In memory of Dr. Tom

Those of you who know me well will remember my overwhelming dentist phobia. Terrified of the dentist. Then I found Dr. Tom. He was so nice and really good at dentistry. I never enjoyed going to the dentist still, but I loved him so much, I would have married that goofy geek. Sadly, he died suddenly, shortly after I left lovely downtown Noho. Tragic. He was so young.

The work he did on my molars has held up for almost 20 years. That is until last week. I cracked a molar on a Cheezit cracker of all things. Or I should say, I cracked what was left of the natural tooth that was holding the filling up. In fact, calling it a filling does it an injustice. It's more like a hand built tooth that Dr. Tom hand carved out of some of composite because I couldn't afford to get a real crown.

Oddly enough there was little of the natural tooth left so when that fell out, the composite still totally works for chewing. It had some sharp edges that were cutting my tongue but otherwise it's still mostly there.

I don't want to get it fixed. For one thing, I'm so broke I can't afford to go to a dentist. For another I have to go through the trauma of finding a new dentist in this town. But mostly, I managed to file off the rough edges so it doesn't hurt otherwise and if I get it repaired I'm guessing they'll drill off Dr. Tom's handiwork. It's all I have left of him. Don't want to give it up until I have no other choice.