I am ever more impressed by the size of fillings that fall out of my battered teeth. The one that fell out during lunch at a restaurant today was the size of a small-caliber bullet. It rattled around my mouth just like a bullet would before I managed to push it forward with my tongue, grab hold of it with my lips, and spit it out into the palm of my hand as inconspicuously as possible. To tell the truth, I was a little embarrassed before I figured out that no-one around me had heard the horrible sound that rang in my head. Anyway, I was so impressed that I saved the filling for my dentist. “Wow,” he is sure to say with a big grin on his face. Soon enough I will be left with hardly any teeth. Just damned fillings.

Addendum (January 8, 2009)

I have not been to my dentist for a while, but this morning I had to make another appointment with him. To my dismay, I will have to wait for nearly three weeks before anything could be done with yet another tooth of mine. Yesterday it literally fell apart, but in two stages. First a huge filling came out of it and rattled around my mouth. That happened as I was eating my lunch. And then the rest of the tooth came out as I was having my dinner. The rattle was simply horrendous at this stage. Luckily I was alone, though. Most likely the dentist will have to pull out the roots, too, but I still hope I will not be left with yet another hole in my poor mouth. At any rate, I look forward to my dentist’s jolly reaction when I present him with the two massive chunks that I have thoughtfully saved for him.