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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