A Momentous Loss

Yesterday, in what's a first for me, I lost a tooth while showering, but only for a short time because a moment later I found it lying on the bottom of the tub.

I'd never before heard of, or experienced first-hand, losing a tooth while scrubbing, but it can be done. Eating apples, caramels, or even lasagna has been known to loosen or remove teeth, but not soaping up one's pits.

Perhaps you're thinking the water was frightfully cold, but it wasn't.

Now, I'm the first to admit that my teeth are in horrible shape, but I hadn't realized they were this bad. The tooth, number 26, had been loose for over a year, but only mildly so. Last week I bit down on it and must have done something because it began hurting like hell and seemed, to me, to be getting worse. Not only was it hurting more, it was looser and elevated over the rest of the teeth.

And, a bit farther forward.

I left messages for my dental student, alerting him that if he didn't schedule me an appointment he might very well lose the instructive features my tooth presented if I didn't get in the chair soon. I had given the tooth an over-under of Wednesday, but thought I was being melodramatic.

As it turns out, I was right.

Curiously, while washing my hair, feet, and nether regions, I was worried about losing my ring. I don't usually shower with jewelry on, but there you have it, and when the tooth fell out the first thing I thought was that I'd lost my ring. I have no idea how the tooth came out, what I did, but I suspect it was my tongue that pushed it up and out. For the past few days what had been producing most of my discomfort was self-inflicted. I'd been careful about eating on the other sides of my mouth, but couldn't avoid playing with the damn thing.

When I wasn't busy wiggling it with my tongue, I was sucking on it, and both of those gave me much more pain than had I let it well enough alone. The shock of losing it in the shower was quickly changed to amazement when I realized there was no blood in my mouth, or anywhere else.

I have no idea how much money I've spent over the years with dentists, but my very first extraction was an undoubted success. There was no pain, there was no blood, and my mouth feels better than ever. Last night I ate without incident, and it still feels just fine.

I'm sure there's some damage going on, maybe some infection brewing, but I just might be lucky and all of that yucky internal stuff and socket-mending has already taken place, slowly over the past year. I can only hope.

What I can say is that I now have a tooth with nowhere to put it. It's about an inch long, shaped like an almond sliver, and other than some incidental staining, is in perfect shape.

I only wish the same could be said of me.