Copyright
©Jane H. Johann, 2016
Mossyrock, Washington, USA

It is inevitable! One wisdom tooth remaining and now it must be extracted! It served me well for the last 67 years.

While living in Kenya, in my younger, adventurous years in pursuit of saving the world (…and my soul), I was living in the rural Aberdare mountain range, in the little village of Kiriko. The village consisted of two schools, a Catholic Church, and the convent (yes—where I lived!). I had to travel outside of Kiriko to the town of Thika, just as you may have seen in the film, Out of Africa, ( that starred Meryl Streep and Robert Redford—my two favorites! ). I was treated  by a dentist from India, who was very meticulous in his approach to my teeth. The last molar’s roots were entangled with the embedded wisdom tooth. He correctly thought that my last molar was already destroyed, so he took the approach of separating it from the wisdom tooth, and was hoping that the wisdom tooth would eventually descend and take on the duties of the last molar. He was correct!  And, for these many years, the tooth did a good job! However, with the decline of years upon me (I still have 50 to go! as my Mom lived to 94 and all of her sisters as well! and the same longevity of life can also be attributed to my Dad’s sisters, two of whom are still walking and talking!),  my wisdom tooth has fallen into decay and needs extraction. Woe is me!

At least, I still have the remaining 30 teeth—as I, unfortunately, lost one bottom tooth years ago when it entered my mouth sideways, and unknown, at that time period, to an alternative procedure, their method of dealing with it, was to extract it.  I have three daughters—my middle daughter had the same tooth issue on the very same tooth as my bottom tooth, Lost Tooth #1,—only the dentist inserted a gold chain and within months, pulled it into its rightful position and saved the tooth! A toothful wonder! (…pardon the pun).

So, Monday is D-day! Out with the wisdom tooth!