Older And Wiser

When I was about twenty seven or twenty eight years old, I had two little ones that required a lot of care. One of them especially was very “busy.”

One day I got a dull toothache. The next day I got a toothache that required some aspirin. The next day I had a toothache that made me moan with pain even with aspirin every four hours.

It seemed that the more my tooth hurt the more difficult it was to care for my little ones and the naughtier at least one of them misbehaved most often, both of them or it seemed.

I can remember not sleeping well at all those nights. Those of you that have or had little ones their little wants and needs seem to magnify when you are not feeling well. I asked friends and family about a good dentist that didn’t charge an arm and a leg. In those days we had no insurance and very little money. The appointment was made for the next day. I couldn’t believe I didn’t have to wait for several days to get in.

When I walked in the office I was the only one in the waiting room. Soon the assistant called my name and I was escorted into one of the exam rooms. In about fifteen minutes the dentist walked in and said a very curt hello. I immediately thought, “ eww not very friendly, are you guy?” The dentist had white hair, a white mustache and yellow teeth. His breath smelled old. You have to take into consideration how young I was.

He checked all of my teeth and used the little mirror and so on and so on. He told me that my wisdom teeth were bad; one especially. He said that a former dentist had filled it and now it had decayed below the filling. He would have to pull it. I felt the prickling of tears behind my eyes. I was scared to death and the old man did nothing to help me at all. He gave me three shots of Novocain. Those shots scared me too because I had had a lot of dental work done and three shots of Novocain was excessive. After letting me sit for what seemed like forever, he came in with, I kid you not a pliers. He tapped my tooth with the pliers. It did not hurt. He pried and pulled and nothing happened. I had my black patent leather purse in my lap to hold on to for dear life. All of a sudden he grabbed my purse and threw it across the room. He climbed up on my lap, yes my lap, and jerked and jerked and out came my tooth. He did not apologize at all. He said, “there you go.” He also admonished me for having a wisdom tooth filled.

I told everybody I knew not to go to him. The next day my mouth hurt so bad the pain was excruciating. The next day was worse. I called the dentist and he said since it wasn’t bleeding it was a “dry socket.” The thing to cure it was to bite on a dry tea bag. That was like magic. That took the pain away almost immediately.

Years later I am so much wiser!