Observations about the dentist

Yesterday I had a baby tooth removed, step one in a month long process of getting a bridge put into replace the chip tooth removed last August. And while in the office with the oral surgeon, two things caught my attention.

Removing my baby tooth with a fancy dental tool that looks like a pair of plyers should not be considered Oral Surgery. Sure, the plyers were shiny and sterile, but they were plyers. The dentist estientially just pulled the tooth out. (Which was something that also amazed me, how easily my baby tooth came out, like it could fall out at any time.)

The other thing was the conversation I had with the oral surgeon that filled my heart with dread.

"So, today we're taking out your baby teeth."

"Uh-huh," I agree. "It's for my bridge. The baby tooth isn't strong enough to support a bridge."

"And they'll put an implant on the other side?"

"What other side?" I only had one tooth missing on the right side. That was it.

"The other baby tooth."

"I only have one baby tooth."

"You have two. We're removing your baby teeth."

"Tooth! Just one! The one next to the big hole in my teeth!"

The surgeon looks at the x-ray. "Oh, I see. We're removing bicuspid 29. Did you know you have two baby teeth? Both your biscuspids."

I didn't know that. Congenative bicuspid failure, he called it, but only for my lower teeth. Apparently that's really unusual.

Mostly I was terrified that the surgeon didn't know what tooth he was removing and would have likely taken out both baby teeth if we didn't have the necessary social banter.

Back out in the front of the office, Andy was waiting for me. The surgeon says to him, "Did you know your wife had two baby teeth? You'll need to keep an eye on the other one."

I have a face full of gauze and can't say anything. I'm not really sure what I would have said. Maybe something on the nerve of the surgeon telling my husband to look after my teeth when I just proved myself more than capable of protecting them from a surgeon who was just going to willy-nilly pull teeth from my head.

So now one of my baby teeth is gone. I feel fine. Hungry. No solid food for a day until my jaw stops hurting. Right now I can open it wide enough for a spoon of pudding. And my face is pretty puffy. By tomorrow I'll be back to normal.