A Visit to the Dentist
© By Abraham Lincoln
Just
when you think your body parts are all working together to push your
next
birthday to 79, something goes haywire and you can’t fix it. It happens
to me
all the time. I think it is a sure sign that I am aging—getting old—my
ball of
string is running out. Whatever you might choose to call it; my secret
goal in
life is to cheat the undertaker out of another payday.
How does one chew softly? Well, I have been chewing on a back jaw took
lightly,
like a ballerina tiptoes across a dance floor. I didn’t bite down hard
because
I felt pressure in the tooth and I knew something was wrong but I had a
dream
that it was all my imagination and my angst would pass.
I kept thinking about the new dentist I had met in the barbershop. I
told him
then that I might be up to see him soon. Weeks later I finally called
the
office of Joseph M. Rhodes, D.D.S. and asked if I could make an
appointment to
see the doctor.
Sure
enough, there was an opening the next day at 10:00 A.M. and I
took it
and showed up on time. In no time I was in the dental chair, laid back,
opening
my mouth wide, and showing Dr. Rhodes the offending tooth. I asked for
an X-ray
so we could all see what was going on.
The X-ray revealed, among other things: like the tooth was capped, that
there
was some infection or decay under the capped portion off to one side
near the
gum line. I thought the next step would be to set up and appointment,
return
and get it fixed.
I suddenly realized, when I saw the needle, that this was for real and
I was
getting the tooth fixed. I looked so surprised that Dr. Rhodes asked me
if I
wanted to get it fixed. I gulped out, “sure,” and the needle went
in—here and
there; and the tooth got numb.
My
lip was supposed to get numb but that never
quite worked out to “feel fat” but after it was all over, the lip was
so numb
that I bit a couple of pieces out of it and was surprised to see a spot
of
blood on an ice cream cone. Where did that come from? I pulled my fat
lip out
and looked on the inside and saw two bite marks. I guess it did get
numb after
all.
I love dentists when I need them but I try to avoid them when I can.
They know
how to make you so numb that they can take the root out of a tooth and
call it
a “root canal” without much discomfort. They can pull teeth and if you
didn’t
hear the cracking sound the tooth makes, as it is breaking free, you’d
never
know the tooth had been extracted.
But when they stick a roll of gauze in the hole and tell you to bite
down you
know the tooth is gone and when the roll of gauze begins to hurt when
you get
home, it is a relief to pull the blood-stained gauze out; or so it
seems to me.
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