Saturday, November 3, 2012

November 3 – “On dentists”


I found out that three of my grandkids had to see the dentist the other day.  Not that unusual an occurrence, I guess.  It was just the timing that got me.  The day before Halloween.  Right before Mega-candy Day, Dentist Dream Day.  Now that’s hard.  At least they could get a clean bill of health to start with.

I had to go to the dentist the other day.  Notice how carefully crafted that sentence was?  And it was all by design, believe me.  I had to go.  See, some six or eight years ago, when last I found myself in the dreaded chair, he scraped out and filled a bad tooth and actually managed to save me from whatever horrors exist in a root canal.  Horrors beyond the shock of seeing how much it costs, that is.  We don’t have dental insurance.  And after he finished the job, he informed me that I still needed to have a cap installed over the filling.  He also, however, made the mistake of telling me that the filling would hold just fine.  The cap was just an additional safety measure.  That’s as good a saying, “See you in about eight years,” as far as I’m concerned.  So I simply took him at his word and stayed away for eight years. 

I was not having any pain in the tooth area.  The filling was just beginning to make its way out of the confines of the remains of the tooth itself, and had left behind a tower of enamel that was acting as a spike on the underside of my tongue.  Quite uncomfortable, to say the least.  The office representative came in and went through the same review of how much root canals and tooth caps cost.  My dreams of technological advancements that lead to more affordable products were shattered.  Still costs … a lot.  I texted Chris with the range – somewhere between $1200 and $1500.  Ouch.  I definitely considered taking an action I once did as a struggling college student with a chipped tooth from a pickup football game – getting an emery board and filing down the sharp edge.  Yep, I really did that.  Anything to stay out of that chair.  I finally approved – well, agreed to - the work, and he dug in.  Hmm.  Not a great image when talking about dentistry, I guess.  And to his credit, he was once again able to simply refill the tooth.  No root canal.  He still wants me to come back for a cap, though.  In his words, “Sometime after Thanksgiving, or maybe early next year, after this has a chance to really set good.”  I love this guy.  He knows good and well that there is little chance that I will be back for another eight or ten years, unless, of course, Chris happens to read this and makes a mental note to make an appointment without my knowledge.  She knows if the appointment is there I will go.  I’m still a sucker for respecting authority that way.  Her authority.

Now I have to say, though, that I really do like my dentist.  He is my second favorite dentist of all time.  When I was a kid, my dentist was the spawn of Satan, I’m sure.  I have managed to block out most of the evil, but there are still flashbacks of extreme pain.  As a result, I had an extreme aversion to even the thought of going to the dentist until I met the very first no-pain dentist in my career, Dr. Blair Jones of Mansfield.  To be able to use the words “dentist” and “no pain” in the same sentence was a major breakthrough for me.  He even yanked out one of my wisdom teeth and I never felt a thing.  No residual after-effects, either.  It was amazing.  My only complaint after that experience was that he didn’t give me the tooth so I could put it under my pillow.  Sigh.  But no pain … he could tell me to pretty much anything and I would comply.  This present guy is a lot like that.  Dr. Robby Parker is all about no pain, and as I have said, he is not into inflicting expensive procedures when he can perform miraculous rescues.  It’s great to have a dentist you can trust.  It’s even greater when you only have to trust him once every eight years or so. 

Psalms 37:4 says, “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

Father, thank you for guys like Blair and Robby.  Make them happy.  Amen.

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