Dentists are Criminals Pt. 2

I said it before and I’ll say it again.

But here’s the thing about criminals. Sometimes they’re just people who are bad at their job. My dentist is a sweet lady. Her assistant says nice things to me. And for two months, I drove twenty minutes to Sunset Boulevard, multiple times, for a crown that didn’t fit, a crown that was the wrong size, an appointment that got canceled before I even sat down. I smiled every time I walked in. Not because I forgave them. Not because I’m enlightened. Because what was I going to do?

I sat with half a tooth in my mouth for weeks. I ate carefully. I didn’t dwell. Life kept moving the way it does when you just don’t stop moving, and somewhere in there I confused that with acceptance, which maybe is what acceptance actually is when it isn’t a concept.

Six years I didn’t go to the dentist. No pain, no warning, no reason to think anything was wrong. And then everything was wrong. I guess that’s the thing about problems you can’t feel coming.

The chapter closes like this. My Hebrew birthday. A table with my family, the Atzmon family, cracking jokes, laughing, being exactly who we are together. An eggplant dish, crispy rice with spicy tuna, beef carpaccio, a Wagyu burger, two pastas, a glass of wine, a cocktail. The first real meal with the finished tooth. And I never felt it. Which is how it’s supposed to be. Which is the whole point.

Except I do feel it. Not at dinner, not when it matters, but in the quiet moments when my tongue finds it and I remember. There’s a fake tooth in my mouth now. I’ve been marked. That’s the word for it. Marked.

My brother asked me at dinner, one piece of advice as a twenty eight year old, what would it be. I said: one thing at a time. Life isn’t a to do list. It’s big movements. You own one, then you move to the next. You’re not checking off tasks. You’re building yourself.

I believe the first thirty years are just part one. You’re laying the base for everything that comes after. And looking back at twenty eight, I think my part one has been pretty good. I’ve met people who changed me. I know there are so many more people I haven’t met yet, and that’s the part that gets me going.

Here’s what the tooth taught me, if it taught me anything. No pain doesn’t mean no problem. I know there are things in my life I’m stalling on. Relationships I could make better. Conversations I keep not having. I’m just brushing my teeth and hoping something changes. But that’s how you end up needing a root canal. And when you finally show up for it, you’re not even ready.

So just do things. One at a time. Don’t neglect.

I’m switching dentists. The sweet lady will be fine without me.

But I can’t wait to meet my next dentist.