everyday livingness. This has completely changed the way on a daily basis how I lovingly look after my precious pearls.
Having had a bad experience in the past when having a root canal, where by the injections they gave me did not work and I could feel everything – it took me a long time to feel comfortable with a dentist again. It just happened that I found a female dentist and hygienist who were very understanding and supportive when I explained how I felt and how nervous I was and that I needed to take things at my own pace.
From that point on we took things slowly and I have been fine ever since.
I loved your blog Gabriele, thank you for sharing about your teeth which I can relate to. As a young girl my teeth were very soft and I gave them very little attention.
To go to the dentist certainly was not a pleasant occasion in those days. But I have since felt the importance of taking more loving care of my teeth and as I read your blog I feel to step up and to take more responsibility with the flossing. Thanks for the reminder.
Our teeth have a wonderful way of showing our level of truth health. So often I would have gone to get a manicure and not gone to get my teeth polished..why is that? I was ignoring them, I now give them much more attention everyday and also make sure I book to see the dentist regularly, it is part of how I care for myself as a whole.
I went to the dentist yesterday to start work on a 3-teeth bridge that is now needed. The distressing part was that a perfectly good and healthy tooth had to have the nerve removed and therefore the root canal treated in order for this tooth to hold the new bridge. I have small delicate teeth and the process was rough, aggressive (many injections to numb the jaw and the destruction of the tooth). I almost passed out after all these injections and we had to stop for a while as I needed time to recover and I explained to my dentist that killing and destroying a healthy tooth for me is not something I do lightly as it has been part of my body for so long. She listened and found it quite extraordinary that I actually love my teeth. From then on, the process went more smoothly as she took on board what I had told her. ALL body parts are important and need our attention equally.
Gabrielle hi – alternatively I can feel how arrogant I was because I did not have teeth problems in the past & ignored the dentist for many years. Much like the hairdresser I used to lay all responsibility at their door and expect them & the cut to make me feel better – now (through Universal Medicine) I know this to be an empty cycle that is only altered by true responsibility and self care. Today my engagement in the care of my teeth & my relationship with my dentist is transformed – I now see the opportunity this presents to nurture myself and appreciate the huge service that a dentist can provide.
Thank you Gabrielle – I enjoyed reading your article again and the words that made me smile this morning were “No longer are my teeth aliens in my body; they are alive and communicating to me by the way they present”. I find it interesting how our perspective and understanding can expand the more we connect with our body.
Gabrielle reading your blog I could really feel what literal indicators our teeth are for how we treat our body and health. It starts as children by eating sugary foods, and continues through life with possibly every mistreatment we can impose on our selves showing up in our teeth, mouths and gums. Imagine if we actually learnt to listen to the ‘canary’s in the cage’ (teeth tend to turn yellow!) what could be prevented. As you share going to the dentist is now a pleasure.
I am a recent converter to regular flossing too, and as with you Gabriele, I can now appreciate, how this is simply a self-caring thing to do ☺️
I totally agree Gabriele about visiting the dentist and it being a chore – like you, after attending Universal Medicine presentations and courses and realising the lack of self love I had for myself and body, I started taking care of myself. My teeth included and I love it.
Hi Gabriele, thank you for sharing this – I have always had problems with my teeth and, although my tooth care has improved over the years, I always claimed that I hated dentists – this was based on the experiences of one man I used to visit in my childhood, and I tainted all other Dentists with the same sweeping statement. Interestingly, the more I have looked after myself, the more gentle the dentist and now I can see them in the light of truth – it hurts because of the choices I made.
I look forwards to my dental appointments too Gabriele. A visit to the hygienist and a Dental Health Review next week. I love the way my mouth feels afterwards and it’s great to have a check over by my lovely dentist for tooth, gum and jaw health.
Thank you Gabriele, after reading your blog I am inspired to have a new relationship with my teeth and visits to the dentist in the future will be as you say, ‘not obligatory catch-up procedures . . . but opportunities to appreciate what is being offered by my body and to deepen my understanding, appreciation and self-care’ which includes giving even more attention to my teeth as part of my daily routine.
Wow Gabriele, who knew your writing about teeth would trigger so much about my self worth? There is so much on offer by reflection through teeth, taking an obligatory and perfunctory approach towards dental care is a bit like trying to cheat my way out of the consequences of not truly loving myself.
Thank you Gabriele for sharing your experience here. I ignored my teeth – stuck my head in the sand with 8 holes that I was not addressing over a long period of time. In my mind I could just keep on going, ignore them and they would not affect me. Understanding the energetic meaning and purpose of teeth being a reflection of my past choices I realised that I did not want to look at or feel my past choices. As I let myself feel what I had in the past chosen and what momentum this has created in my life and my body I stopped ignoring my teeth and went to the dentist after a long period of absence. I sat in that chair in absolute joy – the dentist was laughing and said she had never been thanked like I had thanked her after she filled my many holes and cleaned them. This was because I could feel the great power in taking responsibility for my past – cleaning it up, providing for myself a solid foundation to move forward from.
That is lovely Sarah. Reading Gabriele’s blog made me laugh as I could relate to many of the examples and your comment has been a great reminder of how extra care in taking care of my teeth is a powerful way of taking responsibility for my choices and provides a solid and loving foundation I can move forward with.
Beautiful Sarah ! This is true that clearing the old from our teeth is very liberating. It indeed provides a solid foundation to move forward from. Thank you for you great comment.
that is so great to read Sarah how when we start to look at what we don’t want to that this empowers us to clean up the mess and make more loving choices for the next time. But unless you clean up the mess you can’t move on with true clarity.
A great blog Gabriele, thankyou. Taking responsibility for everything is key. “I learnt about taking responsibility rather than taking my health for granted and considering myself mainly indestructible (except for my teeth, that is). And I got to understand that teeth are a reflection of my past choices, all of them.” I had soft teeth as a child and a rough dentist – hmm, some pondering on that one to be done.
Gorgeous Gabriele. The more I truly appreciate my teeth and in fact every amazing part of my body the more enjoyable life is. We are so precious and every single part of us has an incredible role to play.
I can remember as a child being given these pink chalky tablets to show up the plaque where I hadn’t been cleaning my teeth properly. It was all a trick to make me clean my teeth properly every night just in case my mum gave me the pink tablet. I tried to get her to tell me when she was going to give it to me, but that didn’t work, somehow she knew what I was up to!
I appreciate your blog Gabriele especially the comment you made about teeth being a reflection of past choices we have made. As a child I needed braces and all I could remember was forever having teeth pulled out to accomodate the realignment of my teeth. Your blog has given me much to feel into in regard to all the work I had done on my teeth when I was younger.
This is lovely Gabriele. So few people ever talk or write about teeth! The attitudes you shared are quite common. I was a bit unusual in having been always devoted to my dental hygiene from a very young age, but something wasn’t working. Decay ran riot; I went through the terrible fillings story from pre-puberty, painful injections, numb jaws, eyeballs vibrated ‘out of their sockets’ (metaphorically) by the drilling…. Of course, back in those days no-one ever taught us about decay due to sugar and acidy soft drinks, we brushed our teeth 3 times (hard) every day but it bore no relation to eating junk. Correcting my diet as an adult greatly slowed the deterioration of my teeth, though they developed a discoloured look from overly-enthusiastic brushing when younger that thinned the enamel. I eventually had a fairly stable thing going with my chompers and flossing, brushing and dentists. However always in the background was concern about what would happen to my teeth when there did not seem to be a very clear relationship between my good intentions and how well they fared. But then along came Serge Benhayon with a lot to say about teeth, and my whole toothy past (and future) made sense. Now I, too, have found a very tender, loving dentist, and nothing hurts any more. I quite enjoy the visit to the dentist, and having that professional help to keep my not-so-pearly-whites as happy and healthy as they can be.
A brilliant comment to flag up the fact that we cannot compartmentalise the way we live. Rigorously brushing our teeth whilst eating badly: having one face/behaviour for work and another for home etc. Thank you for this reminder.
Gabriele this piece of writing resonated with me. There is something about your teeth that is different to other parts of your body. I feel you are onto something when you say it is because the teeth do not regenerate like other parts of the body. You can be quite disrespectful to your body and it will cope and heal. If this is your way (and it used to be mine) you won’t look after your teeth, it’s like being disrespectful to the bone.
I admire your commitment to self care and positive attitude.
… “being disrespectful to the bone” strongly resonates with me in your comment. That is something a lot of us just took on as a ‘normal’ attitude to our physical body and there are many ways that society sanctions this stance.
Gabrielle the second reading made me smile just as much as the first time. You are describing the state of my teeth and the “what’s the bad news” expectation I always had about visits to the dentist. I did look after my teeth and this fact was recognised by the dentists I saw over the year, but it was done in a thoughtless way, as a burden I had to endure to preserve what was left. Now I see my teeth as a reflection of my past choices, a vital part of my body and an opportunity to teach me how to care for myself.
Isn’t that lovely that a part of your body that was once not understood and a nuisance, is now a reflection of your health and the care you bring to yourself.
How beautiful.
Exactly Hannah it gives a whole new way of looking at things, that an illness and disease in the body is not a failure. It turns the way we approach any condition on its head.
I enjoy reading this blog as a stand alone experience but also an analogy of how so much complication and degrading of quality of life can occur when we choose to ignore simple, self loving and caring strategies in our lives.
As one who was forever plagued with ‘teeth falling out’ nightmares, this line of yours Gabriele, is revelatory; …” I got to understand that teeth are a reflection of my past choices, all of them.” Funny how this no longer haunts me now that I too have made the choice to listen to the wisdom on offer through Universal Medicine and via my own body, to take responsibility and be able to make more loving choices! Next step – to enjoy flossing my teeth as you have so exquisitely conveyed.
So true Marjo, every part of our body is important and a reflection of the love we have towards ourselves, no matter what it looks like, even the bent baby toe deserves the same amount of love as any other part.
Super sweet – every toe/tooth/joint etc. an integral part of the whole.
As I age I have become more aware of my teeth and realise how much they have been affected by my harsh past life style and that not all is reversible.
This is a very beautiful blog, reminding me that everything is important, to take care of even my teeth. It is so important to not forget the details.
So true Benkt, it is important to not forget about the finer details of looking after our teeth and all our other body parts as part of the whole.
Teeth and details go hand in hand. Getting that right angle when you floss is just the best 😉
I agree Benkt, attention to detail is a must when caring for your teeth and gosh it feels lovely 🙂
Yes clean cared for teeth feel absolutely delicious in my mouth.
From self care to relaxing in the loving care of the dentist chair having a clean and polish. I love these visits to the dentist.
Cool blog, I got to experience another way to think about teeth.. and yes they do seem like a body part you could call aliens haha. I have always paid a lot of attention to my teeth, brushing well, flossing feels essential to feeling like I am looking after them. I know that I wouldn’t be able to be a dentist because I become very sensitive and faint when they are issues with teeth, I am not sure why but I always have..
We have some weird and wonderful body parts, with every one playing a very specific part of the whole. It’s often not until something ‘goes wrong’ do we get to really get to know certain parts of our body well. Thank you for inviting us all to develop a healthy and loving relationship with our teeth, gums and mouth Gabriele.
Thank you Gabriele, I can relate to what you are saying about the condition of our teeth and gums being a reflection of the choices we have made and whether these choices have been loving or disregarding. As I am making more loving choices for myself the condition of my teeth and gums has improved enormously. I too, have embraced the loving support of professionals and responsibility for my health through the care and love I give myself. I now take care of my teeth and gums as a loving part of my rhythm and not begrudgingly out of fear of the consequences.
Since reading this blog last I have noticed how I have taken even great care in brushing my teeth. Thanks for the wonderful reminder.
What your blog shows us is that every part of our body is a marker of the way we live our life and every part of us and our body is worth taking responsible, loving care of. What I love about your blog is that taking care of you is not ‘obligatory’, but something to enjoy as part of your rhythm. Thank you, I feel inspired.
Thank you for flagging up the point that, in this case taking care of our teeth, is not about an obligation, another rule to rigidly adhere to, but about a choice to take care of ourselves and engage with our responsibility for our well-being.
Marjo, what you share is great, that our body is worth taking taking responsible, loving care of. It’s interesting that on reading this I know what you say is true, but I have felt a resistance in me to doing just that… to further develop my self-care. By surrendering and letting go more deeply I can feel the resistance leave and with that comes a greater acceptance that I am worth taking the time over.
oops Rachel, I resist it too, ‘putting it off’. This has helped me to see that I come FIRST!
Yes, I agree – as long as things are obligatory and not truly felt for the love and care they bring to the body and the quality of how we live, they are empty gestures and it is easy to let them slip and change course again, back into carelessness.
I have also found that my attitude towards my teeth and gums has changed. I used to almost resent the fact that my teeth were rotting and that I had gaps where some had to have been extracted. I used to avoid using those little brushes between the teeth and flossing was something I only did if I had to. I now actually enjoy using these little brushes and I even have long ones for particular “pockets”. I brush my teeth more and use mouthwash too, change brushes more frequently and have check ups far more often . Thank you Gabriele for allowing me to realise how much my relationship with my teeth and gums has changed – none of this has been a discipline, it is more of a symptom of holding myself with more regard.
Yes the teeth can leave us feeling so vulnerable and it seems are an area of the body where other choices catch up with us. I also used to feel my body was indestructible and could handle anything I did. Slowly over the years, I have come to see this is not so and that I do need to take good care of myself, inclidng my teeth. I now have regular dentists visits, where I used to shy away due to perceptions about costliness, that’s all gone because I am so worth it.
I can remember a irresponsibility growing up, like you also shared Felicity, of believing my body was indestructible and would bounce back from anything I did to it. I know differently now how everything I do to my body, either supports it or lessens its vitality. I’ve found the same with my teeth – going to the dentist is a very exposing time of have I ignored them or not.
I agree Felicity, where as with the rest of the body we can hide or reverse the consequences of our choices, our teeth are very permanent, as is any damage we cause them.
That’s a great point Rebecca. When we cause damage to our teeth the world can see we haven’t been taking care of them.
Exactly, unlike hangovers, not feeling happy with life or troubles in our relationships, or arguments at work that we have become very good at hiding, the outward signs our bodies give are very clear indications of what’s going on – dark circles, bad teeth etc.
It’s interesting what you say about vulnerability. I always feel much more connected with myself and tender and open hearted after being at the dentist. There’s a sense of surrender and trust that has to happen as one lays in the chair. I find I spend time focusing on my breath and breathing gently whilst the dentist/hygienist does their work. Somehow it re-connects me to a sensitivity within myself. Two treatments for the price of one!
I’ve learnt to take more responsibility for my health by paying closer attention to my body and what it is showing me, as a result of attending Universal Medicine presentations. It’s a simple principle, to use our own body as the primary marker for what is and isn’t good for it, but one that I learn from daily.
It is lovely to develop these markers to give us feedback about how we are during the day. I find that brushing my teeth is a way to care for myself. To actually take the time to clean my teeth after a meal during the day is my way of saying that I am worth being cared for – even in the tiny details like teeth.
This is so true Fiona and is why we are given big wake-up calls in the form of illness and disease, when we’ve ignored the daily signs our bodies have given us that all was not well.
Shevon so true, our body sure gives us a wake up call when we have ignored it, with simple daily signs. However when we ignore these daily signs, that’s when illness and disease manifests.
Thank you for sharing about your teeth Gabrielle. – “As I started making more self-loving choices in the way I lived, I actually began to floss more regularly, rather than just the obligatory half-hearted manoeuvres I had previously executed once or twice a week. And because I knew and could feel that it was about me and for me, I started to enjoy looking after myself in this way and flossing daily became part of my rhythm, part of what I do for me.” – I am inspired to floss more regularly, thank you.
Great blog Gabriele it is inspirational and has changed my views about teeth care and how important is to make the teeth about the body. Also to have as much care for the teeth as you would any other part of the body.
It’s amazing how we can ‘conveniently’ ignore some parts of our body, and not so others… This is such a great topic Gabriele, especially in how you’ve shared what is a complete turn-around in your attitude and care with your teeth.
Personally, it was only upon coming to the work of Universal Medicine, that I broke a long ‘drought’ in seeing a dentist and went to see a dentist in Brisbane – and received my first ever filling! What an experience, and yet I could not have been in better hands. I am learning still to look after my teeth and gums all the more attentively to this day, appreciating this all the more from visits to my dentist, and the amazing and dedicated care in which she holds me. I have never felt in safer hands, in letting be done ‘what needs to be done’, and learning to truly not take my teeth for granted!
Gabrielle I love this so much. ” Visits to my dentist are not obligatory catch-up procedures anymore, but opportunities to appreciate what is being offered by my body and to deepen my understanding, appreciation and self-care.” Our teeth are just as important as our eyes or legs etc. Its amazing how every part of our bodies can help us and communicate with us all of the time. Our bodies are awesome! I’m off to the dentist tomorrow too.
A wonderful reminder Gabriele that our teeth “are alive and communicating to me by the way they present”. I have always had teeth issues and have had times of really looking after them, and then times of totally ignoring them hoping they would magically get better on their own. What an expensive illusion that was! Since coming to Universal Medicine and beginning to understand the responsibility I have to care for my body, I have also finally begun to care more consistently for my teeth, and I am now really enjoying my morning, evening, and sometimes post lunch, teeth care. Taking the time to care for my teeth is now just part of my caring for me, and I too now look forward to my visits to the dentists. Now that is something I never thought possible!
I love this blog and your wry sense of humour, Gabriele.
This makes so much sense:
“And I got to understand that teeth are a reflection of my past choices, all of them.”
No wonder we try and avoid truly looking at our teeth, if this is what they are reflecting to us!
And how lovely it feels to truly care for them, to re-imprint those choices, and to enjoy the reflection of our choices in the mirror!
Well Gabrielle, you have exposed another layer for me to look at. I’ve been having great resistance about going to the dentist lately for fear of what I might have to face. After reading your blog I’ve realised I can look at it in a different way. I can choose to take responsibility of my past choices and use this experience as a chance to grow, accept and make better choices for myself. Thanks Gabrielle I got a lot out of your sharing.
Teeth are a reflection of past choices. Interesting, never new that. Not to go into my dental history here, but surely something to ponder upon. Last year I decided to go to the mouth hygiene specialist as extra support for my teeth and myself to learn how to truly take care of my teeth. It was a lovely lesson in deep care of my teeth. Since then I know how I can take care to a deeper level to my teeth. Still work in progress though. Most important is that I know this is just another area where my love can be.
I find teeth totally important and they are a great marker of how I self-care. If I clean my teeth with a quick brush when I am in a hurry or if I take time for each tooth individually and enjoy the gentleness of my brushing and flossing.
Absolutely amazing and inspirational Gabriele. I so much agree that when we realise that we are doing the simplest things with care and attention and, most importantly, not out of obligation but as part of what we consider is caring and supportive for ourselves, it becomes enjoyable. I love your dedication to flossing and I too have changed considerably how I execute this daily ritual and I love caring for my teeth.
Another brilliant moment for me to ask myself if there are areas in my life, in my attention to my well-being, that I compartmentalise – giving more value to one thing over another. In my willingness to be honest about this I get to realise that I have an ebb and flow with my attention and commitment which means I live with inconsistency and shifting foundations. So next step: without drive or judgment I willingly and enthusiastically aspire to bringing a sustainable working balance into my relationship with all areas of my life.
Wow thank you Matilda I can really relate to having ‘an ebb and flow with my attention and commitment which means I live with inconsistency and shifting foundations.’ I am very committed to caring for my teeth but there are other areas that don’t receive this same level of consistency.
Matilda, that’s awesome. This is something I would also like to aspire to.
Thanks Gabriele ,
Taking our teeth for granted is a massive issue faced by many. I used to be a dental technician and made many dentures, crowns and appliances and have seen what can happen when we live disregarding our dental / whole body health. With all that knowledge I stiil damaged my gums on one side due to lazy brushing and doing one side more than other without being present, tired and in a rush, definitely a big ouch moment for me!
Dear Gabriele,
Very divine timing, reading your blog tonight. I recently had a visit at the dentist and through this visit my dentist made me realise something about the way I was being with myself. You see I do floss regularly, yet my teeth were showing signs of plaque build up and my gums were very raw. Of course my dentist reiterated to me the importance of flossing. Since my visit I have realised that even though I was flossing, my energy while doing so was simply to get it done. There was not an ounce of care or love for me or my teeth while I was doing this. However since my visit to the dentist, I now am finding that flossing my teeth is actually a super caring and loving thing to do. I have also discovered that by simply loving myself as I do so, I am caring much more deeply about my teeth. Affording myself the time to floss carefully, and to floss much more throughly. I am paying much more attention to what I am doing when it comes to caring for my teeth. What I am also noticing is that I am finding myself being much more aware of the details in other aspects of my life. This is so wonderful as by doing so I find that time expands, the simplicity of living this way is very refreshing.
I feel to make more of an effort looking after my teeth after reading your blog Gabriele.
It’s funny how we neglect certain parts of our bodies because we feel they matter less than other parts. A great blog Gabriele with lots for me to reflect on. I love how you now view going to the dentist. It really is as equally self caring as having a facial or pedicure.
I literally woke up this morning and had the thought: “it is time I book a dentist appointment next week”, and then I came across your blog Gabriele. It really does feel that ‘our teeth are reflective of all our past choices.’ It also feels that when we are a little slap dash or inconsistent with caring for our teeth, it is assured our whole body is copping the same treatment in some way. Thanks Gabriele for this blog, I am actually now looking forward to my trip to the dentist and upping the care for my teeth as a result of reading your blog.
I too(th) have a similar experience to where I had absolutely rotten teeth as a kid. My baby teeth had deep craters from all the sweets I had eaten in combination with poor oral hygiene.
I’m glad that we get a second chance with a brand new set of adult teeth.
Now I appreciate and enjoy the maintenance and upkeep of my body (regular exercise, oral hygiene and eating habits).
Gives a breath of fresh air and is a great marker to keeping organised and on top of my health.
I didn’t go to the dentist for many years when I was younger. I didn’t have regular check ups and when I did go, I never needed any work done, just cleaning. Over time I developed very sensitive gums, my teeth moved significantly affecting the shape of my face, and having my teeth cleaned became a nightmare I avoided until absolutely necessary and I have to have it done with anaesthetic injections. I still do, but having found an amazing dentist, who is so gentle and caring, I too look forward to my visits and see them as “…opportunities to appreciate what is being offered by my body and to deepen my understanding, appreciation and self-care.”
Thanks Gabriele. Teeth are a wonderful expression of joy and radiance, if that is what we choose them to be.
I love the way you see your teeth Ben, very inspirational and something different to what you hear most around.
Every day, we all have the choice to stop and reflect, at the start of the day and at the end, two great moments to remember we are more than a reflection in a mirror.
I’ve also come to recognise that as well as my teeth and gums reflecting how I look after myself, so too does my tongue and the delicate skin on the inside cheeks. They feel just as responsive to tell me loud and clear when I’ve overdone it or when all is going well.
It seems every part of our body has something to teach us.
YES, everything is apart of everything. One part of the body can’t not be affected by other part of the body.
Loved your blog Gabriele.
I first read your blog, Gabriele, some time back. It was a jolt to realise that I had not considered my teeth to be part of my body! (hmmm) You inspired me to actually see my teeth and gums as part of the whole. So, I started to really be aware of my teeth and gums and look after them lovingly. I bought several special tooth bushes to look after different teeth and for between my teeth, floss several times a day and swish non alcoholic mouthwash gently around my mouth. A recent visit to the dentist was amazing. He asked me how I had been looking after my teeth and gums as they were in better condition than my previous visit! Taking responsibility for my teeth has been awesome. Thank you.
Gabriele your blog made it so clear that changing our attitude to our teeth has lasting benefits for our bodies as well as our teeth.
So true Bernadette, bad teeth equals sick body.
I have just re-read your great and timely blog Gabriele, I’m due to go to the Dentist again. I have fought with the idea that I am the cause of the downfall of my teeth and your reminder that my past choices are reflected by the way my teeth are today, confirms that I do have that responsibility. Thank you.
I have to admit avoiding reading this article for a while. This is my second reading. I have pretty awlful teeth. To be honest, one thing I haven’t liked doing is looking at past choices and making more loving ones instead. Teeth really reflect this to me and I have never been in doubt about how much they show me there’s something up. They get sensitive for what seems like no apparent reason – no apparent reason when I ignore the reason more like!
Your blog and my re-reading of it is my way of saying yes I am more willing to look at what my teeth are reflecting to me and accepting this. Thank you for your blog because without it I wouldn’t have this opportunity to consider my teeth and what they mean to me. My teeth are about accepting my choices and being loving with myself regardless of those choices.
This is really interesting to read Gabriele. Until reading this I had never considered that ‘Teeth are a reflection of my past choices’, I had been aware of this with the rest of my body but had somehow not considered that my teeth are also a reflection of how I live, thank you.
Great blog Gabriele and very true. Our teeth are so honest and reflective and for me they are a great marker of the level of care I am offering myself. When my teeth feel smooth and fresh, so too does my life… when they are gathering dust so to speak, I know I am letting things slip and that a deeper level of care is being called for.
I recently bought a great toothbrush and it’s a pleasure to use. It’s interesting with flossing because I never really did it much until a few years ago after which I got so used to the feeling that I cannot go to bed without flossing these days.
Lovely blog Gabriele! the language that you use, “aliens in the mouth” etc., highlights the sheer abject fear and terror that this part of our anatomy seems to evoke!
About 16 years ago I had quite a lot of heavy dental work, my teeth were loose in my gums because I wasn’t brushing them correctly and my gums receding because I was brushing too hard. I made many changes with how I took care of them including flossing and brushing twice a day. Today I have no problems with my teeth or gums and have not needed any dental treatment for the last 13 years.
Thank you Gabriele for sharing your experience with your teeth. It’s a great reminder for me to also appreciate how much I have learned about my teeth through Universal Medicine. I used to hate going to the dentist and avoided it for over 10 years and thus I certainly had to face the consequence of that choice when I did go back. But now, having started to take more loving care of my teeth and gums going to the dentist is something I consider a key part of my self-care.
It is interesting how visiting the dentist can bring up anxiousness in many people. I worked for about a year at a London dental hospital. and saw first hand how apprehensive and fearful many of the patients were. I remember one woman in particular who shared with me that she would rather have a baby than have dental work done. I asked her if she had any children, half expecting her to say none, she then told me she had given birth to 9 children!
Thanks Gabriele, I now feel to be more loving and gentle with my dental hygiene.
And include daily flossing as part of my routine – as I used to skip it unless I felt I had to use it, because I disliked the feeling in my mouth – the floss would get stuck; I needed force to remove the floss and my gums would then bleed.
I will experiment using different floss.
I also love your reminder that our teeth reflect how we have been living – all our choices.
Thank you Gabriele – there is much priceless content in your article – I enjoyed reading it once again.
I also felt some helplessness about my teeth and a sense of depression that every decay, every procedure etc meant to be something final that was not reversible. And often the solutions offered mean some kind of compromise, i.e. it might be good for one aspect but not so good for another aspect of the overall situation in my mouth. That made me delay truly taking care and responsibility into my own hands and postponing to find a dentist I felt really supported by. Now that I have changed that I almost enjoy seeing my dentist even when the procedures might be quite intense. I could let go of many of my fears, doubts and mistrust and feel empowered instead of overwhelmed by taking care on every level for the health of my teeth. It is really a choice to face and honestly admit to the lack of responsibility and the disregard that presents by the state of our teeth in a way that can not be reversed or made up for.
How inspiring Alex to read how you turned your experience of going to the dentist around and I can relate to now finding it a supportive experience after years of dreading what it would reveal.
This blog and comments has brought much awareness and information to me about our teeth and gums and what they represent. I do floss and clean regularly and do not miss, but there are things I would like to address and I fell inspired to follow up on this as another way of caring for the WELLBEING of my body.
This blog inspired me to start flossing. I have thought about it a dozen times in recent years, and now finally, having read this article a couple of weeks ago, went and bought some floss and have been using it most evenings, can feel it becoming part of my rhythm.
I went for several years without seeing a dentist, and used to use a heavy duty toothbrush and really scrub away at them, thinking that that was the only way to get them clean. When I finally went and had a cleaning, I found that I had severely receding gums. This was very disappointing, especially after having gone through years of wearing braces as a teenager. What I had done was really take my teeth for granted, I thought that I had got my teeth fixed, and there was nothing else to do. But I have learned to care for my teeth and mouth more and more, and I really love having the feeling of a healthy mouth now!
Thanks Gabriele. The issue of teeth becomes even more important as one become older. I presently have a Dentist who takes great care of my teeth and explains in detail why he to wants do a procedure in my mouth. In the past it was just an experience that I could have done without. I now know how much self care is needed by me in regards to my teeth.
I feel our teeth can reveal much about our general state of health and how we look after ourselves. I used to dread going to the dentist years ago but I have learnt to look after myself thanks to the support of Universal Medicine and now it is a simple routine 6 month check up, clean and polish with no hassles or dramas.
Like you Susan I used to also dread the dentist and avoid going for check ups, and like you,with the support of Universal Medicine I have learnt to look after myself. I go without fail for my 6 monthly check ups now. The way I brush is a lot more gentle and loving too.
‘Visits to the dentist is the opportunity to appreciate what is being offered by my body’. This is a healing and self loving way to see dental visits and teeth. Thank you for sharing Gabriele.
Thank you Gabriele for your simple but revealing blog. Teeth and visits to the dentist were never one of my strengths. I have been fortunate to have very healthy teeth and gums and now I am very fortunate in deed to enjoy going to my beautiful caring dentist. Now there is a turn around, brought about by my understanding of what a dentist brings and a trust I now have( that I hade lost as a child) with my now dentist who offers all the loving support I have yearned for.
Truly caring for ourselves and our body makes such a difference. Thank you for sharing, Gabriele.
Thank you Gabriele for bringing care of our teeth and gums into the light. I can relate to your transformation in the way you view visits to the dentist and the acceptance and awareness that all of our past choices are reflected in our teeth and gums. In the hands of a true dentist I have gained insight into the patterns and issues beneath what my dental story held. To be able to open your mouth wide and say ‘ah’ and to bet met with no judgement, just gentle wisdom and understanding has led to a new approach to my dental visits……Open your mouth wide and say ‘Aha’ !
Teeth are really interesting things as they are a part of our body that we can neglect but they can tell us a lot about our relationship with ourselves. When I was aged 27 I had 5 baby teeth removed. I went through years of orthodontic work but during this time I learnt how to take care of my teeth and that ‘forgetting’ to brush them at night soon stopped as I committed to cleaning them as directed whilst the braces were on. Now many years later, I still clean my teeth the same way and never forget a night.
I have had a similar experience Shevon. I recently had braces removed and the meticulous way I used to clean my teeth has not stopped just because the braces are off. Even flossing and using those interdental brushes are just part of my night-time routine now. It really does feel like a self loving act, and because I know I am looking after my teeth, a visit to the dentist doesn’t feel so scary.
I am of the age where the dentist filled everything and made huge holes thinking that would stop the decay, so my mouth was full of amalgam. About 12 years ago I had all the amalgam replaced with white fillings, and almost immediately I felt so much better within myself, my energy levels rose, I stopped feeling constantly tired and my teeth didn’t feel so heavy. It felt a really loving thing to do to support me, and my teeth looked so much better.
Just recently I have taken my teeth for granted, and if I am a bit tired I will miss out on the flossing, but reading Pinky’s comment, that flossing helps to unblock areas in the rest of the body and allow things to flow, has shown me that I am not just missing out on the flossing, but I am also affecting a healthy flow through my body….something to be aware of the next time I decide not to floss.
What a great reminder. I feel to ‘step it up’ in my consistency of care of my teeth and gums after reading this.
Likewise Deborah.
I know I can take my teeth for granted – but this reminds me of their importance in caring for them, as much as I would any other part of my body.
I have been observing something in regards with my teeth. I know I should floss every day and use those wooden sticks because if I don’t, it affects my gum. I still ‘forget’ or I am like: oh well, I will do it tomorrow and when I think of this, this feels like self-abuse. Why not do something on a daily basis which I know that supports me (my mouth)? I tend to skip the things that truly support me. So it feels good to write this so I am more aware of it. The intention is to do it every day again!
I feel the same Marietta, if I miss something that supports i.e. flossing teeth, that goes on to affect me the following day, but not only that, it gives me an excuse to not floss my teeth on succeeding days, as it was ok not to floss my teeth on the previous day.
Using flossing your teeth as an example, as I’ve become quite good at flossing my teeth regularly 😉
Since reading this blog I have enjoyed taking care of my teeth much more, buying a new super soft toothbrush, some new dental floss and not brushing my teeth so hard.
Brushing your teeth too hard is a big one – I remember buying a toothbrush that would beep if your brushed to hard – it made me way more aware that it was even possible to brush too hard.
I’ve just re-read the article Rebecca, and notice that since I read it the first time, I hold my toothbrush as if it was something delicate and precious, and that delicate preciousness is much appreciated by my teeth and gums, and helps me stay connected when I am cleaning my teeth.
I found it amazing how much could go wrong with my mouth! My teeth are strong and I have never needed a filling, but I had years of struggling with my gum health which eventually led to periodontitis, for which I needed serious treatment. As I chose to start caring for myself more deeply after spending time studying with Universal Medicine, I took responsibility for my overall health and implemented a consistent and organised approach to my dental care. I am now experiencing healthy gums and have had no further problems. A wonderful turn-around.
A wonderful turn-around indeed Jo – inspiring.
Amazing Gabriele that you have exposed another level of self care, often least considered even though it is right in your face so to speak.I could speak volumes about each tooth and how it relates to my life journeys of disregard and growth, yet at the same time the pain and discomfort made me become more aware that there is more going on than just a tooth ache or irritation.These days I have an wonderful dentist, she offers me an understanding and wisdom that all makes sense now.
Undeniable vitality is the result of the blend of conventional and Universal Medicine, no matter what age. I couldn’t agree with you more Chris.
‘Teeth are a reflection of my past choices, all of them’. This is interesting on so many levels. Teeth, my relationship with them and my care of and attention to them all serve as a reflection of how I am living at any point in time. So that means their dental history is a reflection of my history, my choices. Much to ponder on here, Gabriele, for which thanks.
‘Teeth are a reflection of my past choices, all of them’. This feels really true Cathy.
Thanks Gabriele, I have been in denial about my teeth for a long time, as you have written here, I haven’t thought of them as being part of the whole, part of who I am. Maybe I resented the fact that it’s harder to help myself with a problem tooth, then say a sprained ankle or sore shoulder. In the past I went to the dentist when there is more pain then I can put up with; no check ups, no regular visits. Although I’ve been fortunate with my teeth, it might be an idea to have them checked more often then only when I’m in desperate need of help.
Yes teeth can almost be like an alien part of the body ‘a have to attitude’ in caring for them….just in your simple comment about flossing teeth everyday is an enormous statement in the way you have shared it as it paying attention and care to detail, a reflection of our care towards ourself….time I get back to flossing daily as part of my daily care rhythm and give my teeth that extra attention for healthy teeth and a healthy body and a healthy ME!
Teeth are a great ‘report card’ for how I have been eating. Evidence is always there in pearly whites or dingy beige… decay will always mean lack of care and too much sugar / acid in foods. This in itself could be a direction for asking questions like – why do I eat sugary foods? Is it because I’m exhausted? If so, why am I exhausted…?
Sometimes it’s hard to stop making bad lifestyle choices. It’s like the mind is in its own sabotaging gear. I have found by listening and taking heed of the body’s responses to foods and stimuli, with honesty and love, I can stop the vicious cycle. Exhaustion need not lead to sugar consumption. It could lead to being super gentle, taking regular rest and living in regard of one’s preciousness. One of the greatest truth presented by Universal Medicine is that the way you live is either the best or worst medicine. It makes sense.
Well said Jinya. Teeth are indeed a great ‘report card’, as are the gums. I find that when I have been eating in a disregarding way for my body my gums become sensitive and a little swollen and a few little ulcers appear. A great indicator to look at what and how much I am choosing to eat.
One of the reoccurring themes I have observed with people who attend Universal Medicine events is that the level of self-responsibility with regard to personal health is enhanced, and the integration of the combination of conventional and complementary health care to optimize personal well-being sets a new bench mark for humanity looking after itself.
Thank you Gabriele for the gentle reminder that our teeth can reflect to us the summation of our choices and sometimes those choices are too painful to look at and my teeth will let me definitely know that.
How little we value our precious teeth until there are problems or they are gone! I remember growing up and being told by adults that if I didn’t take care of them now, they would fall out later on and I would lose my looks – apparently your face caves in and you never look the same! I’m sure it’s not that dramatic but it got me thinking about how important teeth are and how it was up to me to care for them. A great reminder to keep attending to all the small details in oral care, and that we can bring greater levels of care into our routine.
I used to feel about my teeth exactly as you did, Gabriele, but I now am looking after them much better as part of my working to increase my self-love. I have a great dentist, who, like me, is a member of Universal Medicine and has learnt from the presentations of Serge Benhayon, the real reason why we have problems with our teeth. I find this extremely interesting.
It’s strange that we can look after ourselves in relation to food and exercise, but at the same time neglect to floss regularly, as though our teeth are not as important as our digestion or muscular system for example. If I can neglect my teeth then I’m neglecting all of me, if I think how I care for my teeth doesn’t matter then I’m kidding myself, they are just as important as every cell in my body. Great blog Gabriele.
Thank you Gabriele, for the gentle reminder of the role of my teeth and the importance to appreciate and care for them as part of bringing more self care and love to the way I live.
A revealing article, Gabriele. Your story has prompted me to look far deeper and more honestly into my relationship with my teeth.
Thank you Gabriele for the reminder to use my time brushing and flossing as a gift I am offering my body by way of self care. Even though the title says ‘My Teeth and what they have taught me’ this is quite simply an awesome blog about responsibility and self love.
I can see how teeth are a reflection of your past…because they don’t regenerate, so they stay showing the signs of your choices.. Great way to look at it. I have always loved the dentist but ☺️ I reckon they smell nice haha.
‘ I learned how important it was for me to take care of my teeth and gums from all this and realised how the problems were all caused by a lack of self care.’ – Very wise words.
Reflecting on what you share with us, I am aware of how strong my teeth have always been – a rock of sorts in my life. I’ve never overly neglected my dental care, but similarly also held a degree of disregard in that I may allow things to slip for a period of time only to be pulled up by an increased tooth sensitivity or gum inflammation that required persistent care over a few days which would help re-establish my commitment to taking care of my teeth and myself equally so. Our teeth are definitely reminders of all that we have lived and worthy messengers to pay attention to.
What your blog highlighted for me Gabriele was the extra attention to detail needed with my teeth, which also reflects to other parts of my life. Thank you for this awareness.
Great blog Gabriele. Your words made me question why I have placed so little importance on another beautiful part of my body that does so much for me. I truly have not ever liked my teeth and I’m getting that reflection back but reading your article has prompted me to bring some love to my teeth that I would actually appreciate having for the rest of my life 🙂
What a joy Gabriele, to include our teeth in self care as important as all our other parts. This is a great reminder for me, thank you.
This blog was a real eye opener. I have always felt ‘cursed’ with bad teeth. Have spent more hours in a dentist chair than I care to recall. Have story after story of what I’ve been through in dental care – my own personal war stories. The cost! Well, don’t get me started on that one. My frustration and infuriation over teeth isn’t confined to just myself……the fact that it isn’t covered under Australian medicare benefits totally upsets me. Like dental care isn’t part of health care! And insurance premiums for this ‘extra coverage’ just don’t add up against the piddly limited benefits provided. On and on it goes. Nothing but bad vibes between me and teeth. Until I read your blog, Gabriele. I’ve got some reassessing to do!! Thank you.
Your comment here Gayle has lead me to feel that my own previous lack of care for my teeth was something I chose to take on from how society and others treated them. That they are not regarded as health care by our governments is very telling indeed and perhaps an issue that requires discussion.
Great comment Michelle that relieves me some of some of the guilt I have for not caring for my teeth.
Thank you Gabriele I had never got that the teeth don’t regenerate like the rest of the body so they do need attention. I have been holding back from going to the dentist because of the expense of it. I now see that it is holding back from myself to not go because of the expense.
For me too Daniel; I did not quite clock the fact that teeth need EXTRA care as they are one of the only parts in our body that don’t regenerate and regrow if broken/damaged.
Thank you Gabriele. What resonates with me is when you say ‘I knew and could feel that it was about me and for me’. Is this a way to give meaning to life? Responsibility – responding and acting on what you need to do to achieve or deal with what’s in front of you. Giving it your all – committing in full. Using everyone and everything you know that may help you. Applying everything to that feeling or thought to give method to the process for a success.
The Success is to know more about you even if you pass or fail in a task. This can only be if you commit in full. The result cannot be the same if you give it your all. Things will change. Life will be different. There will be more to appreciate in success of what more you know about you – your strengths, your weaknesses. Knowing and honouring this about yourself moves you in good stead. Solid footprints from full commitment – solid outcomes that mean something, now that is worth smiling about teeth or no teeth!
Beautiful Gabriele, I have always had more fillings than most people I know and always get told when I go to the dentist I could be flossing more – even though I do every day!! What this has taught me though is that there is always deeper to go with self care. Perhaps my teeth need to be flossed twice per day, and even more loving care taken when I brush. This was a great reflection, thank you.
Great blog Gabriele, you have inspired me to take more care of my teeth. I had a crazy experience when I had my wisdom tooth out 2-3 years ago. I was very well looked after and treated with care but after 2:30hrs in the dental chair it wouldn’t move. The dentist broke the crown during the process and stitched me up, referred me to a specialist and didn’t charge me. I was amazed and very appreciative of the dentist’s and nurse’s time. I had no idea I was laying in the chair for so long. I wasn’t at all traumatised as one would think, I just said to the dentist ‘it is a very stubborn tooth’. I felt when it finally came out that I have released a lot stuff I was holding. It felt like I had released anger and frustration or something had shifted. It was a huge relief to have it out.
I have also had a similar experience with dental work to you Chan Ly, in that it really releases a lot of stuff. I have been quite amazed what has come out of my mouth quite literally at the dentists: there have been old feelings, thoughts, impressions and memories that had been long forgotten and locked up in my mouth. These have been released in the course of the dental session like dark clouds rising up out of the gums and teeth leaving my mouth feeling much cleaner, clearer and lighter.
“Visits to my dentist are not obligatory catch-up procedures anymore, but opportunities to appreciate what is being offered by my body and to deepen my understanding, appreciation and self-care.’ This is true for me also, I am having extensive work done on my teeth and it feels very supportive and self caring. Reading your blog has allowed me to consider my teeth and oral health on a much deeper level. I have always cleaned and flossed my teeth but without giving it much thought, in actual fact unless I am at the dentist or have a problem with a tooth I haven’t really thought about them like I do other parts of my body, so thank you for your inspiring article Gabriele, I will definitely be considering my teeth differently from now on.
Gabriele, I can so relate to your article with how teeth used to be just another thing that I had to brush and care for…but are now becoming another beautiful part of my body to behold and love. I went through much dental work as a teenager, wearing braces for 3 years, many teeth removed to make space in my mouth and to straighten the teeth…and I can say this was mostly not a pleasant experience for me and left me with more than a bit of trepidation when I knew a dental visit was upcoming. However, I too have now found a fantastic dentist – one that is caring in everyday and so gentle and such an inspiration when it comes to being passionate about our teeth – with her help I have been able to embrace my teeth finally and really appreciate all that comes with them, and am learning all the time to care more deeply for myself too. Thank you Gabriele!
I have found flossing such a chore in the past, but bought a ‘flosser machine’ to make it easier. It shoots little air pulses between the teeth and encourages me to look after my teeth so much more. We are all worth it!
Thank you Gabriele for this blog about teeth and how every part of our body is worth to be appreciated for what it is and what it brings for better or worse. Flossing is like a great picture for really becoming aware of everything that is in the way and taking responsibility for it. I will remember your blog now while flossing and want to take the chance to get deeper with self-care through caring flossing every day.
Thank you for that blog Gabriele. I can relate too, when I thought it a chore to do more than just brushing. My gums started to tell me and I also found a wonderful dentist with whose help I got to realise that teeth and gums are also ‘parts of me’ … and nowadays caring for my teeth and gums feels so refreshing.
Pinky, I appreciate you sharing your wisdom on how flossing brings more clarity to the body, and can unblock areas within the mouth that may impede flow in our bodies. Reading your comment has brought a whole new awareness around the importance of feeling what is being shown to me when I floss.
“Visits to my dentist are not obligatory catch-up procedures anymore, but opportunities to appreciate what is being offered by my body and to deepen my understanding, appreciation and self-care.”
I feel exactly the same way and am looking forward to my dental visit today!
I agree Michelle – it is a great reminder for me to book an appointment to see a dentist because I know how deeply supportive it is when I regularly have my teeth checked, cleaned and cared for.
Yes James and great to be more ‘preventative’ than curative. It feels more responsible, like I am a step ahead of the game and not responding off the back foot.
If we wait and are on the back foot then we are at the mercy to what the world and others throw at us – it is so much more empowering to stop and take responsibility for the way we are living, then we know what is coming our way before it comes!
I noticed a few years ago that I would always be playing catch up with dental appointments and would put them off for the longest time, or wouldn’t have the money available when needed. I decided to go on a dental plan where you pay a certain amount each month which covers a number of visits per year to the dentist and hygienist. This has worked really well as there is no longer the worry about being able to afford it as it is factored into my monthly spending plan.
That is a great tip Shevon – something I have found is that often the most loving and supportive things we can do, such as look after our teeth, get neglected for ‘other’ things because either we get ‘too busy’ or we prioritise other things.
Thanks for sharing this Gabriele, I never really gave much thought about my teeth, except for the fact that I’m still trying to get the nicotine stains off them after years of smoking, but after all they are part of this body I have been given, so they deserve no less respect than the rest of me.
Funnily enough, from this wonderful blog, the thing that stood-out the most, was the fact that you’re now flossing regularly Gabriele. I find that the level at which I floss, or don’t, indicates quite directly how much presence I’m holding. For when I’m just going through the motions, the absolute last thing I feel like doing is flossing, but when I have plenty of space in my rhythm and want to be self-caring, I will floss for several minutes with ease.
Hi Gabriele, this blog has given me pause to reflect more about my teeth…I had horrendous first experiences with a school dentist – we called it the ‘murder-house’ (my teeth were healthy, as were many other children’s, but she routinely practiced giving (large) fillings anyway – this was discovered and she was fired, but not before there was a school full of terrified children who were sometimes dragged literally screaming to the dentist’s room) – this coloured my perception of dentists deeply (my teeth ache just thinking about the experiences there!) and still to this day I haven’t really had a wholly positive experience with a dentist… even the ones that did nothing to cause any real pain, mainly because of my extremely high levels of anxiety and apprehension about the whole visit. I am inspired reading this blog and these comments to search out a dentist and begin working through this issue, and to regard my teeth with more care and love. Thank you everyone!
Thanks Gabriele for sharing.
I appreciate the opportunity to be able to bring more awareness to my teeth and to then be able to share this with my family.
I have often thought about purchasing Electric Toothbrushes for us, but have stopped due to the cost, thinking that they are a novelty and the extra electricity they would use, but deep down I know that they would be a great investment for us.
I look forward to purchasing the toothbrushes, good dental floss to use more often and booking regular check ups, adding another area of being able to deepen my rhythms.
Hi Gabriele,
I love how self care can go a long way, as to change our teeth and gum health. I love the list of things our teeth have to go through 🙂
I wasn’t much of a flosser a few years back but now flossing simply bring clarity in my body, as it unblocks the areas in my mouth that could otherwise be blocked and stop flow. Hmm… so much from just a simple act. Thanks for your sharing, it’s going to remind me to be adding that extra care to a deeper level.
I appreciated the subject and have had very similar experiences.
Before I began to form a relationship with Universal Medicine, I went to the dentist taking zero responsibility and then either bitched to my Mum and Dad about the cost or guilted them in to paying the bill, under the false pretence that my bad teeth were their fault. I was living out of home and had enough money to spend on wrecking my teeth, but resented investing in fixing them.
I now really look forward to my dental visits and treatments as my attitude towards them has changed. I enjoy the regard that comes with taking care of every inch of me.
I’ve had a similar experience Sarah, and yes, it is weird (but all too common) to be happy investing in all the things that don’t do us any good but then we tighten up and avoid the things that do help us. My experience is that this is a big part of why things become so complicated, as we regularly go about making life twice as difficult as it needs to be.
Exactly Simon. It is only through allowing ourselves to honestly look at what we are doing to our body that we will grasp that all the symptoms we suffer from have in fact been caused by choices that we have made in the past.
This might be confronting at first, but once we really grasp it, this makes making loving choices that bring simplicity and health so much easier :o)
Yes making life twice as difficult, or if we even dare to, more so. All in the effort to avoid something.
Great point, enough money to cause the problem, but less willing to spend the money to address the problem created. That could relate to a lot of health problems. It is a strange point that we are less willing to spend money on health care than we are on clothes, or a car or a holiday, yet is there anything more important than our health?
This reminds me of a saying I heard “People who have no time to care for themselves now, will have any less time for hospitals later on”.
Gabriele, your article made me laugh equally as it inspired me to get back on board with my teeth! I loved how you described your previous relationship with your teeth and I can more than relate to seeing my dental trips as being total downers. I recently went to the dentist after a decent time away (it’s amazing what happens when the dental van stops pulling up in the backyard twice a year as they did in school…) and I totally feel in love with my dentist. He was so adorable, he loved teeth so much! And I could tell he really enjoyed supporting people take care of them.
I never really considered my teeth an important part of my body, and if I’m honest there’s still some work there to be done, but reading your article reminded me how much I actually enjoy creating space to care for my teeth. It’s so nice having a proper self care routine and feeling the clean gaps between my teeth. Your article has inspired me to get back on board with the flossing and go back to see my dentist so I can enjoy the care and love he brings to me and my teeth. Cheeky smiles all round.
Great inspiration, Gabriele. I had a lot of trouble with my gum, lost 3 teeth, and had to brush and floss after each meal to keep on top of it since 20 years. I used to feel disadvantaged, but now I realise that I actually love my teeth and gums. I know them so well, as I spend so much time with them. I feel inspired to give them my fullest attention.
Teeth care and cleaning are one of those daily activities that can prevent decay and disease and maintain a quality of health. Not much different from what Serge Behayon presents in that the quality of our daily actions can either support or decay our well-being. After reading this blog the first time around I have kept this thought in mind as I brush my teeth. An action in the day that prevents the decay of my health.
Lovely comment to hold in mind, that every action either supports or decays our well-being, so true. Brushing my teeth will never be the same now, thank you Leigh and thank you Gabriele.
Great comment, Leigh. This blog certainly raises our awareness of the many ways we can allow decay in our bodies, not just in our teeth, but any area that we are not nurturing and looking after.
The mouth and teeth are very revealing of our lack of nurturing or self-care. In that regard they can be a great marker. I know if I ever get a mouth ulcer, for example, it’s a reminder or a warning for me to look at how I’ve been living in the days immediately prior and there is always something to see.
Spot on Leigh, its easy to take our teeth for granted but as they are still a part of us they are subject to same care and dedication we give to the rest of our wellbeing. I will remember your words when I am brushing my teeth.
It is great how self-caring can feel so nurturing.
Thank you for your blog! It brings back the joy of caring for yourself.
Thanks Gabriele for the reminder to look after our whole body equally. It inspires me to take more consistent care of my teeth.
Me too Annie.
Thanks for sharing, such an interesting blog to read. Teeth are quite fascinating. Being where I am today with the level of self- care I have also chosen for myself and my teeth, I actually can appreciate the state they are in and also love going for check ups.
Awesome subject Gabriele. I have had an interesting relationship with my teeth. Not quite as you have described – mine was more of not really considering them or feeling them. Like much else in my body, I used to be dull to the signs they were giving me. When I was growing up I went to a really ‘scary’ dentist. I had painful x-rays and the injections for my fillings were so horrible – it still makes me shudder. But despite this – I am extremely grateful to my parents for taking me to the dentist regularly. It has made it simple for me continue this practice of six-monthly visits. When I turned 16 I went and found my own dentist. I stumbled upon a great dentist a block from my high school. He reminded me of Clark Kent and his dental nurse like Lois Lane. He put sunglasses on my face before I laid down. He was so gentle and took such care – talking to me through the whole process and discussing what was going on for my teeth. He would often talk about my sugar intake and make suggestions of where I could cut back – like by mixing a small amount of juice with water, rather than having juice on its own. He has always encouraged flossing and gives me a roll when I leave to help me out. In the last year I have enjoyed doing this daily. Last year I even bought myself an electric toothbrush. It was a challenge to spend that amount of money on a toothbrush – but it feels amazing. I now also take a toothbrush in my handbag so I can brush my teeth after lunch. It feels so lovely to be taking this much care with a part of my body that I used to forget existed!
How amazing to have found such a great dentist! I now really appreciate how gorgeous my mouth feels after cleaning my teeth and this has changed enormously since changing my diet. It feels like my mouth doesn’t have to do battle anymore with all the detrimental things I used to consume, sugar being the worst. Me and my teeth are now good friends!
I agree. A great dentist that is gentle and you feel comfortable with is so important and worth searching for. I noticed that at times on the dentists chair that my body hardens and braces itself due to some past experiences. When I feel more comfortable and relaxed with the dental practitioner I find that my body surrenders and is not tense.
I agree that finding a dentist whom you feel comfortable with makes it easier to return for regular checkups and for any treatment you may need. You are inspiring me to floss more regularly too, thank you. This small simple task of daily self-care can extend to other areas of our life in cleaning up little things.
I agree on both accounts Carmel, if your dentist isn’t a place you can relax, the idea of going regularly and looking after yourself in this way couldn’t be further from your mind. It is amazing how commitment to one act of care for yourself can snowball to many others things, no matter how big or small.
I fully agree Carmel and Rebecca – it is really important to be able to relax and be at ease when you are the dentist. And yes looking after one area of your life impacts all other areas – I love seeing how one loving choice inspires me to make more loving choices.
Very true Carmel, I have found that those small acts of self-love and self-care have a domino effect on other areas of my life. The more I nurture and support myself the more I am shown where I can nurture and support myself elsewhere.
Beautiful blog. It’s great to read this. After reading this blog I can feel how important it is to not forget any detail of our body.
I love the build up of your article Gabriele as the first part, thinking this is just how life has felt to us, is very recognisable to many I’m sure, and at one time was for me too. I had not a clue of the extent of influence I actually have on my own health and wellbeing. And what a life changer it was when I did get a clue :-). It is so empowering to realise that it is my choices that create the outcome, and since I can determine my choices I can determine the outcome!
Thanks Gabriele, I can relate a lot to what you have written. I was inspired many years ago when a dentist spoke at a Universal Medicine presentation and I realised wow, I only go to the dentist when something is wrong. I don’t go for cleans and check-ups and could appreciate how important this is. My first appointment was a rude awakening of how much I had not regarded my teeth and therefore my whole body. I was in a little shock and it was physically uncomfortable. It got easier though, as I brought more care and attention to my teeth cleaning and going for regular check ups. It is so interesting how we can find it a hindrance to spend money and time dedicating to ourselves in this way and yet so easy to spend money and time on things that are not so good for us.
Thanks Gabriele, your blog highlights the importance of self care with our teeth and gums. After reading your blog I feel inspired to take more care with my teeth, thank you!
I once had a lot of issues with my teeth as I clenched and ground my teeth in my sleep, resulting in 2 broken teeth replaced by crowns, and a plate to wear at night to prevent more damage being done. Since taking much deeper care of myself and changing how I live my life (ie. not living in anxiety and stress and dealing with the anger I was holding in my body that was causing me to clench and grind my teeth), my teeth reflect that. No plate and no more damaged teeth.
I’ve also just realised that here’s my hygenist that does a great job in caring and supporting me to care for myself by way of our teeth and gums. I love my time with her as there’s always time to chat about the intricate details and questions.
Thank you for your blog Gabriele. I feel inspired to step up the quality of the already self-care regimen I have in place for my teeth, as I can now feel more deeply from your sharing how this is another opportunity to nurture me/my body and be with me. I too have now found – eventually!- an amazingly gentle, deeply loving and supportive dentist, so rather than the usual old dread to have to go, I always schedule in my regular check ups and look forward to them.
Even how you have spent time and effort to find a dentist that supports you, and who you look forward to seeing, is incredible Alexandra – and a great example of really caring for your teeth.
This is a great reminder of caring for our teeth in a loving manner (as we do other parts of the body), and being aware of what they are communicating to us. Thanks Gabriele.
I love how you share that going to the dentist offers an opportunity “to deepen my understanding, appreciation and self-care.” How many of us see it as a chore or got to do when the dentist checkup reminder comes through. This has offered people a whole new of way of being with their teeth, thank you.
At the beginning of this article it is all about the fate that life deals us – poor, powerless us. What we come to is the truth about the fact that our choice, our always choice, is whether we let that victim mentality play out or whether we get back into our driving seats and take responsibility for ourselves, care of our bodies and a pro-active part in life. Thank you for your succinct and practical writing, Gabriele.
Thank you Gabriele, Your blog made me smile – and reminded me I could floss more often too!
I have noticed a real improvement to the way I care for my teeth and gums since being introduced to the work of Universal Medicine. In the past I would brush my teeth viciously with a rough toothbrush whereas now I clean them gently with a toothbrush that has a soft head and this feels far more caring.
Without any real attention given to it, I have noticed that since I started to take on board the teachings of Universal Medicine the care I have given my teeth has improved enormously.
Thank you Gabriele. I too have been paying a lot more attention to my teeth and how I care for them. I am loving the deepening process that self care and nurturing of ourselves affords. It is a continual refinement with new areas of attention being revealed as needed. To embrace this continued deepening and unfolding of our relationship with ourselves is beautiful.
Thanks Gabriele for bringing this awareness to teeth. I have always cared for my teeth, but not at the level you speak of. My appreciation wasn’t there. My flossing is still at the once a week obligatory stage! I’m looking forward to making the time about me when I’m caring for my teeth instead of it being a chore.
A beautiful view point Gabrielle. Thank you for sharing. I also in recent years have enjoyed taking more care with the way I brush, flossing and mouth washing my teeth- keeping my mouth fresh and clean.
My relationship with my dental care has changed so much too, since Universal Medicine. In the past I would brush my teeth really quickly and only in the morning and to me flossing your teeth was a waste of time. Now I love sitting down and brushing my teeth and gums with care… I was deeply inspired by Alex Braun to take extra care the last time I was in Germany. I had never seen anybody before take so much time and care with their teeth.
I also floss daily and when I see the food that comes out from in between my teeth I shudder to think how in the past I would just leave it there…most disregarding and yucky!!..And how numb I must have been not to feel it. My mouth feels so different these days…….Thank God for Universal Medicine!!! Love your blog Gabriele,who would have thought to write one on teeth and it is so important.
You make flossing sound so fun! I just want to do it everyday now.
The amount of communication we are constantly receiving from our bodies is phenomenal. I’m amazed just how much feeling there is from my mouth and teeth. I hadn’t realised how yucky a mouthful of amalgam fillings was until they were removed. This was most obvious when half the amalgam was removed from one side and replaced with composite fillings, and the other half was still the old amalgam. Quite a startling experience. I had gotten so used to the amalgam, I just took it for granted that’s how my teeth felt. Once they started coming out my awareness jumped up dramatically and it was like my teeth were ‘yelling’ at me. I couldn’t believe that it was possible that I had been ignoring how they felt for so long.
That’s incredible Alison; taking care of ourselves and our teeth can make a HUGE difference to our health… You give a beautiful example of this.
This simple little blog outs a really significant issue for a lot of people. Difficulties with teeth are painful, expensive and as you say a dampener. But bringing self care can turn around even the worst of situations. Flossing used to be a chore for me, now it is essential so I have that lovely clean and clear feeling all the time. Teeth need care not because that is what we are supposed to do, but as you say because they are part of us, and caring for us as a precious being is what we deserve.
So simple Gabriele, but so strong and to the point – just like teeth!
Hi Gabriele, I can definitely relate to your blog here. I too have recently taken a lot more care in regards to my teeth and it feels amazing. If I don’t floss twice a day now I feel that I have forgotten something. I doesn’t feel great.
It’s amazing how some areas of our body get more attention than others – I always paid special attention to my teeth as I had braces and other dental work done from when I was quite young, but then treated the rest of my body with a lot of disregard. Here’s to taking responsibility for the whole package!
Teeth and past choices – this makes sense! So maybe it is not essentially the sugar, that gives caries, but the energy of non-self-loving choices that eats our body-parts up and lets them rot?
You got me thinking further Felix about my mouth, teeth and choices. What and how I eat is the first choice that I have in the process of accepting life as it is and not trying to avoid and numb from certain feelings and situations. So if I choose to feel life and not absorb it maybe I won’t have to eat food that makes me feel heavy and drains me.
Thank you Gabriele for this great sharing bringing attention to our teeth as part of our self care, our choices and our responsibility to ourselves . Beautifully expressed.
Since developing a caring relationship with my teeth, I have now found a super dentist with whom I have a great relationship and fun, whenever I go, whatever the treatment.
Me too Michelle. I have a local dentist I see every 6 months for a check and clean. She’s very gentle with me and takes extra care as she knows I am very sensitive.
Gabriele, I found myself nodding in agreement with everything you have expressed, especially that quite depressing long list of symptons you opened with. I am pleased to report my teeth are a lot better since embarking on a more thorough self-care plan, but there is always room to improve. Thank-you.
Thank you Gabriele for your sharing about the state of our overall health, including our teeth, that is presenting us great lessons to give us a greater understanding about our lives lived. And when we take our responsibility by listening to these lessons and truly feel into them what they teach us personally, we are able to make ourselves the lead in taking care for our own wellbeing.
I really appreciated your blog Gabriele, as my teeth have been a source of worry to me. Thank you for sharing your experience.
I find it interesting that it is our teeth that express how we have lived and our past choices. They are front and center and cannot be hidden behind cloths. There is no escaping.
So true, our teeth are sooo in our face, aren’t they?
What a great blog and reminder about teeth being part of self care. I have always loved visiting the dentist but have noticed after reading this blog it was because I had made choices to look after my teeth. Flossing everyday was something I didn’t do. What a great reminder of how to deepen that care to the next level.
It is so important to embrace the messages our bodies are lovingly giving us about the choices we are making and have been making, rather than just wanting to fix them and not have them break down again. For me the biggest hurdle in understanding my body’s messages has been to trust what I feel rather than trying to figure it out with my mind.
From holding long held frustration my teeth tell the story in full – From not appreciating my teeth as a child/teenager they were just there to chew food. Visits to my dentist and always being told you have such lovely teeth but you need to look after them!!!! Frustrations grew – headaches came, another tooth would crack, another extraction – what was going on here? I realised I was brushing too hard, flossing too hard, not being gentle with myself, not making self loving gentle choices in all aspects of my life. I really had to listen when my teeth started to play a big role in making me really wake up. This continued until I attended presentations by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine – reawakening to the fact Its up to me to take responsibility for all of me. (and that includes my teeth) I really enjoyed reading this article Gabriele thank you.
Thank you for bringing more awareness to our teeth Gabriele.
I have had lots of issues with my teeth – overcrowded teeth as a child, fillings, teeth extracted, braces at 19 yr, root canal work, bridge work. I dreaded the dentist up until a few years ago, where I found a great dentist- gentle , patient and understanding.
I have also found that by taking better care of myself, with my diet, sleep and dental hygiene/ care I haven’t needed any treatment.
I love clean teeth and have both good and bad experiences with dentists. I love how you have captured the mystery of teeth. They are hidden in our mouths, yet everyone sees them, they are essential and tough, yet so fragile. When there is something wrong they make your whole world stop, and the only way to fix them is to open wide and surrender and let someone in to help. Such a great metaphor for life.
Absolutely I always struggled with letting someone else help and had many challenging experiences with dentists until the last few years when that has been turned around by taking more responsibility for my own health and finding some wonderful dentists to support me with my teeth.
Yes this post is a reminder to me how my relationship with my teeth and caring for them has changed. I very much relate to flossing and brushing my teeth as part of a rhythm and would like to add, it prepares me for bed at night. The tender massage of gums I do lying down, begins a deep restfulness and ‘letting go’ of any excess motion. Such is the wonder of the ‘little’ things that come into focus in one’s life, as being extraordinary, thanks to the presentations of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine.
There is a profession I have a mountain of respect for, dentistry. It takes some serious dedication.
Me too Dean! Just imagine the responsibility of dealing with all those people who dread visiting you and are fearful of what they perceive that you are going to do to them.
Yes Jonathan not to mention all the stuff that goes wrong with people’s gums and teeth, it’s like surgery except the patient is usually awake so it is potentially a recipe for high stress (which unfortunately it often is)… But I have had the fortune of having two dentists who have made me feel very safe and well taken care of. They are real heroes to such a challenging profession.
I love the way your body kept giving gentle messages through your teeth that something wasn’t right. If only we all saw pain, illness or tension as a sign that we are not taking enough care or could be working more in harmony with our body. Instead we just get frustrated with our body, feeling it has let us down and hope the doctor/dentist can fix it. Simply knowing that the body is trying to tell us something opened me up to a whole new level of awareness about how I was living and the impact I can have on my health.
When we live a way of life based on truth and deep nurturing, not one part of you is left out, not even our teeth. I really love flossing and brushing my teeth but especially so when I do it with care, attention and gentleness and my body (and my dentist 🙂 certainly loves me back for it.
Great comment, Zoe, yes isn’t it amazing how love includes everything and no part gets neglected or left out?
Yes so true Zoe, when we truly nuture ourselves, every cell in our body benefits, even the cells in our teeth, objects that we feel are very fixed and unchangeable. I used to be very hard on my teeth, brushing them vigorously and not taking time to floss. Aside from improving my dental regime, changing my diet has helped enormously, as my mouth and teeth no longer have to cope with the on-slaught of aggressive substances attacking them. The effects are definitely noticed in the dentist’s chair, to my ever grateful relief.
Thank you Gabriele, I can relate to your story very much.
Thanks Gabrielle for this inspiring blog. I read it a few days ago and since then have been paying close attention to how little attention I pay when I brush my teeth. Quite often when I brush, I will go do other things – close windows before I leave the house, get hand bag ready etc… – and your blog was a super reminder to stay present and be with me and my cleaning of my teeth.
I know this one Sarah, a while ago I caught myself doing this too, wandering off doing things whilst I was brushing my teeth. Now my time brushing is spent with my teeth and how I am brushing them, though I still can at times go off thinking about things ahead in the day rather than focusing on my teeth.
Thanks Gabrielle I can really relate to everything in your blog. Flossing is also a part of my daily rhythm and I now have a new appreciation for my teeth. I brush them with love and care rather than rushing to get it done.
Even reading about teeth brings some unpleasantness – in the beginning of the article, where you write the list, Gabriele. Mine is much longer. After my first energetic detox program I had gum treatment for a few months and lost three teeth. It shows how much disregard I allowed in my life, how hard I was and how I neglected my body including my teeth. Now I have much less teeth to take care of, but nevertheless it is important to include them into my daily care and feel appreciative that I still have them.
I can very much relate to the feeling that dentist visits where a horror to be endured, kind of like blood tests, but recently both have become a part of the things I do to make sure I am healthy and its no longer a chore or terror.
Yes Rebecca, isn’t it amazing when these things that we used to dread and put off as much as we could, change! And they change because we have changed, not necessarily because the ordeal has improved. I consider these types of things as ‘side effects’ of self nurture and self love, those un-expected ‘wows’ when undergoing these routine health care things.
Thank you Gabriele. I have always been pretty terrified of going to the dentist as it never ended well. I have had quite a few procedures over the years, teeth out, braces on, abscess, root canal. I thought I had lucked out and just had ‘bad teeth’. Since I’ve been taking care of my body and making more loving choices, I’ve noticed that my teeth have reaped the benefit and I’ve made far fewer trips to the dentist.
This is awesome Alison that you have been able to shift from the belief of “I have bad teeth because of bad luck” to feeling how making more loving choices and caring for your body has supported the health of your teeth to improve. Very inspiring!
That’s incredible Alison; taking care of ourselves and our teeth can make a HUGE difference to our health… You give a beautiful example of this.
Wow – what an amazing testimony to how important taking greater care of our bodies is for our general health and well-being.
I used to have these dreams where my teeth would just all crumble out of my mouth, so I still get anxious and tense about going to the dentist thinking this is it there all coming out, crazy !!
Jaime I have had the same dreams, waking up as if all my teeth had crumbled. In some cases new teeth grew up but in all it was a little unnerving to say the least.
After having $6000 braces, looking after your teeth is really a given way of life!
Nevertheless thankyou for your awesome sharing and truth
After reading your article I’m looking forward to booking my next appointment with my dentist – I’ve started to enjoy the trips more however would easily go periods of time without visiting.
Yes, going to a dentist can be enjoyable experience. It may hurt but afterwards things can be quite a bit better.
What a great blog about how Universal Medicine (here: making loving choices) supports Western Medicine (here: to floss more regularly). Simple real – love it!
(and get inspired to floss more regularly – full-hearted)
I have had quite a few different experiences with dentists, and it has taken some time for me relax in that chair…It has taken me some time to appreciate my teeth, not just my teeth, the whole of me…I have visited a holistic dentist and the experience was incredible, it felt like he was supporting the whole of me, so gentle and supportive and I became more accepting of my teeth and myself. I actually felt I had been for a supporting self care ritual, like you would a massage session or a manicure, it felt like I was giving a vital part of my body the care that it deserved. Lovely blog – thank you.
Gabrielle I love the honesty expressed here. I always used to rush flossing but not the case anymore. It’s about appreciating everything we do as a part of our own self care routine and flossing is just another element of this.
Thank you for this reminder that our teeth reflect the level of care we have for ourselves and also reflect all of our past choices. Every time I see the dental hygienist he says “have you been flossing?” and every time I say “no but I really should start”. After reading this I really am going to start taking better care of myself, starting with flossing 🙂
Gabrielle, I love the way you said “Visits to my dentist are not obligatory catch-up procedures anymore, but opportunities to appreciate what is being offered by my body and to deepen my understanding, appreciation and self-care.” Such a different way of looking at what’s going on in our body – as an appreciation of what it is offering us and seeing it as a learning experience rather than just a hindrance.
Over the last week or so I’ve been trying exactly what you’ve shared Fiona; appreciating what my body is telling me as a LEARNING rather than a hindrance.
Amusing blog Gabriele. Teeth are something that we take for granted, after all, what we do without them. It’s true our teeth reflect our past choices, my choice was not to wear my brace. My mother pointed out to my dentist that my teeth weren’t straight, something that I was blissfully unaware of, and I consequently had 4 perfectly healthy teeth taken out which left me with gaps. I have regretted that decision ever since, believing it was too late to wear a brace, I am very conscious of my teeth, but now I will grow to love them more and never take them for granted again!
Gabriele, you have brought to my attention to something that I can honestly say I hadn’t really thought much about before. I will now approach my mouth and teeth from a new perspective and with much more respect. Wonderful – thank you!
Our mouth, teeth and gums are a very sensitive and intimate part of us… I’ve just found a great dentist who is naturally gentle and very careful, it makes such a difference to feel her working in this way. I wonder if gums and teeth were not so ‘hidden away’ inside whether we’d have a different relationship with taking care of them and with visiting the dentist? And if so, why that would be?
I love your blog Gabriele. My teeth have been an area that for a long time has not been treated with as much care and awareness as the rest of my body. Last year I talked with a lovely dentist from Australia who inspired me to think of my teeth as precious diamonds and to take care of them accordingly.
What I took from this blog was that if you neglect any one part of your life, it has an impact on the whole of your life.
Yes, that is true – we can’t chop the body up into autonomous little bits and think they work in isolation. The body is actually the most amazing example of group work and collaboration.
Thank you Gabriele for a thought provoking blog and absolutely love the idea to viewing my body as an amazing example of group work – makes so much sense and inspires an ever deeper level of self care all round.
Thank you Gabriele, an excellent blog on teeth and dentists. When I was a child, I used to be taken to such a hard lady dentist – I remember her face very well – who would smack your face unless you sat absolutely still and quiet. So, I was obviously terrified of going to the dentist !
I’ve never gotten a filling, or had many problems with my teeth, but I can definitely relate to the intense anxiousness of going to the dentist. I always thought my ‘good teeth’ would be something temporary, i.e. that a time would come when I’d have to have fillings or teeth pulled out. I’ve began to realise that it isn’t just ‘chance’ that leads to good teeth, but our choices and the way we look after them. Thank you Gabriele for reminding me of this.
I used to absolutely loathe going to the dentist. I was terrified of facing up to my own choices in life because just as my body does not lie, neither do my teeth and gums. They tell the story of how I have been living up to the time of the visit. This has changed for me and now a visit to the dentist provides an opportunity for great healing on many different levels.
It is amazing to read these responses and feel the huge change and shift in peoples’ reactions and responses to going to the dentist. Through an understanding that we are the key, it no longer needs to be something to loathe or be terrified of, but as you say Elizabeth, it can become an opportunity for healing.
Goodness, my history with the dentist is huge. 8 fillings at the age of 4 followed by many more throughout my life. My brother had the same diet and not one filling in site. Then I created a habit of developing abscesses which meant hours of horror in the dentists chair. Then I needed Root Canal treatments, followed by crowns and extractions….and I’m only 46. Over the years I have tutored myself to become calm in the dentists chair and let the dentist do their job without all my panic and emotion getting in the way. It is after all an important part of caring for oneself, not the torture that I used to view it as. I managed to go through 4 wisdom teeth extractions without a wince, and my mouth healed quicker than the dentist had ever witnessed before. And then I chose to have all my mercury fillings removed and replaced with white ones. So yes I ‘chose’ to go through this and even celebrated it. My attitude to my visits to the dentist is certainly a great deal healthier than it used to be, and is a result of simply wanting to care for myself more and a desire to step out of all the usual drama associated with the dentist.
Gosh, like you Rebecca, I have a long history of fillings when young, abscesses galore, plenty of root canal treatments, crowns and even an implant which failed (my then English dental surgeon said he has only failed in 4 cases in 20 odd years of practice and I was one of them). He suggested that we try again. I refused thinking of all the pain (and the financial impact), the result being a big gap at the back of my mouth. I have also had 4 wisdom teeth extracted in my late thirties, 2 of them being impacted which means bits of bone being removed. I have had hours of horrible pain because of my teeth. My brother and I had also the same diet and he has the most wonderful teeth with hardly any fillings.
Rebecca, I will use that strength you deliver when I visit my dentist next time!
As a small child in the 50s we were taken to a dentist who was a family friend. he was very rough and I hated going. When I left home to live in London I found a great dentist and was amazed that visits didn’t have to be painful after all. Since then I have had regular dental checkups. Only in the last year of my mother’s life did I discover she never went to the dentist – because of her past experience with the then family dentist! She then had to deal with excruciating tooth ache. Taking care of your teeth is so important. Thankyou for your post Gabriel.
Thank you Gabrielle, I had a ten year period in my life where I avoided dentists at all costs and never went, then when I did go I got told I needed 8 fillings and it would cost over £800. The dentist wanted me to pay there, I asked for sometime to think about as it all felt very rushed I then visited another well known dentist to get a second opinion what he said was entirely different and told me I had no need for any fillings. My experience with the first dentist was cold, uncomfortable and felt all about the money where as with the second dentist I felt supported, safe and open. This was 5 years ago and I have been having regular check ups since. To this day I have still not had another filling. This was a great lesson to me to honour your feelings and get a second opinion if things do not feel right.
I love looking after my teeth now. I once didn’t and found it a chore that was a nuisance. It is obvious when we look at how we treat our teeth and thus honour ourselves that tooth problems come up in many people today. Its just disregard.
Gabrielle – your blog was very refreshing, until very recently I have considered cleaning teeth a boring and largely unnecessary activity that I liked to skip as much as I could! What changed in me was that I began to actually want to deeply take care of myself, and to attend to all these little details. The difference is amazing.
“What changed in me was that I began to actually want to deeply take care of myself, and to attend to all these little details. The difference is amazing” Thank you Meg when I hear this it inspires me to look at all the little details that I miss when I get caught in the ‘rush’ of life.
Thank you 🙂 I find when I give more attention to details and the little things, life gets so much more richer, and in myself, my feelings are much more deeply honoured. And when I stop paying attention to details life can almost become a blur, and it’s almost like I miss the small moments of magic.
Thank you for you sharing Gabriele.I was put off by the dentist when I was younger as he came across as being extremely judgmental there in his white coat with no real love or care taken – at least not that I could feel, so I then avoided dentists at all costs. I have been to a few who started to help build my trust back in them. I know from a naturopathic point of view that it is important our teeth and especially our gums are healthy, because if they are not it is a direct entry point into the body and so can greatly affect our immune system – essentially the gums as they are like our first line of defence for the body, so if they are not intact pathogens etc. have free reign to invade the body.
Thanks for writing this and bringing attention to these very important parts of our body that are so often neglected. This has prompted me to make an appointment to see my dentist today as I have just realised its something I have been putting off.
I can really get what you are saying here Gabriele. It’s like our teeth are there directly showing us the results of certain choices we make in self care. I have also found this very uncomfortable in the past and have at times avoided the dentist to avoid seeing the reality of how I have been living.
Much of the way that I cared for myself, or lack thereof at the time, changed after coming to Universal Medicine courses which have taught me how important it is to not be neglectful of my own health with regular check ups and paying attention to what my body tells me.
Well this is a timely reading for me – been ages since I visited a dentist and I get a feeling it’s time. Not because I suspect anything is wrong but there’s a level of self care I’m ready to step up to.
You better get cracking, Matts.
Absolutely go book that appointment and take the next step of self care : )
Feel like there’s no where to go but to the dentist… I see tooth related stuff all over the place! Would appreciate someone holding my hand though…
Done it Gabriele! Time booked!
Gabriele, such honesty to ‘chew’ over. Very enjoyable story.
Sometimes we don’t appreciate what we have until we are threatened with losing it – and teeth have certainly shown this to me – I was raised without any oral hygiene awareness offered – plenty of sugar was on offer – a mouthful of mercury fillings followed and it is only now, with the smoking and mercury factories removed from my mouth that I can feel a much more real connection to my teeth – they greet the world and they determine largely how well I will digest my food – I value them so much more these days – not to mention how much I have spent on keeping them in my mouth – they are worth gold!
Gabriele, I am left with a similar feeling after reading your article about my teeth as how I was left feeling after reading an article on breasts and that is that I don’t currently have much of a relationship with them !
Thanks Gabrielle. I can totally relate to the disregard you had for your teeth. Your blog has given me the thumbs up to not regard my teeth as a separate, and to date, tiresome part of my body!
Hi Gabrielle, When I was in my teens I was very scared of going to the dentist and it took me many years to go back again – not until I was in my 20’s. When I did I realised that I had made it worse than it really was and my teeth were worth looking after. Since then I have made sure I attend 6 month check ups and I actually enjoy going – never thought I would end up saying that!
I am with you Susan. I love having a scale and polish and feel the deep clean when it is done. It feels great.
When I was younger and if I was ‘good’ at the end of my appointment my dentist used to give me a lollipop!!
Thats hilarious!
Well, you could also say that it is crazy!
I got a toy 🙂
A lollipop is a very interesting choice of present… Doesn’t sugar increase the amount of plaque on your teeth 😉
Just a very well working returning-customer-policy…
Gabriele, what you have shared is a very valuable insight into the importance of caring for our teeth and gums. Our teeth and gums provide an instant snapshot of our choices – past and present. Prolonged exhaustion feeds high sugar and /or caffeine consumption, stress, reflux, medications that reduce saliva, inherited defects in the tooth enamel all contribute to an environment where decay and gum disease flourish. These diseases are not only painful and expensive but are symptoms of a body that is in overwhelm or even crisis. There is a long list of diseases that are linked with poor oral health including diabetes, cardiovascular disease and premature birth.
As a dentist with over 30 years clinical experience I have witnessed what you have described with patients going through great ordeals with their oral health.Many people have huge amounts of guilt about the state of their mouths and feel they are a failure with this aspect of themselves. This guilt often holds back patients from seeking help until there is a crisis with a swollen face or severe pain. By the time many triumph over the lethargy and giving-up that affects their self care, there is a lifelong legacy of repairing the damage.
The way you have transformed your relationship with your teeth and gums is truly remarkable and the rest of your body will be experiencing the benefits and thanking you for your care!
So interesting. Healing with teeth. There is a lot here to consider, thanks Gabriele.
it is amazing how many parts of our bodies we treat as an annoyance and something to be managed, rather than a living part of our own self care and development. Thanks Gabrielle to highlighting this so clearly.
Thank you Gabriele, you have made me consider how I care for my teeth and mouth.
Not as well as I could have I realized. This has given me a new level of self care that I had forgotten about. Very inspiring.
Great theme- that you have addressed. To deal with my teeth and everything that comes along with them, offers me an awareness that leads me to a deeper understanding of responsibility.
Wow Gabriele I can feel your appreciation for your teeth !
How beautiful you share with us that taking care of ourselves and our body also includes our teeth. I always walked in and out the dentist with the ‘all clear’ from the dentist. That made me take the health of my teeth for granted. In starting to take care of myself more I included my teeth and this feels great. I am considering braces now and I have witnessed with others the precision of cleaning is even more important then and part of self-care.
Awesome story about the aliens in your mouth Gabriele. To me, this relates to any aspect of our body that we neglect or don’t really want to deal with. Some things can feel like an obligation, an imposition on our life or a pure function that we have to do. Paying attention to these areas or tasks, seeing how they are connected to the bigger picture and using it as a way to nurture and love our bodies is very liberating and can be healing. I have found that in nurturing and loving all the little things I have become more nurturing and loving in my life.
Great point lee, I know there are definitely things that I almost resent having to do, but I find this is normally when I am doing them not for me but because i feel obliged, and when I do all these things for me because i feel to, or to look after myself it makes it more enjoyable.
Absolutely Lee; it could relate to any area of our body that we do not take care of.
Thank you Gabriele. Yes, teeth, they do reveal a lot. Just taking that extra little bit of time to floss and not rush through it just to get it done feels like true self care.
It’s interesting how we pick and choose what we decide we will look after or take responsibility for with our bodies. Learning to appreciate every part of our body and feel we are worth it is something I would have liked to have been doing years ago, but nothing until now has inspired this in me. Thanks to the teachings of Universal Medicine, I feel I am able to commit to the care I deserve.
I agree with your words Christine and these could especially relate to myself “learning to appreciate every part of our body and feel we are worth it” and I also am learning this more and more as each day comes towards me, giving me an another opportunity to feel where my focus on self care could need some deeper attention.
I agree Gabriele – as I get older I realise that my teeth have a great deal to tell me and have served me well – when I take notice of them. My teeth have generally not been too much of a problem during the middle years of my life but when I began the Esoteric Women’s Health Program in my mid sixties my teeth suddenly became quite a focus.
Firstly I had tooth ache and then a huge crack appeared that split my tooth in half. I have been a tooth grinder and my teeth were showing me that enough was enough. I had the tooth removed and then I chipped another tooth – this time I had a crown fitted, and since then my teeth have settled down again.
I am sure there is more to learn but in the meantime the grinding has lessened as I let go of my stubbornness – this is part of an ongoing process within my body. When I am open to what my body is telling me my life can become more simple and I can explore ways that will be more loving and self-caring.
Great blog Gabriele. Teeth do seem to be a rather neglected part of our anatomy when it comes to self-care. This is strange as they are pretty vital to our survival. As someone who never cared for sugary things when young, I arrived at my twenties, armed with a half decent set of gnashers and barely a filling in sight. The only problem was geometry. They bore more than a passing resemblance to a graveyard where several of the headstones had been pushed over. A dentist friend who was studying orthodontics took me on as a project for his Phd or something similar, and I spent several years during my early thirties bearing the brunt of all kinds of ‘jaws’ jokes. When my teeth were finally liberated from their steel perimeter fence, I had a smile worthy of an American TV chat show host! I’m glad to say that a few years down the line they have reverted to the more honest British look that I feel more comfortable with! Also, since then, I have had to get used to dealing with disappointed dentists who feel that my mouth doesn’t offer them enough of a challenge. Most recently, my French dentist became quite animated when she discovered during my annual check-up, that my British tea-stains could be pitted against her latest French cleaning gizmo, so she wasn’t completely redundant after all. Now I’m approaching the age where one becomes ‘long in the tooth’, i.e. the gums recede, like the tide going out, I’m having to accept that nature does have the last laugh. I now cosset my canines and take pleasure in flossing, brushing and using mouthwash for that squeaky-clean feeling, and count my blessings that at least that’s one part of the anatomy that’s bearing up pretty well.
Love your humour Jonathan! When’s your next blog?
I love your easy humour here Jonathan and can relate to it totally – “Now I’m approaching the age where one becomes ‘long in the tooth’, i.e. the gums recede, like the tide going out, I’m having to accept that nature does have the last laugh. I now cosset my canines and take pleasure in flossing, brushing……”
I agree Stephanie and Sue, so funny – great to read and wonderfully easy to relate to as there is no judgement. Thank you Jonathan, for sharing.
Oh Jonathan, what an enjoyable read, I love your sense. Thank you.
Thank you Gabriele for sharing the responsibility you have taken with caring for your teeth and what you have learnt from them. I always find going to the dentist I leave with a big reality check! I go for an appointment feeling apprehensive, not because of what may need doing but because I know I haven’t been looking after them. My teeth feel so highlighted right now after reading this and I can feel how disregarded and ignored they are. Very inspiring blog
Thanks Gabriele. I enjoyed reading your blog very much.I feel that teeth are a very important part of tha body that require special care, as they can affect the whole body if they are not healthy. I had lots of teeth out as a child as my jaw wasn’t big enough, and lots of orthodontic work to straighten the teeth out. I also had many fillings with Mercury. Lately I’ve had all the Mercury removed with white fillings in their place. I look after my teeth with twice yearly hygienist appointments and floss my teeth once or twice a day. It feels very natural to look after my teeth in this way.
There are few more obvious parts of the body that show whether we are looking after ourselves, or not, than our teeth. Maybe it is not the dentist or the ‘bad news’ we dread, but the fact that when we go to the dentist we are faced with the full reality of how well we have been looking after ourselves?
Very true Andrew, our teeth really do expose just how much care we give ourselves. Gabriele has certainly brought it home to us just how precious our little pieces of ivory truly are.
I agree Andrew and it is one of the parts of the body that we cannot cover up or fix easily, so it is really in our face (hehe).
Great observation Andrew! Maybe it is not so much about what treatment we might find we need but rather what will be exposed when we open our mouth.
Yes I guess we could say that reading teeth is like reading the book of self care!
Thank you Gabriele. Awesome blog which inspires me to take even more care of my teeth. In my early years I had a lot of problems with my teeth and got a lot of fillings. Some years ago I started to take more responsibility, decided to visit another dentist and increased my level of care of my teeth. However there is some more potential in it. Thank you for bringing my awareness to this important part of my body.
What a great way to view your teeth and gums Gabriele and your article just let me appreciate more deeply this aspect of looking after ourselves. I find that the attention to detail needed to work between each tooth everyday is a great way to spend time feeling what my teeth and gums have to tell me about the day I just had.
I love the way you have re-instated our teeth as fully fledged members of our bodies that deserve as much care and attention as do all other body parts. They too have they their story to tell of how we have lived and the choices we have made. I see them as a blessing because they are most likely the first form of defence against our disregard, showing us really quickly the effects of our lifestyle choices. I love my hygienist too!
Great comment, Coleen. Our teeth definitely do also have a story to tell if we are willing to take the time and pay attention. I can’t believe now that I ever overlooked them!
I love the wry humour in your toothy tale Gabriele. I never minded going to the dentist, but since I’ve been attending Universal Medicine presentations my relationship with my mouth and my teeth has gone to a whole new level. I have been fortunate to experience three really switched on dentists who understand the significance of all things oral, and bring their full commitment and presence when they practise. Through their interventions I have felt my dental experiences to be profoundly healing – something I would never have considered – and my mouth and teeth feel very different.
Our mouths are the entry point for so much that we ingest into our bodies. To bring our attention here and apply some real care feels foundational and fundamental. Thank you, Josephine and Gabriele.
That is a great point Matilda about our mouths being an entry point, makes so much sense that if we were to take care off and pay attention to this area we would be naturally more discerning of what was to pass by there with words and food!
Josephine, your comment makes me reflect on the fact that different dentists have different energies and these energies can be very invasive. No wonder why I have never liked going to the dentist, not only it is usually painful but also you have to put up with whatever energy the dentist is in on that day. I remember going to a French dentist a few years ago and she and her assistant obviously just had an argument and the atmosphere was very heavy in the room and the instruments were flying over my head with the energy of frustration !
Good point Maryline, and something to be considered deeply in our choice of dentists or anyone in fact that has close physical contact in a professional capacity. And in dentistry particularly you are pinned in a chair with your mouth open, so it can feel very invasive. I can vouch for that fact that if someone is practising with great integrity it makes an enormous difference, as of course to be expected.
Thank you Gabriele, when you write about flossing as part of taking care of yourself, something you do for you, it cracks through the idea of it being a tiresome chore.
A great blog. Caring for our teeth in the same way we care for our bodies is wonderful to do. Over the last 20 years, I spent considerable time looking for dentists who were not only conscious of what they used in my mouth and if this was safe for their patients (heavy metals like amalgams being an example), but also dentists that would take gentle care when working with people. I have known a few amazing ones who made such a difference to me with the work I had done and in how I felt about dentists and the service they offer.
Great insights Gabriele, thank you. Just reading your blog had me reflect on how I care for and feel about my own teeth. I love how they feel when they are clean and flossed (something, like you I once did now and again). I remember as a small child seeing my Nan take out her dentures (she had no teeth at all!) and put them in a glass at night, and I was so horrified by it. And so my dental care was always fuelled by the fear of that memory, of losing my own teeth. However now, I can feel my teeth cleaning and caring rituals are no longer from a fear of losing my teeth, but from a love of myself and loving how they feel and how I feel when I lovingly care for them. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.
What an inspiring blog Gabriele, thank you for sharing with such love and appreciation of your self care. How often are teeth forgotten, always left to last when it comes to maintenance or repair not to mention preventative care. And I, like so many people, had a fear of dentists that stemmed from early childhood, so my teeth were neglected for the majority of my life. It wasn’t until I was 48 that I too was inspired by the teachings of Serge Benhayon & Universal Medicine to take responsibility for the loving care of my “whole body”. So no longer do I neglect my teeth and no longer do I have a fear of visiting the Dentist, as I too have found a Dentist and Hygienist at the one practice that so lovingly and professionally attend to all my dental requirements.
Yes me too Kirsten – since connecting with Universal Medicine I have slowly started to re-connect to my ‘whole body’ and have been discovering parts of my body that I have just allowed to be or been a bit annoyed about and have neglected. It feels like I am slowly integrating them back into my body if that makes sense! It was like they were always there but I had no relationship with them so they were separate. But as I start to take more care of my teeth (or any body part) I can feel them much more part of the whole.
“It was like they were always there but I had no relationship with them so they were separate.” how true Sarah. It’s funny isn’t how we neglect certain parts of our body if not all of it and … then believe it will have no long lasting affect on us. Ouch! Eventually the absence of self love, self care & self nurturing gets exposed and then we are face to face with a clear choice. Continue on the same way or start taking responsibility for loving ourselves from the inside out.
A lovely account Gabriele, an inspiring tooth tale. It is true, our acts of self care are very nurturing for the whole being.
Thanks for this blog Gabriele. I have been putting off going to the dentist for a long overdue checkup. It is so easy to not see our teeth as part of our bodies that also need constant attention but of course it is a part of our body and so deserves to be loved and cared for like any other part of us. So thank you for inspiring me to get out of my comfort and fear and to get that checkup.
Great wake up on the return to the path – dammit! Teeth need as much love as the rest of the body: Ironically my mother would allow kids ‘lolly night’ on Friday night and then we would brush our teeth like it was the last thing on earth we ever wanted to do. Bizzare that my approach to my teeth has remained a bit lazy ever since. Great reminder to overcome this cavity of care!
So true Gabriele, the power is in the detail and the quality with which I attend to self-care routines like flossing, I too have experienced a big turn around with flossing!! It only took me me forty years and realising how my teeth are more than just things I need to function.
Great blog Gabriele. I so relate to all you have shared.
Lovely reflection Gabriele. Just this week had a visit to the dentist for a clean and a check up. It felt great, like having my car serviced. 😉
I love the simplicity of this blog, Gabriele. For me it speaks volumes about being attentive to the details, after we make the initial commitment to take more care with ourselves. Such as flossing your teeth everyday after coming to a deeper understanding of your relationship with your teeth. To me this is an important detail and I am inspired that someone, other than a dentist, flosses everyday. Very cool!
Top blog Gabriele and thanks for sharing this. I love the bit where you say –
“I just didn’t get teeth, this part of our body that does not regenerate. It felt like my teeth were aliens in my body and didn’t behave how they should, but ran their own agenda.”
I am blessed and I am lucky, whichever way you look at it, as I have not had a filling or dental work done for 45 years. However I used to have bleeding gums and this has changed after I applied the teachings of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine. They did not tell me to floss or how to brush my teeth. What I learned was to not dis-regard and neglect my body but to take care of it and pay attention to things like resting, sleeping and what foods I eat. Is it any wonder that my health has improved and that includes my gums.
An important subject to put ‘out there’ Gabriele. My mother’s generation had so many teeth extractions and ‘false teeth’ that the subject was somewhat ‘taboo’.
How wonderful the insight, that our teeth and gums can be our ‘teachers’.
For me too the tooth ritual came to a whole other level in the last year. Inspired also by my dentist who gently reminds me how to brush and every time I go home with more awareness on how to treat my teeth.
Thank you Gabriele, another great reminder that self-care is essential, and how a whole lifetime of disregard can be turned around. And inspiring as well, as so many people have that ‘inevitable’ feeling about so many aspects of their life, that it is ‘just the way it is.”
But it is not, and we do have choice, and that choice can be a powerful agent of re-calibration and change.
Okay, I need to start regular flossing…thanks for the inspiration.. I seem to rebel when a dentist gives me the ‘why you should floss’ talk, but coming from you Gabriele in this format has just shown me my avoidance. Great blog.
Thank you for shining light on teeth! Yes I also often tend to look at my teeth as separate to my body and as an inconvenience….especially as each visit to the dentist costs so much. But yes I am responsible for their health as much as I am the rest of my body, and they show me how I have been living.
I so relate to what you have shared Gabriele. I always looked at going to the dentist an an expense and one that was negotiable. When I too began attending courses offered by Universal Medicine, I began to consider how I was caring for myself and realised that I had been totally neglecting the care of my teeth. How I approach my teeth has been totally transformed with regular visits to the dentist and my own very caring and dedicated approach to how I attend to my teeth. The best thing about this is that I love doing it and feel very supported by this care and attention I give to myself.
Beautiful Gabriele, what a lovely sharing about one’s teeth and one’s body. I too have found connecting to my teeth and taking loving care of them has made such a difference and also appreciating the visits to the dentist, my teeth and my self care. It really does make an amazing difference to everything.
Thank you Gabriele. Universal Medicine inspired me to go to the dentist, having not been for 12 years having had a great fear of dentists and quite a few bad experiences. It is now part of my self care, I have a very caring gentle dentist who I’m not afraid to go and see. Your article has deepened my understanding of how my teeth are communicating with me.
Thank you for your blog, – which is an inspiration about how self-loving choices make a difference. Deeply so.
Awesome, I too have always hated going to the dentist and from a young age brushing my teeth has been a massive struggle because my teeth are so sensitive that it’s very uncomfortable brushing them. However recently I have started to take more care of myself and the way I brush my teeth and have found my teeth are no longer sensitive and there is no problem brushing or flossing my teeth, and my gums no longer bleed. It is amazing the changes that can occur when we make the choice to be more loving in the way we do even mundane everyday things.
How self care can have positive influence in every area of our life, including the teeth. Thanks Gabriele.
“Teeth are a reflection of my past choices, all of them” – no wonder that I am not such an enthusiastic teeth-carer… facing my past choices can be a challenge and in my past I really tried to avoid this. No wonder that the teeth becoming alien-like, as I am choosing to be disconnected from them (& so from my choices)… So to approximate an active and responsible relationship with my choices I can support that with taking care of my teeth. A lovely simple tool. And my brilliant smile is the bonus. Thank you Gabriele for supporting your care & smiles.
In the past I had a very bad experience whilst going through a root canal and it took me years to go back and actually sit in the dentist chair without shaking. So I did some research and found myself an all female dentistry practice and I explained up front how fearful I had become and why and over several months, at my own pace I regained my confidence. I feel that things started to change because I took the time to speak up about my fears and from the start they were very gentle with me.
Indeed, dental health is so important to our well-being. Thank you Gabriele for writing this.
Yes Gabriele. Like yourself and many, I have developed a relationship of care of my teeth and mine too came about from knowing Serge Benhayon. I never cared about my teeth, only brushed them because I liked the fresh taste in my mouth. I have over a number of years, whilst reluctantly at first, begun flossing and interdental brush use daily. I love taking care of myself in this manner now, never miss it, no matter how tired I may be and the state of my gums is vastly improved. Now with this, I am able to discern which foods can affect the state of my mouth health e.g. sugar, I can instantly feel how it coats the teeth.
For me it shows me how I am doing…. when I’m relaxed and give myself some space it feels delicious (for me) to do the whole routine; tooth peg, floss and mouthwash included. Or the alternative that I am either too tired or rushed and it gets a quick once over which I know from many visits does not do the job. For years now I’ve found it to be a little marker in my day that comes along every morning and evening and I very much appreciate that.
My relationship with my teeth has always been fairly positive. As a child my dentist was a family friend so I would always look forward to visiting him which would be at regular 6 monthly intervals, and since he worked on Harley Street in London I would always love that London vibe, especially driving around Regent’s Park and up Baker Street to get there. That said as an adult now I am much more willing and open to listening to what my teeth and gums are telling me. Only the other day as I was showering and flossing I found it harder to access the upper left side of my teeth – a definite message there about a hardening or a denial over a choice I had made.
Thanks Gabriele, you have brought a new level of understanding to this whole area, and inspired me to start flossing and generally bring more care and responsibility to my teeth and oral health.
I found your line, “And I got to understand that teeth are a reflection of my past choices, all of them.” fascinating. There is no hiding from what we have lived and how this manifests in our bodies even through our teeth.
Thank you for writing about teeth Gabriele, I have always been anxious going to the dentist which stemmed form my childhood experiences. I have learnt that finding a dentist that is understanding of how I feel has helped me overcome this and I am able to keep up my routine check ups, which I know are an important part of my overall health checks, but your blog has reminded me of my day to day responsibility for looking after my teeth that can be sometimes over look if I am tired or busy.
I have really enjoyed reading this article and the comments and it has made me take a look at the way I care for my teeth, gums and my mouth. Every time I speak or sing the breath comes through my mouth and around my teeth and gums so my expression is affected by the way I care for my teeth. I have a renewed respect and responsibility for my teeth and gums. Thank you Gabriele.
I felt the same way about my teeth Gabriele until a few years ago. I had bleeding gums and for a while Iaccepted this before it clicked that there was a problem I needed to address. I was introduced to two beauriful dentists. The first a South African was so gentle both in word and way of working that I would sit in the dentist chair and before I knew it the treatment was completed. The second, my current dentist, from Iran, taught me that tooth care demanded me to be there, consistent and attentive. I resisted this at first, but he was persistent and genuinely cared. He is now my friend. My teeth are also my friends. I give them daily care and attention, no longer a chore but a sign of me loving me. Through Universal Medicine I learned how to listen to the body’s messages. I no longer have bleeding gums.
What a great blog Gabriele – such an awareness you have re-kindled within me and I will also appreciate more the reflection of what my teeth are telling me and take the responsibile steps of stepping up the self-care.
Gabriele I can relate to what you have shared and always found teeth maintainence a little tiresome. I was always wanting it to be over as quick as possible. On reading your experience I can see I still hold a little bit of ‘get it done quick’ which in light of what you have revealed, related to my attitude to caring for myself. Time to up the care, and enjoy taking the precious 3 minutes of tooth care to another level that involves no rush!
What a great moment of reflection. Tooth brushing definitely used to be a chore to be executed as swiftly and perfunctorily as possible…definitely a box ticking exercise and I too was beginning on the slippery slope of apparently inevitable dental decline. Inspired by the teachings of Universal Medicine, my dental routine is now attentive, caring and a space in every day that I can reflect on my willingness to take responsibility for, and care of, myself and my health. A brilliant article showing us the power of detail and being honest with ourselves. Thank you, Gabriele.
Wunderbare Gabriele, thank you for sharing your stories about your tooth. It has reminded me that when I was young that I had also a lot of tooth problems and so I started to not like dentists at all. What is good for me to read is that you take your responsibility for your teeth by flossing – my dentist always tell me to floss my teeth – now I will do this. Your blog inspires me to do so . . .
Great blog Gabriele. Teeth are so easy to think of as something not actually involved in health and well-being. Since attending presentations with Serge Benhayon, I have realised teeth are a reflection of our choices. My oral care is very much part of an enjoyable daily rhythm these days and regular checks with the dentist continue to confirm that their loving care coupled with my daily choices has brought profound differences to my teeth and gum health.
On reading your article Gabriele, particularly the part where you say our teeth “are alive and communicating” I felt an intimacy with my teeth that I’ve never been aware of before. They are a remarkable part of our body with eating, digestion, speech, facial expression and emotions. For all that they do, they so deserve appreciation and loving care.
Great Kathy, what would I do without my teeth? I certainly wouldn’t look the same, my diet would have to change radically, and speech would change too. Even false teeth would bring changes, and my daily routine would have to be adapted to look after them. This blog has reminded me that although I visit my lovely dentist regularly, my flossing habit is a bit slapdash. Memo to self – more floss!
What a gorgeous blog Gabriele. Caring for my teeth has been taken a whole new level since I started to self-care and make more loving choices. And that includes going to the dentist, having found a dentist that I’ll drive all the way to Brisbane to see from where I live, because of the huge care and attentiveness I have experienced from this dentist. Caring for every part of my body and life, no more no less, is the key here — it’s an amazing thing to commit to.
Wow what a beautiful blog Gabriele! I used to work in a dental practice and when someone opens their mouth for an examination you can tell instantly how well they look after themselves in general and how well they look after their teeth and gums. It is an instant reflection of it and no amount of excuses can bypass what you can see with the eye.
That simple change you made – to floss your teeth daily – is such a great commitment to self-care and self-love. And the bonus is your gums love it, so do your teeth and so do you.
Yes, I can imagine Alison that it is interesting sitting in the dentist’s chair, as must be obvious how the patient has been living and looking after themselves – no excuses or hiding as you say!
Great article Gabriele, I now love going to the dentist previously having dreaded it. I too can now fully appreciate what the learning is when a tooth needs work; whether it be noting past choices or realising present rhythms need adjusting. It now feels like my dentist and I are working together rather than me rocking up to get something fixed.
“Teeth are a reflection of my past choices, all of them” – this introduces another level of depth to my recently renewed relationship with my teeth/dentist. Last year, following a not great experience at a dentist, I rang up many dentists trying to find someone who could take over the badly done job. I have always gone to a dentist whenever a filling would come off, but only to have it quickly fixed. I thought I was taking good enough care of my teeth in general, and didn’t see much point in having regular visits when there was no obvious problem. However, as I was talking to various dentists, I started to feel differently: I am not getting any younger, and my teeth are a part of myself too and deserve to have a proper check-up just like the other parts of my body, not just this once, but for the rest of my life. And to do that, I actually needed to find someone local who I could build a relationship with, and not someone who might be brilliant, but I needed to get on a plane to visit. I found someone who is absolute gold only 5 min walk away, and it’s taken 8 months to complete whatever needed to be done, and I enjoyed every single visit during this gentle, gradual process. The last appointment is this Saturday. So it was just to so perfect to read your sharing, Gabriele. It came as a confirmation and inspiration. Thank you.
I love how you’ve brought in the aspect of building a relationship with a someone, this feels hugely important, and perhaps the change between receiving service we perhaps feel is under par, and the service we would love to receive.
I can really relate to this blog. Enduring years of painful teeth and visits to the dentist. I have found that the last few years that my relationship with my teeth and my care for them and appreciation has changed.
As I am caring for myself in a much greater way, my teeth have responded. They are now a barometer of my self care which I can learn from.
Gabriele, thanks for bringing this subject to light. The awkwardness of laying on a dentist chair with your mouth locked open is confronting. We expose ourselves and it is quite personal to reveal our past choices to someone. Catching a decay early is better than having it cause pain when you leave it, so the reflection here is to address our personal issues/problem before it grows into something unmanageable and overwhelming and in need of a bigger more painful correction.
Matthew, I hadn’t really stopped to consider this before – that when we are on a dental chair – mouth wide open and unable to talk (often despite being asked questions!) – we are in a vulnerable position and exposing our choices…. But as you say, what an awesome opportunity to get support for our choices to put us back on track if needed, or better still, what an equally awesome opportunity to confirm our choices…. as in when a visit to the dentist simply becomes part of a self-care routine and confirms that we ‘have’ been looking after our teeth and our general health. Either way, it’s great to have this presented as a part of self-care.
This blog and this comment makes a lot of sense! I had never considered my teeth in this way before. While I know all the medical professions educate on prevention over cure Dentistry to me is an obvious, daily prevention we are taught very early on to practise. Our bodies show us the results of our choices – do our teeth then show us how we prevent decay (in our choices about our body, lives, relationships etc) or do we let things slide without daily care and attention?
Great blog Gabriele. Reading this is like sweet music to my teeth’s ears, which are after reading this, very much part of my body. Thank you.
Gabriele I love how you describe the teeth, the feelings that so many have about them and visits to the dentists! As I was reading I got to feel that cleaning my teeth (now that I wear braces) and feeling them all nice and clear after flossing and then rinsing with mouthwash feels so good, and that I cannot possibly not do this ritual anymore (when the braces comes off), i.e. of just brushing without including the two second steps. And in this could absolutely feel what you share about teeth relating to choices towards self-care. Practicing dental care is self-regarding and equally indicative of levels of self-responsibility.What a revealing post Gabriele!
” Practising dental care is self-regarding and equally indicative of levels of self-responsibility.” Love this as a response to Gabriele’s great post. Thanks to you both.
Yep – I love the extra details now in cleaning my teeth now too! A big shift from the dreaded obliged feeling of ‘having’ to clean my teeth!
Gabriele, what a great topic, I’ve also had a mixed relationship with my teeth and often been annoyed at how they are and how my gums are, but as you say it’s about the level of care we take, and teeth show immediately when we don’t care. So if I’ve been slack in my flossing for instance the next time I do it they bleed, no time delay of a few years, an immediate response, a reminder to take care. And yet even with that we often ignore them, and we wouldn’t ignore bleeding in other parts of our body which is strange when you consider it – we wouldn’t walk around with a bleeding leg without addressing it, yet we often do with our gums.
Awesome comment Monica. I agree, we wouldn’t ignore bleeding on other parts of the body. Perhaps it is easier to ignore bleeding gums because it is inside our mouth and we know nobody else will see it. I feel this speaks volumes about the level of self care we have for our body. I know in the past I have cared more for my outer appearance than what has been going on internally. For example I would eat chocolate everyday and put up with feeling the highs and lows, the inner ear itching, the mucous feeling in my throat as long as I didn’t get pimples. This way of eating did not last though as the body is amazing and gifted me with 5 bouts of tonsillitis in 1 year as a stop. I eventually got to understand that how we treat our body internally affects everything…our thoughts, wellness, vitality. The Esoteric Medicine presentations by Serge Benhayon supported me to understand the body on a much deeper level and this naturally inspired me to bring a deeper level of self care to my body.
What a great way to put it Monica. What you say makes so much sense and shows how much we can ignore things until they get to a critical point. That’s the beauty of Gabriele’s blog, where she is saying that being responsible and taking care of our health before we become critically ill is the key to healthy living.
I love what both of you share Shevon and Bianca, that it’s about our bodies gifting us with signs until eventually we do take notice or reach that critical point, and how we treat our bodies anywhere affects everything. And it’s not just physical, it’s energetic too, that sets the course, and our actions compound it. Nothing comes from nowhere, it’s the little things over time that allow the atmosphere within which we make our choices, until we step back and see where we are, and for many of us that stepping back comes because of a reflection of something different, which is what I experienced attending Universal Medicine workshops – another way to be.
It’s funny reading this because just the other day when my nephews where trying to get out of cleaning their teeth I sat down and told them how important they are; and that even though they might feel like its an ‘effort’ to clean them when they are older they will appreciate that they looked after them. And flossing, I only realised how important this was a couple of years ago and as you say it is a reflection of taking care of yourself and well worth doing …. I told them about flossing too, now just need to get them some floss as a present : )
Jane, when reading this I could feel the love and care that you give to your teeth and mouth. I have never thought to care for my teeth in this way. I do brush gently and attend the dentist but it has been more of a chore. You have inspired me to lovingly care for my teeth and mouth like I do the rest of my body. I sort of forgot about my teeth.
In the past beside the obligatory brush morning and night (flossing made me gag), I threw anything at my teeth as long as it tasted good.
Being told two years ago that I would need 6 monthly checkups and cleans to keep a close watch on my teeth as my gums were receding, I have gone from $160 per visit to $56 as there is less to do as I recognise that loving me means just that, loving ALL of me. (I also discovered those great little brushes which I use in stead of floss!)
Yes I still have the disease but it has stagnated. Could a contributing factor be the reduction of my sugar intake due to feeling the affect it has on my body?
I have discovered that the more attention I pay to my relationship with myself, making self-loving choices a natural part of my day, every inch of my body benefits.
A great topic to discuss Gabriele, taking responsibility of our teeth is only taught to us basically in our youth and imagine how beneficial it would be if we were taught this level of wisdom about our teeth when we were young. I know I will be supporting my grandchildren with this one day.
Nothing in our bodies is alien only our thoughts about it.
Gabriele, I so relate to your words ‘And I got to understand that teeth are a reflection of my past choices, all of them.’ I used to blame my genes for the fact that my teeth easily decayed but now see the long term relationship between the loving care I give myself and the state of my dental health. For me it’s been a huge lesson in taking responsibility for the choices I have made so that future choices are supportive of all of me.
Gabriele I have had quite a lot of visits to the Dentist as I have aged but haven’t looked at them in the way you have. This is enlightening to me and of course everything to do with health comes back to self responsibility so there is no getting out of the fact that the state of my teeth is due to the way I have lived my life all these years. Thank You.
Awesome Gabriele, I love how you have developed a new relationship with your teeth through taking the time to self-care. It’s amazing how often we can neglect such an amazing part of our body that does so much! Thankyou for highlighting the importance of developing a relationship with all aspects of ourselves.
Hello Gabriele. From a young age I was forced to the dentist and this created many painful and bad memories. But now as you say I see it as a part of the overall care I have for myself. I use it as a check in as well as a check up to see where things are at for me. I love the dentist now and love the feeling of having my teeth cleaned. It is amazing when you choose to not ignore something and you bring more awareness to it how it changes and transforms. Thank you Gabriele.
Great blog Gabrielle. I too have not really appreciated my teeth and the worst thing for me was getting them cleaned as it was so painful. The last few times I had them cleaned astounded me, as it no longer hurt and was not the torturous exercise that it had been in the past. My knuckles no longer went white clutching the arms of the chair! And what’s changed? My diet. Engaging with Universal Medicine supported me to take out all the sugar I was guzzling out of my diet and hey presto – no pain at the dentists. Miracle! Thank you for reminding me just how much my relationship with my teeth has changed.
What an enlightening way of looking at self-care and what a fabulous change of attitude.
Awesome Gabriele Conrad- thank you for sharing, what a different relationship we can have with our teeth. “I learnt about taking responsibility rather than taking my health for granted and considering myself mainly indestructible (except for my teeth, that is). And I got to understand that teeth are a reflection of my past choices, all of them.” Wow. It is incredible how we can choose to either have a self-responsible relationship with our health or not.
What you say is so true Gabriele. A couple of my visits to the dentist over the last 8 years left me shocked at the amount of work that was needed. I had neglected getting regular check ups and was in the arrogance of thinking I lived a healthy lifestyle and so my teeth must be healthy too. But as I too discovered through the work of Universal Medicine… Teeth don’t lie and my seemingly or so called healthy lifestyle was actually full of hidden disregard. Much has since changed in how I live and my teeth are consistently healthier than they’ve been in decades.
Same here Robert. I’d always had a great arrogance about my teeth because they have always been really great. It’s my gums that caught me out and have now lead me to go deeper with my understanding of what I’m being shown.
Thank you for sharing your experience. I feel like your experience is very much like mine in that I had to find true responsibility rather than ignoring the signs or leaving my teeth out of the equation.
I have 3 children all with very different teeth & dental issues – essentially they have similar genetics & eat a similar diet, so I found it difficult to understand why there was such variation.Thank you for sharing this, Gabriele. It makes such sense that teeth are a reflection of our past choices.
What a great mini-case study Carmin! And interesting proposition that maybe there’s more too it than genes and diets.
I think it’s amazing how once we surrender to the fact that our bodies are showing us something that perhaps we have been avoiding for a long time…it’s then possible for it to start to heal. Pretty cool.
What a change in attitude about appreciating and caring for your teeth. I have to say I never thought of my teeth as aliens but reading this article I realise I did think of them as separate to the rest of my body, the regular visits to the dentist and the continuous maintenance in looking after them and yet I never felt that way about caring for the rest of my body. This is a wake-up call for me to also appreciate and care for my teeth, after all they are a part of me.
I, too, share a very real sensitivity around my teeth and I am now wondering about the depth of that. Symbolically, when someone looks in my mouth they are looking into the depths of me and I choose when I will allow this to happen. It is the ‘something’ I can choose to put off and hope that my choice is one that I will not live to regret. Thanks Gabriele for bringing attention to this and the value of truly being open to self and others, and not being afraid to let others in.
I can relate to the not flossing Gabriele…
My first visit to the dentist was at age 30 and I had never really flossed as I had never had any tooth issues. But in recent years this has changed & I have started to floss which feels important as part of my self-care…its still a work in progress as I do not floss daily like my dentist would like me too, but has become a part of my weekly rhythm. And I agree Gabriele, that teeth are a reflection of our past choices…it’s so awesome how the body can communicate with us in so many ways.
Thanks for sharing Gabriele, Teeth have been a mystery to me but now are starting to have more awareness of them. they are indeed great indicators of whats happening in our body.
Do you know, I can say that I haven’t appreciated my teeth as a part of my whole body and what it is that they represent, reflect and teach me all the time .. Thank you for this, it’s certainly an area of my daily life that I want to bring even more of my attention, love and care to.
Well said Gabriele, I can very much relate to your experience of your teeth. I now look forward to my dental visits, as it’s always interesting to have a confirmation of where my health is at. And, having a dentist who is so gentle is an amazing gift.
I agree with you Gabriele, learning to love and care for our teeth and look on visits to the dentist as a support to understanding how we live our lives, with how much self care and nurturing, is a long way from the dread and reluctance to have them attended to that many people feel. This is very refreshing and an inspiration for everyone, as the change of attitude very naturally brings about an unexpected healing, not necessarily about the reconstitution of teeth, (although I have heard of that happening), but a general health about the mouth and in the whole of our bodies. and we feel much more appreciative of ourselves too! The mouth really does reflect the health of our bodies.
Thank you for sharing Gabrielle. I have had issues with my teeth since I was young and never really liked them or their crookedness. As a woman, I know I have many parts of my body that I have disliked or not wanted to be aware of.
This has all changed for me, bit by bit and the more that I take time for me, and with the inspiration of Universal Medicine presentations, and Esoteric Women’s Health, I am starting to love and appreciate every part of me.
As a dentist I love this blog, it shows that when you understand you body and its functions and appreciate and care for it it pays. Caring for you and caring for your teeth go hand in hand. But what I sense here is that you were offered a deeper insight to the subtle messages that our body sends us and you responded with a new level of care. Also a dentist that affords you care and respect and educates you about your mouth without it being a telling off certainly helps.
Thanks Rachel, that’s so true. The way the dentist supports you to take responsibility for looking after your teeth rather than giving you a telling off is important, and can turn negative past experiences into a positive approach to self care.
Gabriele I had a big smile while reading your blog. This so exactly describes the state of my teeth it is uncanny. “The perpetual catch-up and “what’s the bad news?”” is still on going for me but I fully accept that the state of my teeth is a reflection of the way I lived. I do take more time and loving care of my teeth nowadays as I see them as wholesome part of me and a great teaching tool.
Music to a dentists ears Gabriele.
Interestingly I too was a “half hearted” flosser until I can to Universal Medicine – in spite of many years in this profession, and intimate knowledge of the consequences of such inaction.
My teeth are now a part of my body, not alien troublesome things that happen to populate my mouth. And I love taking care of them.
Thank you for writing this blog. It has tremendous power coming from a non-dentist.
Gabriele I love your sharing on your relationship of visiting the dentist and caring for your teeth which has led me to reflect on my own, particularly given that it has been a while between dentist visits for me. Through reading your blog I am realising that to truly self-care, it is important to consider the whole of our body and how easy it is to look after those parts that we want to look after or are aware of, but how other areas (such as teeth for me) can easily be missed! What is this showing us? And how often we may not pay attention to a certain area of the body until it gives us problems.
Our teeth are like mirrors of our life choices, I would certainly agree with that. If we want an area of our body to show up how we have been living then the teeth certainly can do that. I have also found that flossing is something I have developed into my daily routine, and am growing to appreciate the care I am taking for myself in taking care of my teeth and gums.
Thank you Gabriele. I am long overdue for a trip to the dentist and your blog has helped me see why I have been putting it off. I’m even inspired to start flossing!
You are certainly not the only one Leonne! And for me too – I realise that although I may brush my teeth for 2 minutes twice a day, flossing is something I have never done, even though it is a super important element of looking after my teeth.
I used to get so anxious going to the dentist, lying back in the dentist chair would be one of the things I like least to do. Now, with the support of an amazing dentist, it is an opportunity to get feedback on what is going on for my whole body not just my teeth.
I love this Gabriele. Most people do not enjoy going to the dentist nor do they enjoy taking care of their teeth much. I can say that was true for me. I had a lot of teeth removed as a child due to over crowding and then braces so spent much of my youth at dentists or orthodontists. I was always being told how much care I had to take of my teeth due to the amount of money that had been spent on the. I resented this so really just did a perfunctory clean because that is supposed to be what you do. I avoided dentists unless I absolutely had to which fortunately as an adult was rarely. Since meeting Serge Benhayon and beginning to truly look after myself my feelings around dentists and my oral care have changed. I too have found a great and caring dentist and now make oral care a part of my daily routine of caring for myself. Now going to the dentist is not only a regular occurrence, I actually enjoy it.
Awesome blog Gabriele, thank you. In the past, I too flossed as an “obligatory half-hearted manoeuvre” but I am finding the more self-love and deep care I bring to my body the more I enjoy making flossing part of my daily rhythm. Building self-love has taken the “it’s a chore” attitude out of looking after my teeth.
I loved that line too Bianca – it described exactly my own previous half-baked, begrudging approach to flossing. But when you think about it, ‘flossing’ is actually such a fun, light word. We could all enjoy ‘flossing about’ a bit!
Your teeth are a reflection of your choices, love it. For a long time I couldn’t care less about my teeth and the visit to the dentist was just something I had to do. Nowadays I actually see my teeth as part of me and I love taking extra good care of them, going to the dentist, and I also have them cleaned twice a year. This feels like a big present to myself and my teeth and gums…? They love it too!
I am inspired to go to the dentist with a much greater understanding of what is on offer!
Marietta this is so inspiring. I love it, a gift for my teeth! It sure does feel amazing when I get my teeth cleaned at the dentist. It’s been about 6 months since I last went, hooray, time to book again!
Thank you Gabriele for this sharing.
It seems that as you change how you see things, ie that your teeth and the dentist can support you rather than being an unplesant and foreign experience, that you are shown more and more how clearly our body speaks to us.
And that taking our heads out of the sand isn’t so bad, it actually supports us.
I recognised myself in much of this sharing Gabriele and it also took me to another level of appreciation for the reflection that my teeth are in relation to my way of living! It made me smile too and I will be more present with my teeth from now on. Thank you!
I agree, Gabriele, our teeth are a great of our body to be connected to, as they show up so much about how we are and have been living. Until I was willing to take responsibility more for my choices, I kind of ignored my teeth other than the regular check ups. I’ve recently had all my amalgams removed which forced me to look at how much disregard I was in earlier in my life and how much sugar I used to eat! I asked the dentist if I could look at my teeth without the fillings before they were replaced, and it was shocking to see the big holes everywhere. So in the end, I had to accept my past choices. And now I floss every day without fail, I take care brushing to look after my gums, and it actually feels joyful to have this much more healthy relationship with my teeth.
I have never consciously looked at my teeth in that way but so true! I did a connective tissue exercise class last month and was told the connective tissue went around everything – even teeth – it made so much sense. We are fully alive, not just in bits and pieces and it is all a reflection of our vitality or lack of. Just like our hair, it may seem dead but it communicates just like our teeth. Thank you for the reminder that as we look after our inside selves and bring self care to be part of our lives our outside appearance changes to reflect that. I know it is obvious but I think it was parked in the too hard basket till I was reminded of it at the Universal Medicine workshops – now I have been reminded it is a more conscious choice.
Gabriele what a great way to look at teeth and your self care program. I’ve not minded going to the dentist but never been able to commit to flossing – seeing this as a waste of my time. Through what you’ve shared I feel a deeper understanding of how taking care of my teeth is helping take care of me and my commitment to myself. I will certainly be exploring my teeth in greater detail and attention now.
I love this blog Gabrielle. It makes a lot of sense to me, that your teeth reflect back your past choices. I myself noticed since I have had a proper clean at the dentist how gorgeously white my teeth are. I realised this morning that it is not just the cleaning from the dentist I see, I also see that I am more lovingly, with care and attention brushing my teeth these days. I can actually see that I cherish my teeth in the way the look! I love how you said that your teeth feel now alive – that is exactly that!
Gabriele – I love this reflection on teeth and can really relate to your comments. I am in the process of deciding whether I will have a root canal treatment or get my tooth pulled out, as I have recently had very bad toothache. I have had to really lovingly feel into this decision and to not look at it solely as a financial decision, which I had done initially. I am also feeling how I will be when I have this treatment – what do I need to do to support myself during the procedure such as the music I will take – how I look after myself before and afterwards. I am understanding that my past choices are released through my teeth and that my toothache is a gift, not a burden, and that with more love in my body now, the deeper the clearing through my body of past choices I have made.
Thank you Gabriele, I had never looked at teeth the way you described but it is true they do not grow back or heal themselves. Now by writing this I can say that they actually ask us to look after them (and our whole body) consistently and with great care. And if we don’t it shows and it leaves an imprint. So they basically show us that everything we do or don’t do has an impact.
Thank you Gabriele. I found that my teeth were an area I took for granted and as always being there until some years ago my dentist raised concerns about gum disease. I could not see it or feel it so it was easy to ignore for a while but after a year or so I decided to take responsibility for the condition and take the required action. This was an expensive process and so I chose to take the aftercare required very seriously. I took on a routine of respecting and caring for my teeth and now enjoy this being part of my day in the knowing that I am caring for myself at a deep and what appears to be unseen level.
Gosh I so needed to read this, having just chipped my bottom back left tooth on Friday. I can certainly reflect on the dread that I feel in going to the dentist and how that is connected to responsibility and the self care of my teeth. Why do teeth terrify me so? They feel like such an unknown and in reading your blog I realise I don’t really have a relationship with my teeth. They are that part of your body that you just don’t pay much attention to yet when you think about it we hold so much tension in our jaw and teeth!
In reading your blog I am inspired to begin appreciating this area of my body and to re-develop a relationship to better understand the many intricacies of our mouth/teeth.
What a great “organ” in the body… You can’t hide anything with teeth- that’s what I love about them & well worth being aware of them in full!
Teeth really let you obviously feel and see, what past choices you made. Accepting and the fact that they can’t grow newly fresh is a bugger because you have to take responsibility – there is no way out of this.
Beautiful Gabriele. I agree, at the dentists there is no escaping how you have been living. No matter what you say, it’s all on display. What an awesome job dentists do – showing people the trooth and offering them the chance to make a new choice.
Thanks for sharing this Gabriele. My teeth used to be something I was striving for perfection in, so every sensitivity or filling was a failure and needed much self recrimination. I have since come to see my teeth, as you have mentioned above, as a reflection of my choices and level of loving self care; so fillings are not failures but just an honest reflection of both how I look after part of myself and the natural process my body goes through. I too love looking after my teeth more as part of my daily rhythm and also have Universal Medicine and a superb dentist to thank for lovingly guiding me to a better relationship with my mouth and myself!
This is a great insight Katherine , thank you – I just realised I used to view filings as a failure too – that was behind my attitude of its a nasty necessity to go to the dentist. I have evolved to loving my flossing and brushing teeth ritual in a more gentle self caring way than scrubbing the stench of my disregard away.Its made a huge difference to how I feel about this part of my body.What a relief for the dentists if we all came to this – what a joy for them to support people taking responsibility for their health and well being in this way. Thank you Gabriele for this great blog that is so relatable and that gives us so much to reflect on.
I hadn’t really contemplated how much I too used to that my teeth were separate to the rest of me – isolation that was perhaps exaggerated by the dread of dental examinations or worse still the drill! There is much to learn about the role of our teeth and gums in dealing with past choices and irresponsibilities – and why we maybe want to avoid this, thank you Gabriele – lots to think about.
After reading this blog I realise why so many people hate going to the dentist. Yes it’s the pain, discomfort and the strangeness of having someone lean over us with their fingers in our mouth. But most of all it’s because we have to feel all of the choices we have been making up until that very point, that have resulted in our teeth presenting how they are that day. I love the way that this can be turned into a positive, to start to make the self-caring choices, to floss regularly, brush gently and choose the best brush and paste for us – then the next visit to the dentist is a lovely reflection of the care we have been bringing to ourselves.