Brushing teeth?

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My teeth are ruined due to a combination of dental phobia, teeth grinding and poor dental hygiene. It's been an issue since at least the early s .
I can't cite hypersensitivity as a cause. The truth is it's just not something that automatically springs to mind when I get up in the morning. I think for me it's more a cognitive issue .

I hate cleaning my teeth. I only clean my teeth once a day, which is before I go to bed. I don't have any trouble with my teeth though, but I still avoid going to the dentist because of the ridiculous amount of money they charge. My mouth is quite overcrowded with teeth but I'm afraid to have a tooth pulled out, because the last time I did I heard all clicking and crunching as they were pulling the tooth out, and it makes me so squeamish. Also I get rather attached to my teeth.

My boyfriend's teeth are rotten, but he can't afford to go to the dentist. Luckily his teeth don't show. My top teeth show when I talk and smile, so if anything goes wrong with my top teeth I'd have to go to the dentist. But I think my top teeth get cleaned the most thoroughly because they're the easiest to get to.

I know the first time I went to the dentist, at about age of 5, it took several people to hold me down. The last tooth I had out had a very long root. I could sense the crunching. The day after I got dry socket and was in sheer agony.

Its most important to look after your gums.

Once they start decaying its goodnight Vienna.

I have trouble taking care of my teeth too. I simply don't remember to brush them. I also clench and grind my teeth.

The only reason I don't have bad teeth is sheer luck. I have the same issue, that brushing my teeth just isn't something that's on my radar. At some point I got out of the habit of doing it, and just never got into the habit again, so now it's not a part of my routine. It's something I really need to work on, because even though I've never even had a cavity or anything (again, due only to luck), every time I go to the dentist, I'm terrified that they'll find something wrong, and that chance only goes up the less I take care of my teeth. I'm also fortunate that I just clench my teeth (although I do it badly enough that I've developed TMD because of it), so I don't have the additional wear of grinding.

My wife used to say I'd grind my teeth at night. Re the dentist: one issue I've always had is opening my mouth wide.

I don't have issues with brushing them, but grinding my teeth is and has always been one of my biggest stims. It hasn't caused any serious problems, but my dentist is always commenting on how much wear I have on my teeth for someone my age. I try to be more aware of my grinding and stop myself if I start to do it, but it's hard.

Part of the support I need is someone making sure I brush my teeth and even assisting me with it. I have to be sedated for dentist visits. Even cleanings.

I didn't brush my teeth from when my mum stopped brushing them (or making me). I try to these days, but it's irregular and scattered. Only my husband knows how much I struggle though. Although my sister asked recently in a sharp tone if I have learnt to brush my teeth yet.

I guess I'm weird because I've always enjoyed brushing my teeth...maybe it's because I really like the taste and sensation of mint.

I've never had such support,probably because it's reckoned that a person of reasonable intelligence would just automatically know to do so. The thinking being I've just got an aversion to brushing my teeth. My stepdaughter is very good , but I stop short of asking her to prompt me to brush my teeth. Part of that is due to 'The damage has been done so what's the point?' and the other to feeling it would be really pathetic of me to do so.

While the IQ> adaptive functioning gap is acknowledged to quite a degree with ASD, It's not acknowledged to any such degree by professionals if you're just seen to have a mental illness. It's a case of your level of functioning= your level of IQ .

No, Tony Attwood talks about this. He actually says that the gap itself is a big part of the challenge and makes for extra complexity.

That being said, I think Attwood is in a league of his own in terms of understanding the issues.

I have problems brushing my teeth twice a day, it's just because i don't like the grainy feeling and the taste of it.. Also I clench my teeth all the time. Mostly when I am on the computer or watching tv is when i clench them.
My dad thinks i'm just lazy and gets onto me about it so I try to brush them so he won't complain.

I too have trouble with remembering to brush my teeth and I think it's a executive functioning issue. It just doesn't occur to me a lot of the time, I've never really been able to get into a routine where I remember to do it consistently, like my brain's got a blind spot for it. My teeth aren't great consequently, and I also clench them a lot which is obviously an added issue.

Mind you, I'm often barely on top of other basic self care things-just enough to make sure I certainly appear to be a fully functioning adult who can take care of themselves, but it's pretty frequent I forget to wash my face/brush my teeth/brush my hair/change my clothes. I have kind of a haphazard morning routine (my one recent success is that I've managed to become far more consistent with using my daily asthma inhaler) but it takes little to derail me (maybe a list on the wall with boxes to tick off would help-feels childish but maybe it's what I need), a sudden thought that I should water my flowers before I leave etc or that I need to remember to take something with me, and whatever other task I was about to do gets forgotten.

He's talking about ASD not mental illness? It's only been recently accepted ie Oct 2018 that there might be more going on with me than SMI. Asperger's dx came in May 2019. For 45 years the focus has been on the SMI.

If you're intelligent ,but not functioning as people expect terms like 'lazy','obstructive' and 'passive aggressive ' get thrown around when your problems are just seen as being mental illness related .

My stepdaughter has been much more observant about the discrepancy between how intelligent I am and my daily functioning than any MH professional I've ever seen.