My latest article for the Japanese newspaper, Weekly Biz.
As always, for your reading pleasure!
Hallelujah! My Tooth is Out!
After graduating from dental
school, I enrolled in a 2 year post-grad residency program at a hospital in Brooklyn. Brookdale University Hospital is in a rather rough part of Brooklyn. It serves the community neighborhoods of Brownsville and East
New York. I chose the program to get the most
experience in treating all types of dental problems as well as head and neck
problems. Where this hospital is located, there was definitely a fair share of
action. Gunshot wounds, broken jaws, head and neck cancers, knife wounds to the
face… lots of exciting stuff!
We were required to take
turns and stay in the hospital and treat emergencies that come in overnight. Most
of the night time emergencies are from drunken fighting. But one of the most
memorable patients that came in the middle of the night was a sweet little old
lady. You could tell she was from down South by her accent. She could easily
pass for someone’s grandmother. She was a tiny little bird of a lady.
Now, tooth pain is rough.
I’ve heard people get really religious with a toothache. “Lordy, I can’t take
this anymore!” or “Sweet Jesus, this really hurts!” This time, it was a
different type of praying! That night, I was half asleep when the beeper went
off and I got out of bed reluctantly and made my way over to the emergency
room. She sat there with her hands
folded in her lap wearing a dark blue fall coat, hat and white gloves. She
looked like she was dressed for church.
She pointed to a lower molar that was rotted to the core. It was beyond
savable so I told her it needed to be extracted. “Oh no, I don’t want it taken
out,” she said. “It’ll only get worse”,
I told her. “You can’t leave it like that.”
“It will be fine,” she
promised me. “I will pray and put holy water on it.”
Now, not a lot of things
leave me speechless, but this did. I didn’t know how to answer her. She must
have seen my expression so she patted my arm and said, “Don’t worry a thing about
me, dear.” And she left.
The next night, she was
back. (I guess the praying and holy water didn’t work this time.) By now, she
was willing to part ways with her tooth.
I helped her fill out all the paperwork and got the area numb. As tiny
as she was, she had tough bone around that tooth! I rocked that tooth, I shook
it, I used all my strength but there was not much movement. All the while, she
had both hands on my arms and was praying out loud. I couldn’t quite hear exactly
what she was saying since everything was in her mouth but I caught a few words.
Suddenly and unexpectedly, with a loud “Hallelujah!” she pushed my hands out of
her mouth. I almost fell backwards half by surprise and half from her force but
the tooth came out in one piece. I was
shocked but by the look on her face, it was what she expected to happen. She
was sitting calmly in the chair. I gave
her some cotton to bite down on while I wrote up the chart. All the time I was
thinking, “What just happened?” I never
saw her again after that but I can imagine her back at church praising the Lord
loudly now that the bothersome tooth is gone!
