Tiny Memoir
He was such a nice guy and other thoughts about murderers
He was also my dentist
My mom had a seizure disorder and took Dilantin while she was pregnant with me. This was really the start of my teeth trouble. It turns out that one of the side effects of taking this medication while pregnant is that it robs the fetus of calcium.
When you have chronic dental problems, you learn that any trip to the dentist can end painfully. For me, it meant that by the time I was 25 I had lost most of my back molars and my top front teeth are all caps. It also meant that I dreaded going to the dentist.
By the time I was in my forties, I knew that I needed to choose a dentist very carefully. I was new in town and asked around. I finally found Mike. He was a great dentist! He rebuilt my front teeth, helped but in the one fake I have, and was gentle and patient with me.
I was in his office a lot, not just every six months for a cleaning. There was always something my teeth needed. I found out that he went to Tulane University in New Orleans, which is where I got my MA and lived for years after that.
He had two beautiful children, and we often swapped stories about our kids. It was clear that he loved his kids very much. He always had eighties music playing in his…
