I knew my sixth decade would bring challenges, just as each new decade of life has. Last week I bit down on a dried banana chip for breakfast as I drove to work and I broke an incisor tooth just to the right of my front teeth. I was able to get in to see My dentist at lunch time that day. When I went in I smiled really big and said, “Hi, ya’ll, how do you like the Hee Haw look?” (You’d have to be my age to remember that show!) The desk staff, the tech, and I all got a good chuckle out of my tooth-challenged smile. They made molds and the dentist and I discussed what needed to be done. The next morning I went in at 7:30am to get the temporary cap until I could get back in for the scheduled work the next week.
The tech said, “you sure have a good attitude about this.” Really? What else can one do? As my students are likely to hear from time to time, “it is what it is.” And in this case, it is simply a broken tooth, not an impending catastrophe.
Later that afternoon, in conversation with a young woman, she said her mother had a similar tooth-breaking experience and was hysterical with tears because she couldn’t get into a dentist immediately to get it repaired. She commented on how vanity made it quite a disaster for her mother.
I’m glad I am not the kind of person for whom something as simple as a broken tooth becomes a source of such distress. There are things that may merit hand-wringing anxiety, but my snaggle-toothed smile was not one of them.
But I can see how some of our recovery students with teeth damaged by substance abuse, sometimes find such joy in the restorative work that a local dentist is sometimes able to do for them, after they are able to save some funds to help cover lab costs. More than a few have gained significant self worth by the simple fact of having a repaired smile. Yeah for our dentists who make smiles whole again! (3/8/2014)