The Horrible Tooth

I meant to be a real posting machine today, it being my day off and all, I really did. But instead I've just been lying on the sofa reading books. I'd tell you what books, but that probably wouldn't interest you too much, not unless I was giving full-blown reviews or something, and I'm not much of a book reviewer. I can write a book report, like they made you do in school, but I don't think I've gotten the hang of real book reviewing just yet. Anyway, that's all I've been doing so far today, reading books.

What happened was, yesterday I was eating some nuts, raw almonds, and one time when I was chewing I bit down and one of my teeth with a crown on it, a gold crown actually, felt sort of funny. It felt funny all day after that, but I didn't worry too much. That tooth I had done back in 2004. It had a pretty deep cavity, and they had to put a crown on it. Every once in a while it would hurt just a little, but not too much or for too long. Then, a couple months ago, I got a bad toothache right from that tooth, but after a couple shots of whiskey it went away and never came back.

So, yesterday, while I was innocently sucking on a pop, some kind of a giant fruit flavored super rocket ice pop, I felt something come loose in my mouth. You never want to admit it when it happens, especially if you hate going to the dentist, but I couldn't deny what had happened, my crown had come off. I pulled it out of mouth and held it in my hands. The first thing you always do after that is feel around where that tooth is with your tongue. Felt strange to me, so I looked inside the crown and part of my tooth (the back half) was still sticking to the inside of it. I went to the bathroom mirror, but couldn't see much until I grabbed a small flashlight. It looked like half a tooth without a crown, but not as bad as I imagined, or maybe I was just in denial still.

The tooth wasn't hurting, so I put the crown in a plastic bag. I did wonder what I was going to do, since the dentist I normally go to has a big sign at the front desk that says FULL PAYMENT REQUIRED AT TIME SERVICES ARE RENDERED. Yeah, easy for you to say, Doc. I'm basically broke right now. Even with my crappy dental insurance it would be too much for me to afford if something major has to be done. I have a couple co-workers that I discussed dental work with a while back, and they both don't bother even going to the dentist because of the cost. One of them was told over a year ago that she needs a root canal, but she ignored the advice and still feels okay. The other guy said he hasn't been to a dentist in 15 years. He said if they want you to go regularly and take care of your teeth, they shouldn't charge so goddamned much.

So, for a while yesterday I thought I would do nothing, until I spoke to my sister who went to this place that lets people make payments. She gave me the phone number, so I'll call them.


I hate teeth, I really do. Teeth could be much, much better than they are, nearly indestructible, if there was an all-powerful god, that is.