You Are What You Eat
I lost a tooth this week, just after lunch. There was a loud crack sound from my jaw up into my left ear when suddenly my upper left tooth, called a first premoler, felt as if it split in two. I remembered when I accidentally bit into a fork half-turned in my mouth a couple of weeks ago. How I managed to bite a fork sideways I don't know, but it put a heckuva side load on that tooth. It hurt so much in the moment, I was suprised it didn't break right then.
At first, the dentist thought the crack was superficial and would be repaired with a simple filling. That was until he drilled and drilled. More novocaine, more drilling. Eventually he said, "Looks like we can't save it. It's cracked all the way into the root."
No string and doorknob here. He twisted and pulled with pliers, swore, until untimately his knee was on my chest. The assistant held me down by the forehead. It was fifteen minutes of this ordeal until the tooth broke free, but only part of it. I muttered through a mouthfull of foam and gauze, "You better have pulled the right one." A fist fight ensued.
More drilling, more yanking to get the rest of it, and this was the result:
The hazy part is my jaw bone. Look at the huge chunk that's gone. I'd show you a photo of the damage to my gum, but it would gross you out too much.
Now, I'm at the hands of an oral surgeon to remove a remaining bit of root tip and stich up my gum. The big hunk of jaw bone that's missing, it will be replaced with bovine bone.
That's right. I will become part cow, which goes to show you: You are what you eat, as I was having steak at the time.
I know you are fond of cows, so that's good. Will you be able to eat beef? Or will it now be considered cannibalism?
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