To the Dentist

I’ve never liked going to the dentist. Not because of it being painful, and if it is painful your dentist sucks and you need a new one, but because it leaves me in a philosophical sort of mood.

There is just something morbid about a teeth cleaning. Not just because the tooth polishing paste tastes like something died in it, but the full experience. It is a bit like paying someone to pick your bones clean. (Yes, I know teeth aren’t the same as bones.)

Maybe it has to do with my brain associating dentistry with ancient Egypt, I think that they were the first (or one of the first) cultures to practice dentistry. Maybe it’s the elaborate, ritual like worship of bright clean teeth that makes me think of mummies and the ritualized embalming and preparation of the physical form. Or maybe it’s the almost intense quiet of the waiting rooms that makes me think of the dead in their quiet places beneath the earth.

My first trip to see the dentist in a long time, longer than you really should take between trips to have your teeth scoured clean of plaque, of the calcified remains of the corpses of the bacteria that live and die in your mouth.

I went in expecting the worse. I have had a couple of relatives with dentures or bridges because of the poor care they took of their teeth. I’ve read of people dying from heart problems that resulted because of gum infections, the pathogens that eat at the soft tissue of the gums also liking the tissues of the heart. I’ve had a tooth that had bugged me off and on for a while. I was expecting bad news.

I got mixed news. I had cavities. Four of them. One on each wisdom tooth. But the wisdom teeth needed to come out anyways, they never really fit well in my jaw and are so far back I can’t really reach them well with a toothbrush.

So good and bad. Bad that I had cavities. Mixed that the wisdom teeth should come out so they don’t cause problems further down the road. Good that they were the only teeth that had problems.

I go back in two days to have the first, the worse, pulled. The rest will wait on pre-operation approval from insurance. But it means that my mouth is healthier than I thought, and that I should have shinier teeth and a healthier mouth to survive my coming trip.

Glad I got it taken care of now. Was worried about the reputation of British dentistry if a problem had occurred while I was there…