Ascribing thoughts to a body part

[lauradi7dw]

Poor #19 was removed yesterday. I had been feeling regretful for days. How could decay have gotten started underneath in that way? It must be a combination of too much sticky dried fruit plus not enough cleaning (although probably part of it is the fact that my gums are receding, offering new interesting habitats for bacteria). It had done its best, and I felt bad for it. I continued to feel this way as it was being extracted. It took a very long time. It tried very hard to stay put (try may be the wrong word here). I remembered from #31, years ago, that the dentist cut the top part in half, more or less, so that each root part could be removed separately. The endodontist yesterday did that too, after some thought, but also wiggled each part slowly to preserve intact as much of the underneath structure as possible, getting ready for the future implant. They were very surprised that I wanted the parts (two halves of tooth plus the gold crown). She said "it's a biohazard. We'd have to do (something or other to sterilize it)." I said that if she's just thinking of blood, my whole body is a biohazard to other people, but not to me. They had the parts resting on a piece of gauze on the tray. I folded it up and stuck it in my pocket. I wiped everything down with alcohol when I got home and put them into an empty pill bottle. I have the other one. I have Flo's baby teeth.* Does this kind of keeping behavior make sense?
I am icing the outside of my face near the jaw, taking ibuprofen and amoxicillin (and eating yogurt), avoiding nuts and seeds and anything else that might get caught in the hole.

* I don't remember what we told Flo about the Tooth Fairy. We definitely didn't do Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny with her - her short Christmas list was a letter to my parents. We gave her Chanukah stuff at candle lighting time. I handed her the Easter treats directly. I should ask her. Maybe we just said that people get money for baby teeth and didn't say from whom?

Comments

[cjsmith]

A lot of people keep stuff like that. I did - I think I have all my wisdom teeth, somewhere, from decades ago. Others don't, thinking it's icky or morbid. (shrug) Takes all kinds, I guess. :)

I hope you recover swiftly!

[sorcyress]

I have all but one of my teeth --I turned my wisdom teeth into earrings and lost one of them just a few weeks ago at Pinewoods. I think it's a good thing!

[nosrednayduj]

I still have all my kids' teeth. Every once in a while I wonder if I should chuck them. I don't have the tooth of mine they extracted; it never occurred to me to ask to keep it.

I just asked Jocelyn, because I didn't remember what we actually did, and she says she was aware of the concept of the tooth fairy, probably from Little Rabbit's Loose Tooth, but was also aware that it was parents who carried it out. And also that we occasionally forgot and so she'd have to remind us to do better the next night :-)