Rotten Teeth

Monday, January 28, 2008

The clock on the wall ticked loudly as my teacher droned on about this or that. I was in high school. I had not graduated yet. Looking around the classroom, most of the other students appeared to be in comatose.

And then I feel it. Out of nowhere, a dull sensation of my tooth moving, felt through my tongue. I come full awake. I move my tongue carefully. My tooth is fine, but a piece has come off and is sliding under my tongue. I maneuver it up and into my hand. It is a large piece from one of my molars. I look around embarrassed, but no one has noticed. I put the piece in my pocket and resolve to set an appointment with my dentist as soon as possible. There is nothing I could do now, and I was in no pain.

Class drags on. I start to drift to sleep. My mouth relaxes. I lazily run my tongue along the bottom row of my teeth. I feel the indentation where my tooth had chipped. On the other side of my mouth I feel another gap. This was new. I open my eyes and straighten up in my chair. I check again. Yes, there is another part of one of my molars missing. I can feel the piece to the side of my tongue. I look around trying to figure out if I am awake. I sure felt awake. I get the piece of tooth on my tongue and spit it out into my hand. If was smaller than the other chip. I slide it into my pocket with the other, and resolve to call my dentist as soon as I get home that afternoon. I’d better try for an appointment first thing tomorrow. I would miss class, but my first class was gym and didn’t really matter.

I slump down in my chair and start to worry. Why did two of my teeth just chip? That was weird. How much was this going to cost to fix?

I suddenly feel something on my tongue. I push it up against my gums and could feel it was hard. It had to be another part of my teeth. I spit it out and sure enough it is. In the process of spitting it out I feel a sharp pain in one of my front teeth. I put a finger in my mouth and discover that the tooth is wobbling. It had cracked completely in half. I pull my finger out and close my mouth. Pain starts in other places. I feel things on my tongue. I run my tongue along the back of my teeth. They feel jagged and wrong.

My mouth is now full of pieces. I bend over and spit them into my hand. I empty my hand on my desk, and then feel around my mouth with a finger again. There are many gaps and cracks, and as I run my finger along, pieces crumble off what is left of my teeth. It hurts and there is a taste of blood. My finger is red when I pull it out. I look around nervously. Many in the class are now staring at me. I feel very embarrassed and blush.

Jumping up, I put all my pieces in my pocket and run into the hall. I leave having resolved to see my dentist immediately. I no longer believe this can wait. Several rooms down, I stop and wave to Dave Marcum. He looks annoyed but comes out to see what I want. I explain very briefly and smile for him. He agrees to take me to the dentist immediately.

We run out to his car. I put on my seat belt and then spit out some more chips of my teeth. What was left was still crumbling in my mouth. I flip down the sun visor and open my mouth as I angle the little mirror on its back. I can see the jags that were left of my teeth, and the many gaping holes where some had completely decayed leaving my jaw visible through the gums. There isn’t too much blood. And, for how bad it looked, it really didn’t hurt as much as one would expect.

Dave drives to the dentist. But this is where I woke up.