"What Writing" - day two
Dentist
There's always an issue,
That's what happens when you have dry mouth.
Thank you sjogrens syndrome.
Dry, dry, dry.
Can barely gather enough saliva to spit.
Bacterial paradise,
That's my mouth.
How did I discover the issue?
Went to the dentist and discovered
most of the enamel was gone.
Poof. In around six or so months between dental check ups
my dry mouth started and flared.
I guess I also knew something was wrong when I went for my birthday bike ride
Around 90 degrees out, and 50 miles.
I drank so much water
I got sick.
Worst bike ride ever,
including the one where I rode to the top of the Black Canyon of Gunnison
and it started snowing as I rode down,
and I thought I would die.
I was nearly crying when the sag truck pulled up.
And I wasn't the only one who almost froze.
Of course, several hours later it was sunny.
And, to clarify, it was nice on the ride up.
The storm started soon after I started down.
Back to the subject at hand, dentist.
I've liked most of them.
Hated my childhood dentist,
whose office was in his house.
Mainly I hated his son.
who laughed when I rode by on my bike
and their dog chased me.
He probably sicced him on me
and he didn't call him.
It was a busy road so I was on the sidewalk.
We did that back then,
rode our bikes on the sidewalk.
There weren't bike lanes.
And some roads you just knew better than to ride your bike on.
Anyway, once again I digressed from the dentist.
The sound of the drill,
The smells of antiseptic and peppermint,
The feel as the drill vibrated in my numb mouth,
The taste of the stuff they buffed my teeth with,
Minty but dull and pasty.
My lips getting sore the longer I had to keep my mouth open.
I didn't mind the dentist when I didn't have dry mouth problems.
It was even okay when I got a wisdom tooth pulled
at the young age of thirty.
That's right, thirty.
New York CIty.
Someone recommended a dentist to me.
She was amazed my wisdom tooth was erupting.
The other three were all still impacted and not a problem,
She was tiny, smaller than me.
She braced herself, one foot on a stool
And tugged.
And tugged.
Stubborn tooth had broken through but then decided it wasn't sure it wanted to come out.
She eventually got it.
Which relieved her and me.
That's all I remember of that.
[Timer went off. The rest was written after the ten minutes]
The dentist who didn't know I liked my front tooth that was missing a little piece
from when I was a kid
bouncing a super ball, one of those hard small ones,
in the street,
A car was coming
so I ran to the side of the road
and the ball came up into my chin.
I felt a crunch
and spit out a small chip from my front tooth.
And didn't tell my friend or her mom.
I just said I needed to go home.
Agony.
Went to the house-office dentist and he all he did was buff it.
It wasn't until forty years later that a dentist
unwittingly fixed it, thinking he was doing me a favor.
I loved having a chipped front tooth.
It was different.
It was me.
