I have decided once and for all that dental problems are a mere nuisance, no more, and cheerfully went to see my dentist. He greeted me with a friendly \u201chow are you\u201d and I told him that I had dreamt about him last night. \u201cO dear,\u201d he said, \u201camazing how many people dream about teeth.\u201d I once read in a clever book, \u201cPsychology of Dreams\u201d or similar title, what the deeper meaning of dreams about teeth is, but am glad to say that I have forgotten. All I knew was that in my dream my dentist had made new teeth for me. He laughed and then proceeded with the inspection of the trouble spot. After a little silence he said: \u201cWell, it\u2019s an old problem\u2026\u201d I understood straight away. No doubt he thought, removing a crown would be painful, and who knows, the tooth might have to be pulled up, and he was probably trying to sell me\u2026an injection. I said: \u201cYou mean, an injection?\u201d O no, it wasn\u2019t that at all; but I was on the right track. It was something else, he said, which he knew I disliked. \u201cHow would you feel about \u2026an X-ray?\u201d I hastened to reassure him that I wasn\u2019t against X-rays on principle. He then reassured me that I was by no means obliged to have one. I could in fact tell him flatly, so he said, to get on with the job without having one. It might mean unnecessary trouble, trouble that could have been avoided, had he had knowledge of the condition the tooth was in, and he patiently explained his view to me. I said with my most casual smile: \u201cHave an X-ray, then,\u201d and he was satisfied. As it was, he took two. No doubt it was part of his policy not to have told me this earlier on. He knows how to handle me, I must give him that. I had to support the film for the X-ray with my finger, which probably means that my finger was x-rayed, too, and he didn\u2019t put any protective covers onto me, either. I don\u2019t suppose it matters much at my age\u2026<\/p>\n
After that he explained to me the various possibilities, depending on which treatment he would have to opt for. A new crown, out of steel to make it cheaper, providing the tooth was good enough, or else there would be the problem of finding a replacement, fixed or loose. Nobody likes it loose, he informed me straight away. For something fixed, there was the problem of the adjoining teeth which in my case\u2026He cleared his throat and tried to look cheerful. I smiled at him and said \u201cNot to worry\u201d. He smiled back saying \u201cNo\u201d. Anyway, he said, we could think it all over while waiting for the result of the X-rays. \u201cI let you off for now, milady,\u201d he laughed. I laughed back saying \u201cSee you then\u201d and made the next appointment with his assistant.<\/p>\n
I telephoned two days later to be informed about the X-rays. It turned out that the dentist still didn\u2019t know whether it was worth keeping the tooth or not. He would have to see with his own eyes, now. In other words it was \u201cworth the trouble of taking off the crown\u201d. I was pleased with the result and presented myself the following week. I also brought my son for a check-up which was a matter of a minute or two. When I came in afterwards, the dentist remarked that normally he would have taken x-rays of my son\u2019s teeth, being the age he is, but knowing I didn\u2019t like them, he hadn\u2019t bothered. And he laughed a little. I asked was there anything to be seen on the surface that had aroused his suspicion. He said, no, but he takes x-rays if only to \u201ccover\u201d himself. He then spent the best part of an hour on my wretched tooth. Miniature art, his job. He took off the crown, drilled out holes with all sorts of frightening looking utensils which were at different speeds, into different depths, making different noises; some of them terribly long, thin and pointed; he poked a very sensitive spot once which made me start, and he apologized; he discussed prejudice against root fillings with me; seemed to be hesitating what best to do, filled it all up in the end and put the old crown back on.
\nHis assistant had the x-ray ready, a matter of routine, I imagine, but he brushed it aside saying: \u201cShe doesn\u2019t like that,\u201d and adding after a few seconds: \u201cIt won\u2019t make much difference anyway.\u201d I was delighted. He said the good news was that the old crown could still be used, and the bad news, that the tooth underneath was \u201ca mess\u201d. Had he done a root filling, I inquired. Much to my pleasure he said, no, the tooth was too far gone, hardly any substance left \u2013 I was glad I didn\u2019t have to look at it \u2013 certainly not worth the trouble of filling the root.
\nHe had put in a provisional filling which would be replaced by a permanent one, if the tooth behaved itself, and with a bit of luck I might have the use of it for a few years yet. He looked reasonably happy. I certainly was. When I left, he said to me: \u201cYou have been very patient.\u201d Of course, I hadn\u2019t had an injection. He didn\u2019t think I wanted one, but had told me to \u201cyell\u201d in case I changed my mind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have decided once and for all that dental problems are a mere nuisance, no more, and cheerfully went to see my dentist. He greeted me with a friendly \u201chow are you\u201d and I told him that I had dreamt about him last night. \u201cO dear,\u201d he said, \u201camazing how many people dream about teeth.\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reading-aloud"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.d-c-k.com\/Readingaloud1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.d-c-k.com\/Readingaloud1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.d-c-k.com\/Readingaloud1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.d-c-k.com\/Readingaloud1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.d-c-k.com\/Readingaloud1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.d-c-k.com\/Readingaloud1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.d-c-k.com\/Readingaloud1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.d-c-k.com\/Readingaloud1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.d-c-k.com\/Readingaloud1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}