The Dental Corpse

Back in the olden days when I was growing up (being raised, as they used to say), the focus was on keeping food on the table and clothes on the back. Doctors were seen in extreme emergency (blood that kept bleeding). Dentists were not even in the picture.

The same for eye doctors. I asked my fourth grade teacher if I could bring a cheap little telescope I bought at the five-and-dime to class. She must have been puzzled but she said okay. When I used it to peer at what she wrote on the board (seeing it clearly for the first time), it wasn't long before I was scheduled to visit the eye dude. I walked out of there with glasses and the trees actually had leaves and the daytime moon was not doubled. I love my teacher -- she might have paid for that out of her own pocket, there were no federal programs like that back then.

I'm still getting accustomed to the modern ways. Like I said, a dentist was not even in the scenario, much less a tooth cleaner person. I went to have my teeth cleaned this morning thinking I was in pretty good shape since I did not have large chunks of food caught in my teeth and I brushed regularly. Nope. Now I have a Treatment Plan and several Cleaning Appointments. That old Zen question comes to mind: Who is it dragging this corpse around? And is he going to leave behind a set of redeemed born-again teeth?