Tooth Extraction

and some spiritual analogies

Photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash

I’ve just returned from having a tooth extraction, and while I didn’t particularly enjoy the experience, I did find the dentist’s explanations about the procedure quite fascinating.

“So how did you take it out?” I asked when the procedure was done. Half my face was numb and my neck was sore, but curiosity got the better of me. What had all that “pressure” been about?

The doctor gave me a pained look. “I used forceps. We call them Cowhorn forceps.” He paused to see if I wanted more, and I nodded encouragingly. “In essence, the forceps get under the tooth and force the tooth up. You may have noticed that we kept trying and trying, and the tooth wouldn’t budge.”

I had noticed. The doctor had moved this way and that while asking me to clench my jaw and keep my head as still as possible. He pulled open my bottom lip, applied pressure until his hands shook, and then paused before trying again.

He went on to explain how he’d asked his assistant to prepare the tool to cut the tooth in half—I can’t recall the tool’s name. He hoped that would do the trick, but the tooth-cutting tool wasn’t needed. With more twisting and a cracking sound, the tooth came out, splattering blood on my bib and the office cupboards. Actually, I’m not sure when those blood splatters happened. I just observed them after the procedure.

As he’s explaining this to me, I sense the spiritual analogies bubbling in my mind. A tooth must come out. And why must it come out? Because the root has cracked, and the bone beneath the root has begun to recede. I believe it’s called an ablation. And why did I have an ablation and a crack in my tooth? Because that tooth’s life-giving nerve and blood vessels were torn out nine years ago and were replaced with rubber. I’d had a root canal. I’d had several root canals after my first two babies. My dentist had said that women often have teeth problems after having babies. Turns out, women’s bodies frequently experience calcium deficiencies while those vitamins are going to their babies.