Dentist — W. Clay Smith Blog

It started Monday night. The whole side of my head began to hurt. I was not sure if it was a toothache or an ear infection. By bedtime, it was raging full force. I took two Tylenol, and that knocked back the pain enough to get some sleep. By the next morning, the pain in my ear was gone but any pressure on my teeth brought stabbing pain. Thankfully my dentist could see me that afternoon.

Believe, I was on time for that appointment. I was quickly ushered back and put in the chair. The X-rays were taken, and I waited for my dentist to come in. I like my dentist; I really do. He has taken good care of me for over twenty-seven years. But I have childhood trauma that makes me nervous around dentists in general. There was a lapse in my dental care when I was eight, and when I returned to the dentist at age ten, nineteen cavities were discovered. I spent four long sessions looking at the large, hairy nose of my dentist as he drilled and filled those cavities.

My dentist looked over the X-rays and then said, “I want to tap on your teeth to see which tooth it is.” I was pretty sure I knew which one it was, and when he tapped on it and I levitated four feet off the chair, he knew which tooth it was too.

He told me news I hoped never to hear: “Clay, I think you need a root canal on that tooth.” I knew the words “root canal” had the ability to make grown men cry. One man put it to me this way, “A root canal is God’s way of testing you, to see if you cuss when you are in pain.”

My dentist was very gracious. He offered to refer me to someone else who only does root canals. I asked him if he could do it, and he said he could. Delay and see someone else or get started now; it was an easy choice. I told him to go ahead.

He started with three shots of Novocain. I felt the numbing spread across the left side of my mouth and lips. Pretty soon, it felt like my lower left lip was sliding down to my chest. Then the drilling began. It is always disconcerting to smell smoke coming from your mouth. I wondered if he had tiny fire extinguishers in case things got out of control. Then he began to insert tiny rods down into the opening to fish out the diseased nerves. It felt like someone mining for diamonds in my mouth.

Two hours in the dentist’s chair gives you time to think. I wondered, “Who was the first person to figure out how to do a root canal?” How did they know it would work? I recently finished a biography of George Washington. He had a terrible time with his teeth. He retained almost none of his originals and relied on animal or human teeth fashioned to fit his mouth. I gave God thanks I was born in the era of modern dentistry. And I thanked God for the skill of my dentist.

I could not feel a thing and I was grateful. I could sense my dentist pushing the rods up and down and actually saw an X-ray of them sticking way down into the root of my tooth. I thanked God for Novocain. I do not know who invented Novocain, but God bless him. I cannot imagine going through a root canal without being numbed. I understand why dentists in the 1800’s gave their patients lots of whiskey before they started the procedure.

I thought about the pain that had periodically radiated around the left side of my face. My dentist explained the nerves under my teeth went down to my jaw, then up and around my ear. The dead nerves in my tooth could hold infection and the pain would move up through the nerve system. Funny how you can hurt in one place and the cause is somewhere else. As my dentist kept working, I thought how sin is the same way. You may have trouble in a relationship, but the real issue is a sin in your own life you are not dealing with. Just as your body is fearfully and wonderfully made, so is your soul.

Finally, my dentist put in a temporary filling and told me I would have to come back for further work next week. He warned me that he done a lot of work and I feel pain for the next few days. “Take some Tylenol,” he said. I know people who do not like to follow medical advice about taking pain medicine. I am not one of those people. God made someone smart enough to concoct medicine that will dull the pain and I do not want to disrespect their God-given purpose.

Two hours in the dentist’s chair reminded me that God is working all around us. There are things you never think about that you should give thanks for – like medical knowledge, Novocain, and even Tylenol. Even when pain is real and intense, God is at work. There are blessings for you. Even in the dentist’s chair.