Going to the dentist (#50; Topic K)

After moving to the retirement community last April, going to my regular dentist became inconvenient. After my second such visit, I decided that I needed a new dentist closer to me. I found one, and went for teeth cleaning by his dental hygienist last month, and saw him for real this afternoon. He took an inventory of my teeth. I am without 3 wisdom teeth and 3 other teeth -- I joked that the lack of wisdom teeth must be the reason that I am so stupid. To each tooth, he then measured its relationship to the gum, annoucing "1", "3", "7", "11", and such to his assistant for recording in a chart. Judging from the pain he exerted to each tooth before announcing the figure, I inferred that the higher the number, the worse that tooth is. I asked, and he confirmed. While in his office, the thought occurred to me that going to the dentist for routine work such as cleaning, common in USA, is uncommon in China. I recall that the only time I went to a dentist when I was in China was to have teeth pulled. I also recall that, the first time I went to a dentist in USA for cleaning, I needed to be sedated before the hygienist could do her work -- not only was it painful, it took her two sessions to complete the job. I also recall that the cause of my mother's death -- she died when she was only 33 and I was only 10 (according to the lunar calendar; that is, nominal age -- 32 and 9, respectively, according to the western way of stating age) -- was dental related. So, while what the new dentist did to me was painful, I realized that it was for my own good. I remained calm and thanked him upon leaving his office.
Posted at 10:56 pm, Tuesday, January 24, 2006