No, I'm not talking about Dick Cheney or Richard Perle. It's the smell of rotted flesh that pours into my mouth when the dentist pulls on a crown that should have been firmly cemented in place and shows it to me, post and all. "No offense," she says, "but that stinks."
I'm familiar with that smell (and taste) from the week back in college when I missed my Milton exam because half my face was swollen up so that I could barely see out of my left eye, and my old nemesis Dr. Foster came to my rescue. This time the bugs have been munching away under the post, safe from light, air, flossing and Listerine. Who knows how long the party has been going on?
Better yet, the bugs will probably keep partying down for a while. This is where strategic dentistry comes in. "I could clean out the hole and do another root canal and put on another crown, but there's not enough tooth left above the gum line. In five or ten years you'd be right back in the same place." Call it $1900 not very well spent. Or she can do a desultory wash-and-burn, cement the old crown back in place, and start scheduling me for an implant for not that much more. Oh, goody.
I've had what you might politely call a mixed history with dentists, but more on that later.
Posted by wallich at April 9, 2003 08:23 PMThat seems to be to be most frustrating. No matter the effort taken to clean, there is always a way in for those little microscopic annoyances.
Posted by: Tim at April 11, 2003 08:52 AMgosh, this makes me want to give you a big sloppy wet tongue kiss.