After I'm confident that I have the quickest route, I will switch to K-Love music. The DJs scatter in interesting stories around the world. Today's story hit home. It had all the makings of a love story. A boy, a girl, a wedding proposal, a ring.... and a wisdom tooth?!
Sometimes after I do an extraction, I will remark that the extracted tooth would make a perfect pendant for a necklace for the wife or girlfriend because Christmas is coming up soon. The patient would laugh along so the mood in the room would not be so stressful anymore. Of course, no one has ever taken that advice to heart. That is, until I heard the story on the radio this morning.
Apparently, a man had his wisdom tooth extracted and had it set into a ring and proposed to his girlfriend who promptly said, "Yes". Now, as a dentist, I don't mind being around teeth, in the mouth or all bloody and sitting on my tray after an extraction. I don't care how beautiful this wisdom tooth is or if it somehow had a weird indentation on it resembling a heart or if it had a heart engraved into it, I personally don't think any removed body part is appropriate as a token of undying love or used to ask someone for their hand in marriage.
Here is my latest article for Weekly Biz, Japanese newspaper. For your reading enjoyment and entertainment!
Will
You Marry Me?
This morning when I was on my way to work, I heard
something interesting on the radio. A man recently had his wisdom tooth
extracted. He had it made part of a ring and used it to ask his girlfriend to
marry him. As I listened to this story, I thought back 20 years ago when my
husband asked me to marry him. How would I react if he was on his knees with a
ring that had his tooth in it? I think I would have left him on his knees!
As romantic as this man may think, the reason diamonds
are in engagement rings and wedding rings is because diamonds are forever. They
are beautiful and nothing can destroy them. A tooth, on the other hand, while
being beautiful, it cannot last very long on a ring. Over time, it will dry out
and break into pieces. On that day, the girl that received the really personal
piece of jewelry will be left with a ring with sharp broken pieces of body
parts. Not very attractive or romantic now, is it? The announcer on the radio
said that she accepted his proposal for marriage with the tooth ring. But I
certainly hope she gets a diamond from her man in the near future as well as a
“I’m just kidding about the tooth ring, honey! Here’s the real ring!”
So how much is your tooth worth? It’s worth more in your
mouth than out of your mouth! A clean, healthy tooth is free of charge and will
last forever but once there’s decay, there’s the price of a filling, or the
price of a root canal, or the price of a crown attached to that tooth. If that
tooth is so bad that it needs to be taken out, there’s the price of an
extraction, the price of replacing it with an implant!
Please be careful keeping your mouth and
teeth clean and healthy. Get regular x-rays with exams, regular cleanings, and
make sure to fix things when they are small!
Gentlemen, if you are single and reading this, start saving up for that
diamond ring that you will be giving the future love of your life. I can tell you, not a lot of girls are OK
with a tooth on a ring as an example of your forever love for them!
