You want the tooth?!

 

 You want the tooth? Take it! Fix it! I can’t handle the tooth!”

Dear friends

While I stand behind every word of my last blog, I’m going to get my teeth into something very different, while hoping to put a smile on your face. 

Two days ago, I got a text from a friend at 8:27 am, asking about having lunch at noon. I texted back with a pretty good excuse: “Sorry. I am having a root canal at 11:45!”

After it heals, I will return to my regular dentist, possibly for a new crown. (I will be listening to the hymn “Crown him with many crowns” for that procedure, if needed.) During the root canal, I listened to “Take me out to the ball game”, but they kept telling me to stop trying to sing root, root root for the Dodgers because it was slowing things down. I fought tooth and wail but to no avail. By the way, did you hear about the dentist and salon owner that shared an office? It was called “Tooth and Nail”.

It wasn’t on my bucket list, but now I am glad to say I am a root canal veteran. They got to the root of the cause of my pain. Now that I am in recovery, I am ordering Root Beer floats (to be delivered by Door Dash every four hours and no more than six times a day) from the closest A & W. in Mentone, just outside Redlands. So maybe part of the trip will be on the old Route 66!

On a serious note, I immediately stopped worrying and complaining about the need for this procedure after reading a story in the LA Times which arrived in my driveway a just few hours before my appointment.  It reported the fact that less than half the children covered by Medi-Cal in California receive any dental treatment, despite a scathing report issued in 2016. Hopefully things will improve.

We take so many blessings for granted. I needed to read that article as a reminder not to take dental care (with insurance) as one of them.

John