Thanks for your interest and providing the opportunity to explain further, Carne. I'll start out by providing some context--I share Tribe's and Cheri's distaste for Durianrider and Doug Graham's preachings (and I agree that Doug looks much older than his age, though I don't want to provoke Tyler into an argument about appearances, so take that FWIW
), and GS's point about DR's B12 injections. I wouldn't advocate that anyone follow DR's and Doug's examples.
There was still the "sticky" stuff on my teeth that Cheri referred to when I was VLC and zero carb, along with tartar and plaque, as there was before (though it was at least easier to remove--that and VLC/ZC/Keto claims caused me to actually become more optimistic and complacent than I should have been), and my gums were still bleeding and receding (to the point of needing surgery, due to a collapsed area of the gum, which was quite an eye-opener for me that helped reveal to me that VLC/ZC wasn't doing everything that the advocates claimed), and I had a cavity that my dentists were concerned about that was not healing. There was less sticky stuff than in my SAD days (which misled me into premature optimism), but still enough to cause the gum bleeding and receding.
Since then, my dental health has improved, but I have not been ZC during this improvement. I wrote about it some in my journal. I brush and floss less now than I did when I was ZC, with better results. My experience has been closer to Tyler's than yours, apparently. No "fear" involved. Quite the opposite--I was probably too complacent about my dental health when I was ZC and VLC. I also don't "worry" about brushing now, but it's not because I'm ZC. Some of what has worked for me is unrelated to carbs.
Please don't get me wrong and assume that I'm some high-carb vegan or something. Tyler and other forum veterans can tell you that in the past I tried ZC and described my approach as "facultative carnivore" and debated vegetarian-oriented folks here (and elsewhere). Been there, done that. I'm still LC and not a vegetarian by any stretch of the imagination, but my approach now is more along the lines of the omnivory that Tyler, GS and others have advocated than the VLC/ZC that Lex Rooker (a strong past influence) and others have written positively about (to Lex's credit, he frequently discouraged people from taking his journal as a prescription, which made it all the more credible and persuasive, unfortunately for me).
I hope that helps explain things. If you're interested in learning more, Tyler has written extensively about his experience and problems/dangers with VLC/ZC (Tyler's experience with it actually seems to have been worse than mine was), as have others who are no longer active. It's unfortunate that so many of them become inactive, as they could be a warning to others. In retrospect, I wish they had stayed more active and thus provided more of a warning to folks like me.
Take it FWIW. I'm not prescribing to anyone else. I hope this personal story does not disappoint you. Cheers and good luck in whatever path you choose.