Trip to a Dentist's

A man and a woman were traveling in a train. The woman said to the man - Every time you smile I feel like inviting you to my place. Man, excited - "Are you single ?" Woman - No, I am a dentist.

Recently I had a trip to my Dentist's office. Though no big of a deal, invariably a dental visit has a mental syndrome associated with it. Glad the trip went well. Sad, I still had to come out of the habit of touching and feeling the filling's coating 1001 times a day using my tongue tip.

During the fancy dress competition in our school a guy playing dentist would try to uproot his patient's tooth using a hammer and chisel. The scene was hilarious. That impression of a dentist lasted in my mind for a while as the childhood memories tend to linger longer, shaping one's character. When I watched the scene from movie CASTAWAY where Tom Hanks takes off his aching tooth using a skating ⛸ shoe and a coconut, like deja vu I instantly remember this fancy dress competition.

The apprehension of visiting a dentist's probably has to do with my growing up days when dental hygiene was not given a priority. Flushing in between the teeth and professional dental cleaning was hardly heard of. When I had occasional dental pain my mother would give me some clove oil and it stopped it. I never saw a mouthwash until I was into my 20s. Brushing and KULUKUNCHA, the Odia word for rinsing the mouth post eating was the best dental care we used to do. A POKA KHIA DANTA, the Odia term for germ eaten worn out tooth warranted a visit to dentist. Fortunately for me, so far I have encountered only minor dental issues. 

Rather than fluoride coating most people in Odisha had black coated teeth due to chewing of tobacco filled PAANs (betel), with the GUA (betel nuts) giving them first a red coating which over time turns into a brown crust. The accompanied tobacco gives the teeth a dark hue. The parents of a nubile girl who got into this bad habit of chewing ZARDA (a popular scented tobacco brand) PAAN received a marriage proposal for her. She was paraded in front of the Candidate (local lingo for a prospective groom) - a salient feature of the parody of the arranged marriages in India. 

Before being paraded, the visiting groom's side were served warm "cold drinks" (as soda is called in India), followed by chilled Singada (Samosa) and piping sweet and syrupy hot tea, claimed to be made by the prospective bride-to-be. However throughout the evening she deliberately kept her teeth clenched while serving the food and drink to groom's family. But no sooner she opened her mouth, than the proposal was doomed as the closely observing groom's mother (the prospective mother-in-law) opened her mouth with this snide remark - "JHIA TI RA RANGA JEMITI, DANTA BI SEMITI" (Like the girl's dark complexion, so goes her teeth). Fair complexion rules the rule in India. The point was well taken.

Many eventually score 32 all out (all 32 teeth gone) in their 2nd innings after their first innings of "32 all out" happens around 10 years of age old when all the milk tooth come out. But the 2nd innings can come way too early if you don't take any dental care. The tooth gone the second time is gone forever.

Back in those days there were a few dentists in Bhubaneswar, only one I knew was a man of Chinese origin who had a dental clinic in Bapuji Nagar. Folks would visit the dentists only if a toothache gives them sleepless nights. These days many dentists are doing flourishing business in Bhubaneswar. May their tribe thrive. A "32 all out" exposing the phalanx of white teeth is a far better sight than uneven tobacco stained blackened teeth.

Reminds me of a funny incident, how bad we are at following personal safety as far our DANTA (tooth in Odia) and it bears a lot of similarity with the English word associated with Dental). One of my friends from Berhampur, Odisha just day before his interview, in order to hide his betel stained teeth told me - "Interview AGARU TUPAZZA BLADE DHARI DANTA KURIBARA EKKA (using a topaz blade, I will clean my teeth). He was quite a smart guy, but still did it in spite of me advising him not to do so. Not only this action can damage the tooth enamel, there is danger of severly hurting the gum and making it septic. Still he went ahead and did his "DANTA KURIBARA EKKA".

It is said that in old paintings you will rarely find people smiling as they were reluctant to expose their teeth while sitting for the artist because of their bad teeth. Those days people didn't take care of dental hygiene and many lost their teeth in their early days of life. Not anymore. Dental hygiene, dental care, wearing of braces etc has gone up, so also business of the dentists. We live in changing times.