Oral Issues

 

   

       In 45 minutes I’m leaving for an event I’m anticipating with the same dread as my dental appointment on Tuesday. I’ll be speaking to a town Woman’s Club and though I stood in front of around 120 people over the course of my teaching day for 20 years, it’s been a while. Still, I need to be a brave girl and be grateful someone’s interested enough to want to hear about my books.

          Tuesday I went in for a crown on a back tooth that had inexplicably shed a major chunk, much like those glaciers calving off masses of ice. My dentist can do the whole thing in one sitting, no temporaries to walk around with, eating cautiously for a week until the final portion is created and added.

          Telling a friend the other day about my upcoming appointment reminded me of those baby showers where the veteran mothers trot out all their birthing horror stories for the upcoming mom. The friend related a hair-raising tale in which someone they knew had gone in for a crown, aspirated some tooth or dental part down their open windpipe and had to be rushed off to the hospital to have it removed from their lung.

          On the other hand, I did manage to unload some of my promotional bookmarks to the dental assistant. In fact, she sat next to me and googled me on Amazon while the doctor prepared the crown .

          Wednesday, my cheek was so sore I limited myself mostly to yogurt and pasta, and wondered if I’d be able to speak today. But fortunately, my tired jaw has rebounded a bit and I only bite my cheek occasionally now when I speak.

       

   I still say that when you go in for a crown, you ought to get one.

 You know, maybe a
little classier version of the ones you get at Burger King.