Living with Captain Ahab

At Home with the Kids
by Michael Wittig

Last autumn, right after Halloween, I broke my front tooth biting down on a piece of candy. Thankfully it didn't hurt; this is the same tooth I broke in the sixth grade and the nerve was removed long ago, so all I felt was a little pinch.

As luck would have it -there is such a thing as good fortune even when breaking a tooth - the break was above the gum attachment line and therefore the crown of the tooth stayed put until it could be surgically removed and a bone graft begun.

A bone graft for a broken tooth? Yep.

Not long ago, when teeth broke, the only solution was a bridge, an option still available today. It was described to me a process by which the adjoining teeth are ground down and ...

And that's where the conversation with my dentist about getting a bridge stopped. I have far too much attachment to my teeth to witness any of them deliberately ground down!

An implant, by contrast, involves filling the void where the tooth once resided with bone grafting material and a well-placed titanium post. The grafting material, when all goes normally, bonds with both the bone and the titanium, and after a few months a replacement tooth can be attached to the post.

Two surgeries were involved (one of which I mentioned in my column last January) and long months of healing in between and since followed. I have been without my tooth since Christmas.

To allay my vanity a "flipper" tooth was fabricated to fill in the gap, but in practice I hardly use it. It seems that while I am the person most affected by my missing tooth, I am also the person least likely to look at it, at least as long as I avoid seeing my reflection.

By steering clear of mirrors, I have succeeded in leaving my flipper out most of the time. While this is fine by me, it has been less than desirable as far as my wife is concerned. She's taken to calling me Captain Ahab. She's also become quite diligent about reminding me to wear my flipper when we go out in public.

My kids are a little uncomfortable with the gap in my mouth too, especially my son, who is probably more consistent than his mother when it comes to asking me to put my flipper in.

On the bright side, the kids' brushing habits have been getting much better since I started pointing at my mouth and saying "don't let this happen to you" when we're brushing our teeth at night.

Scaring the children can go too far though. A little round "healing" cap resembling a small Lego piece is screwed into the implant. One day, my son was looking at it and I asked him if it looked like a Lego piece to him. Then I joked that I was turning into a Lego man. I was immediately sorry for having said this. He took me quite seriously and was very upset: He's seen what happens to Lego men in the games he plays!

Lacking a front tooth isn't really so bad, but it does interfere with some aspects of daily life. It creates a speech impediment. It makes whistling very difficult. The flipper has to be removed before eating. Many people either stare or turn away when I smile.

A missing tooth certainly gives an individual a unique appearance. I mentioned this to the director of the upcoming Juneau Lyric Opera production of "The Mikado," in which I have a part. But after looking at me, he directed me not to delay getting the new tooth installed before we go into production in November.

At last, the long months of healing are over. Last week I had an impression made from which a permanent replacement will be fabricated. In another month my new tooth will be ready, and I will happily toss the flipper in the trash.

My wife is eager to see this episode conclude. So are the kids. So am I. We all want to see Captain Ahab go away and be replaced by the man we remember, with his full set of teeth.