Thursday, June 19, 2014

A Step Back

Jokingly I have said that if the world came to an end, it would be several years before anyone in East Texas would know it happened. Today I have a case in point with a visit to a dentist.

My first trip to a dentist was about a million years ago but I remember certain things about it. One of those was that when you had to spit, there was a porcelain bowl with swirling water. Over the years dentist adopted a vacuum system where they suck water out of your mouth. They even spray water into your mouth so you can rinse out all the gunk. My visit to a dentist office here took me back to the porcelain bowl. And, their x-ray machine looked exactly like the one used in the good old days.

I may be slow to adjust to technology, but when it comes to dental work, I want the latest, fastest, and least painful available.

I should have been suspicious when I drove up to the office. It was located in a residential neighborhood next to a railroad track - behind a hospital. Imagine if you will, a scene from the early 50's. The office was a house that had been converted into an office. It did have a big parking lot that ran all the way over to the train tracks.

All I wanted was to have a cleaning. What I got was a lot of scraping with a little buffing. Just like the old days. I am now accustomed to hygienists that use a spray to clean teeth which gets my pearlies all nice and shiny. It may be another 50 years before they get that technology.

The dentist did talk about replacing a missing tooth with a bridge. He explained how that process works.

The part about whittling out a new tooth to go in the gap got my attention.

PMO
©2014

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