The Dentist Domination

When I was a kid, I loved going to doctors. It was incredible. They stuck sharp gleaming needles in your arse, sang soothing poems while they did it, and then gave you toffees as a parting gift, which proved to be so much more effective than the painkillers and left you feeling great about yourself. However, this feel-good syndrome was applicable only to ‘normal’ doctors, that is, all types of doctors besides dentists. After having been at the mercy of various practitioners in the medical arena, I have come to fear dentists the most. Almost every other type of doctor, and this has been true since the dawn of time and doctors; does the damage that is due to a patient when the patient is unconscious, either naturally because they passed out like a scaredy-cat, or because they have been anaesthetized. It is only the dentist that cruelly instructs you to open your mouth wider, ignores your meek whelps of pain, and proceeds to grind a drill into your teeth and plays with your nerves. Literally.

Time passed, and my teeth were well. They demonstrated admirable resilience over the passage of time, and broke down everything that I presented to them with Swiss-like precision. There were a couple of hiccups here and there, but there was nothing that I couldn’t handle. However all good things that have a beginning, have an end. I had been to Japan where I proceeded to drink Coke almost everyday, that being the most readily available drink, and ate a lot of chocolates, them being the most edible food around. I didn’t know it then, because it has been firmly established that you can’t really connect the dots looking forward, but this was to be the period when my teeth were methodically destroyed; by me.

It began with a dull throbbing sensation in one of my teeth, and gradually proceeded to a stage wherein it felt as if someone was hitting my brain with a rather sharp hammer. When it became clear that it was no passing frenzy, I visited The Dentist. This was a rather nice, pleasant lady who instead of saying hello, stuck a mirror into my mouth, took a couple of x-rays and informed me that I was going to have to undergo a journey of intense pain and suffering, and pay for it as well. The verdict was that I would have to have 4 teeth root canaled, and one tooth from my lower jaw extracted. Extraction. I almost went numb. I had never thought that the day would come when someone would insert a plier into my mouth and pull a tooth out. This was stuff that happened only in gore movies, not in real life!

When the day came I dragged my feet, which felt as if they were chained to a tank, to the clinic and waited for the horror that was about to unfold. And unfold it did. I’ve never felt so much pain in my entire life. Not even when they restored my fractured wrist into its socket (I wasn't very adept at skating when I was a kid), did it hurt as much as it did for those 5 interminable minutes. She added the nice personal touch to the whole procedure by showing me my tooth, which made it even worse. After having rested for a couple of days, I visited the ‘nice lady’ again to see what more was in store for me. To my consternation, she told me that she was going to have to extract another tooth from my upper jaw! The doomed tooth was apparently an obstacle in the way of a brand new crown, which she was going to fit on a ‘root canaled’ tooth that was directly below it. I failed to comprehend the logic in this. Why should I have to part with the upper tooth, just to get a crown fitted on the lower one? I requested her to re-think her strategy, and evaluate if there was any other way that it could be done but she refused to do so. She argued that this was her expert medical opinion, and that extracting another tooth was the best way to do it. I disagreed.

Now, I could have taken a second opinion from another dentist at this stage, but my treatment was almost 90% complete, and I had also developed a lot of faith in her skills. So I decided to solve this problem myself. It should be noted here, that I have a gift for problem solving. Ever since I was young, I was always good at putting together things that were broken. And this was going to be my pet project, besides the fact that I didn’t want to be tortured again for no apparent reason. I asked her to draw me a diagram of my present jaw, and how my teeth would look like once the crown was fitted, and the problem that the tooth-to-be-plucked-out would cause if it wasn’t plucked out. I mulled over the problem for days. The one advantage I had while racking my brain was that since I had no formal knowledge or preconceived notions of how to tackle the problem, I could truly think out-of-the-box. Meanwhile, the 'nice lady' called to check what I was up to, and when I would be able to surrender to her.

The pressure was mounting. And it was only then that I had what alcoholics refer to as 'the moment of clarity'. All that was needed was to saw off a part of the upper tooth that was in the way; change the shape of the tooth a bit, and that was it. I suggested the idea to her. She protested that though my logic was sound, this wasn't how it was done, and that it might lead to complications. I reasoned that any dentist could do it by removing the tooth, but that the true measure of high caliber dental work would be to do it by saving the tooth, and that this was what I wanted. Not mediocre work, but great work. She said she would try, and I asked her to give it her best shot. She did, I still have the tooth, and it all worked out okay.

What I realized after having been through this episode was that sometimes, we human beings never fully realize our potential. To do truly great work, we need to be pushed and challenged by someone. Much like any sport, wherein the game of the opponent dictates how much you need to raise your game to a completely higher level to win. I also realized that it is almost as significant to know what you should not do, as it is to know what you should do, even if it may not be your field of expertise. That, we should never settle for what we believe is mediocre. And, that our instincts always point us in the right direction.

But wouldn't it be so much easier if we challenge ourselves? Do we really need someone else to bring out the best in us? What if there is no one who can do that for us? We can be the best critics of our own work, we can drive ourselves to do the extraordinary and leave behind the ordinary. I try to do this with my every-day work, and I have realized that every time I have done something in a really crappy fashion, I have always been able to take a pause, reflect on it, realize that I could do a lot better, and change things.

The one downside of doing things this way is that I never feel completely satisfied with what I do, but it did help me save a tooth. And that alone makes it truly worthwhile..