At least, I’m planning on it now.

Life used to be pleasant. You know, back when every bit of your body worked perfectly. When you could eat randomly throughout the day and when somebody calls you up to go for a run or play outside, you just get up and sweat for the rest of the day without a problem. When you didn’t have to think about which shoes to wear so your feet don’t complain later, or consider how much water you’ve had so you don’t dehydrate early (ie when you feel thirsty). When you didn’t have to consider that if you need to do something important that night you would need to keep from totally exhausting yourself.

At least, that’s how I spent most of my time. Now those and similar thoughts float around uninvited, and they have a new friend to bring along - the demonic gods of oral hygiene.

Brushing twice a day should be enough. Really. I mean, come on - teeth are important, so with a little help they should have some ability to maintain themselves, right?

Of course not. That’d be…useful. You know, being able to resist being broken down by lactic acid (aka getting cavities) - the stomach seems to deal okay with concentrated HCl. Or having some provision for remineralization when there is a problem detected - bones manage it okay. But no…they’re rather stupid. They grow, they stop, and they leave you to fend for yourself for the next 60-70 years. Pre-healthcare man’s teeth would still need to survive 20-30 years. Proof there is no Grand Overseeing Deity? Or that it’s just a really bad planner? Carl Sagen, please report back on this now that you’re on the other side.

I’m starting to see why monkeys love bananas. What else are you going to eat when you have no teeth?

*sigh*

So in short - found a large hidden cavity when a dull ache finally made the decay’s presence known, at which point the only option was remove the nerve and fill in the tooth - otherwise known as root canal “therapy”. There isn’t much therapy involved, just drill through the root canal and rip out the nerves and accessory tissue in the tooth. I was concerned about this until I realized that it serves very little useful purpose. Purely for pain response for when you’re either doing something stupid (like eating a rock) or when the tooth is being broken down. Otherwise, it’s just a dumb offwhite grinder. For future reference, the procedure itself is completely painless - I watched as the drill sank a few centimeters into the tooth and come back out with the nerve wrapped around it - didn’t feel a thing. I salute the thousands of researchers slaving away for perfect anaesthetics.

Next up - wisdom teeth in May. Stay tuned.