Hygiene is vital to living a healthy life. If you don’t do what you should do, you pay the consequences. Things are even more serious when your smile is on the line.

1. The fact that you need to stop making excuses and keep your appointments.

No, you’re not excited to go let someone look all around and put their hands in your mouth. Nobody should be.

2. The long wait in the waiting room.

Not only do you have to fill out the required patient and insurance paperwork, but you have to wait an eternity for your name to be called.

3. The annoying and repetitive infomercials they show on the TV.

I only enjoyed learning about braces, cavities, and dentures the first time. If I must listen to the same program again, you can pull all my teeth out.

4. The essential questions of good dental hygiene.

How often you floss, and brush is key. You can’t expect to have flawless teeth without taking care of them.

5. The anxiety waiting to know if you have any cavities.

You claim you brush twice a day, but do you really?

6. The mouth prop used to keep your mouth open.

Whether it’s a bite block or the prongs to keep your mouth open, your mouth will be stretched to the extreme. It honestly hurts more than smiling non-stop.

7. The awkwardness not knowing where to look.

If you look at the light, you’ll blind yourself. If you look at the doctor or nurse, they’ll think something is wrong and want to talk to you.

8. The pain having to prevent any more damage to your teeth.

"Beauty is pain", well, unless you take care of yourself from the beginning.

9. The sound of the drill.

Even though you can hear it down the hall, you’re scared that the drill is coming for you next.

10. The fear of being put to sleep.

Although you don’t want to feel any pain, you don’t want to wake up with it.

11. The difficulty responding to the doctor when their hands and tools are all in your mouth.

You tend to sound like a child babbling, and the doctor proceeds to talk to you like an adult. The challenge to respond is tiring and awkward.

12. The lectures about how to take care of your own mouth.

We’ve been hearing the same discussion for years, but do we really listen?

13. The cost to have a perfect smile.

In hindsight, we all wish we took more care of ourselves when we had the chance. Now, a problem can only be fixed with a huge chunk of change.

"Some tortures are physical, and some are mental, but the one that is both is dental." - Ogden Nash