Senior Baby Tooth

“Wow, it is the oldest tooth in my mouth”, I told her excitedly.

“Yes, so you must take good care of it”, she replied.

“Haha. The senior baby tooth”.

***

I woke up with an itch on my upper left tooth. With a torch light, I looked at the itchy tooth. Obviously there is a small hole on it.

That means I have to break my life time record – my first dentist visit after I left secondary school.

“Did you see the hole on it?”, the dentist asked, giving me a small mirror and show me the hole on my tooth.

“Uhum…”, I replied.

“It is a baby tooth. You still have a baby tooth”.

“Baby tooth…”, I repeated in disbelieve.

“Do I need to remove it, since it had hole in it?”

“We’ll see. We try not to remove it. Otherwise you’ll have one tooth less.”

“Won’t the primary tooth grow out after the baby tooth is removed?”

“No. In certain case, the primary tooth is absent. So the baby tooth remains.”

After few minutes, the drilling starts. I wonder what makes people so anxious when they see a dentist. Is it due to the drilling sensation inside their mouth? Somehow I rather enjoyed it when the dentist is scrapping my teeth with the hook-like tool. Probably that’s how the crocodile feels when it open its mouth for the birds to clean its teeth.

Fifteen minutes and my baby tooth is safe again.