When bits drop off in the shower…
… you know you’re getting on a bit.
I was in the shower earlier and one of my teeth just fell out, making a moderately loud clunk as it landed. It’s an upper front incisor crown which hasn’t felt ‘quite right’ for a few days now and started to be a bit wobbly on Friday. I phoned for a dentist appointment to get it seen to but as I wasn’t in pain, they gave me a date in September. This seems a long time to have to avoid biting on anything; I thought it would very likely get much looser before I see him, if it hadn’t actually broken free to find a new life in the big bad world, independent of its lord and master.
It was the noise which alerted me first and then I felt the gap with my tongue. When I realised it had gone, I immediately turned off the water to stop it getting washed away. I felt around in the plug hole hoping it hadn’t dropped through and waited anxiously for the suds to disperse and reveal it. After several minutes of feeling about, I saw something and then realised it was the central screw keeping the small grid thing in place, but no tooth. I wondered whether it would stay in the P trap underneath and worried about how far it would go. Then I stood up and found it behind me and smiled a toothy grin of relief.
It’s not the least bit painful but since the peg it was mounted on came away with it, it must have left a hole about a centimetre deep in which food could be stored against hard times. See Glutt Lodge in the “Meaning of Liff”.
It looks pretty horrible and feels very odd but it’s actually much easier to eat now it’s gone than it was trying not to bite on a wonky front tooth.
I’ll need to get something done well before 10th September, not because I can’t manage like this or due to any pain or embarrassment, but to find out whether it could get infected and to make sure it’s a safe place to keep a snack.