Like most people, I feel anxious when I head to the dentist near me, whether it’s just a cleaning or dental surgery. You know what I mean. The sound of those drills as you sit in the waiting room leafing through the old magazines; the sterile smell of the office; and the dentist him or herself who tries to pretend he or she is your friend as he or she yanks on your teeth, and prods your gums to find your pain threshold to determine if you are worthy of their precious novacaine. Hey, doc, here’s a tip: I ALWAYS WANT NOVACAINE. Really, though, I don’t care how much it costs, just make it so I don’t feel anything. But we all need to go to the dentist. So when I try to find a dentist near me, I try to find the best (and that’s not just the one who will give me the most drugs, as you might be thinking).

Here’s a fun fact that should make you proud of our nation’s children: a whole 79 percent of children between the ages of 2 and 17 had had a dental visit in the past year, as of 2010. Makes me feel like I should be able to get over my anxiety when I go to the dentist near me. I mean, if all these children are able to do it, I should too, right?

Sadly, once we become adults, our dental practices tend to take a toward for the worse. Only 60 percent of adults between the ages of 18 and 64 had been to the dentist as of 2010. No wonder we have to worry about cosmetic dentistry and dental implant surgery. I know the dentist near me is sure making a pretty penny off of that stuff. Maybe if we all just took a little better care of our teeth, we could save some of our money from making it into the pockets of those sadists.

We certainly have it better than people did in the past. The toothbrush in its modern configuration has been around for under a century, but I have no idea what people were doing before it was invented. Brushing with their fingers maybe? Either way, we’ve been using nylon bristled toothbrushes with plastic handles since 1938, so we’ve got very few excuses for why we don’t brush. And the dentist near me hands ’em out for free after each cleaning.

I like to reduce my trips to the dentist near me as much as possible, so in addition to using my toothbrush every day, I avoid sugary drinks as much as possible. People who drink three glasses or more of sugary drinks like soda every day have 62 percent more tooth decay, fillings and tooth loss than those who are able to avoid the temptation. It’s crazy how bad that stuff is for our teeth, especially when we consider that tooth enamel is the hardest surface in the human body.

Listen, I hate going to the dentist near me as much (if not more) than the next person, but there are lots of easy ways to avoid it as much as possible. Go to the dentist twice a year; take your children to the dentist; and avoid those sugary drinks! Find out more here.