After five visits to my dentist, spread out over two months, to initiate and go through all the stages of a root canal, today the gold crown was finally installed with great fanfare. When the assistant who was helping Dr. Charlie first brought the gold crown in, she exclaimed, “This is so heavy! Do you want to feel it? It is so heavy!” When I demurred, she repeated, “Are you sure? It is so heavy!”
For the next 15 minutes or so, as she continued to do the prep work for Dr. Charlie, putting the gold crown in, then taking it out, then putting it back in, then taking it out again, all I could think of were the gruesome pictures I had seen of mounds of gold fillings which the allies had found in the various concentration camps after World War II. Were these extracted before or after the Jews were gassed to death? What was the Third Reich going to do with all these gold fillings? And then I started to cry.
“Am I hurting you?” the dental assistant inquired, sounding really alarmed.
“No,” I mumbled.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, quite sure. I’m just thinking about what all this gold is going to cost.”
“Oh,” she laughed. “You’re such a joker.” And then Dr. Charlie came in to do the final art installation.
My mouth is now golden. But will I be able to chew on my new crown without thinking of those mounds of gold fillings, ever again?
From M.C. Davidson:
Sorry your new tooth isn’t sitting well with you — that was a very moving entry in your blog.