Get it right, gentlemen

Yesterday (Thursday, February 4, 2010) I had a wisdom-tooth root fragment removed by good old Q-Dental.
That root fragment has probably been in my mouth almost 40 years.
It goes back to when my wisdom-teeth were removed by a previous dentist about 1970.
They were impacted, so were a struggle.
The dentist removed one side at first — the left side — and it was such a struggle one broke.
Which happened to make it easier to extract.
So a few weeks later with the other teeth I told him to break them if he needed to.
And so he did; and so remained that root fragment on my right side at the top.
It apparently healed over, so I wasn’t aware of it.
But with gum recession the top of it was exposed, a jagged edge.
My dentist claimed it was jaw bone, and I shouldn’t worry about it.
It was no problem, so I didn’t.
I stayed with that dentist almost 40 years.
But my Transit retirees association negotiated reduced pricing with Q-Dental.
It was because our retiree dental coverage at Transit was putrid.
I had to pay HUGE co-pays to stay with my old dentist.
So I considered switching.
My previous dentist was a long drive into Rochester. Q-Dental was closer.
I was also troubled that my old dentist refused to invest in new technology.
His receptionist used a typewriter (ding).
I was dumfounded. I hadn’t seen such a thing in years.
My old dentist was loathe to computerize. He still used hand-entered billing on ledger-cards.
So I switched. After all, Q-Dental reduced my dental co-pays about 25 percent.
The first thing Q-Dental did was X-ray my teeth.
“Digital,” I said. “Hooray. The new century at last. I’ve never seen one of those things.”
My dental X-ray was viewable on a ‘pyooter monitor. Even I could see it.
No more secretive mumbo-jumbo.
“That’s not jaw bone,” the Q-Dental dentist said. “That’s a root fragment.”
He recommended extracting it. (Ka-ching, ka-ching!)
I put him off.
It wasn’t bothering.
But I finally decided to extract it. Better to do it at age 66 than in my 80s.
It was inconsequential; only about a quarter-inch long.
I was expecting much longer, and a possible struggle.
“Doin’ okay?” he asked, as he pulled it out.
“I don’t feel a thing except that sucker in my mouth.”
Fragment extracted, he inserted a piece of gauze.
“Now bite down on this,” he said.
Chomp!
I kept the gauze in a while, and didn’t eat anything.
But it was so inconsequential I probably won’t bother with it.
Special considerations for a while; e.g. no mouthwash, and chew only on the other side.
The best part was the prep.
“What are we doing here?” a nurse said. “A full tooth extraction?”
WHOA! I hear that, and diplomacy and tact are out.
“Just a root fragment, guys. You’re not pulling a whole tooth.”
As ABC TV-news anchor Frank Reynolds used to say: “Get it right, gentlemen.”

• For 16&1/2 years (1977-1993) I drove transit bus for Regional Transit Service, the transit-bus operator in Rochester, NY. My stroke October 26, 1993 ended that.
• “‘Pyooter” is computer.