02:03:27 Saturday June 26 2004
Old Tyme Dentistry Is Alive And Well

My visit to Doctor Mohler this morning was better than I expected. I discovered that I am not as sensitive to lidocaine as I am to many other drugs. They had to give me fully twice the usual injection. After that all was well. Doctor Mohler pressed on the tooth a few times to make sure I was good and numb. Then he pulled out the pliers. This momentarily surprised me since I expected that modern dentistry involved cutting the tooth out. However my momentary panic was quickly relieved by the look in doctor Mohler's eye. I could tell that he was bored. He had done this innumerable times. He pulled with a firm, steadily increasing pressure. I could see the muscles in his aging arm tighten. It did not come out immediately, he gently increased the pressure for a minute or so. I heard a cracking sound as one of the roots pulled free.

An instant later he was dropping it into a bio-hazard bag. It came out clean and in one piece. There wasn't even any need to stitch the socket. I have newfound respect for those skilled at tooth extraction. It requires a great deal of force administered very precisely. There are so many ways in which the procedure can go wrong. I was quite lucky to have Doctor Mohler as my D.D.S.

Also, the earlier mystery is solved. Bones do have nerves. This is why bone marrow transplants are so painful.