I am the happiest person on earth today. Yes I can visualize many puzzled looks so let me elaborate—
My nightmare began a month back at the dinner table. I was trying to tackle a piece of chicken bone when all at once I felt a crumbling sensation in my right molar teeth. Very gingerly I let my tongue ride over them and to my horror I realized that the crown of one tooth had given away leaving a sharp jagged edge! “Broken tooth” announced my husband “you must visit the dentist tomorrow” - much to my dismay.

 If there is anyone in this world I am mortally scared of it is the dentist .So with a great deal of anxiety and apprehension I found myself in the dentist’s chamber the following evening. He was a man of very few words. In no time I found myself reclining in the examining chair while he tapped and prodded my teeth with his instruments. He finished his examination and gave a grunt. An assistant materialized from nowhere and guided me out of his chamber and into an x-ray room .Then followed a series of x rays where I had to perform some acrobatics with my mouth ( open your mouth wide…grind your teeth…hold your breath…keep still …)

The assistant led me into his chamber again. The doctor looked up at me and grunted again. The assistant explained to me that I would have to wait till he studied my x ray plates. I marveled at his capacity of interpreting the grunts. After studying the x rays for a long time (during which I had my worst nightmare of imagining him pulling out my teeth) he finally looked at me and actually spoke! It appeared that I had not one but quite a few broken teeth. I protested (feebly though) that I could feel only one broken tooth. He chuckled and told me that x ray of teeth is like Pandora’s Box –it opens up many dark secrets! Indeed I stared at the x ray horrified that so much had happened inside my mouth without my knowledge! With fingers crossed (they were shaking actually) I asked him how many teeth he has to pull out trying to imagine all the while how my family would cope with a toothless wife and mom! The doctor grinned and relapsed back to his usual and by now familiar grunt. The assistant (bless him) explained that there would be no tooth extraction but only repair and artificial crowning. His words were music to my ears.

Then followed several consultations over the past one month .Each appointment day I would wake up with a heavy heart wishing there would be a flash flood or a sudden bandh. However no such miracle happened and reluctantly I would set out for his chamber.

Until today….after a series of root canal, drilling, needle pricks all over gums and what have you…my dentist announced ( yes he didn’t grunt this time ) that all my ordeal was finally over ; all my teeth were mended and I needn’t visit him again. I was so getting used to his chamber, his periodic grunts and his energetic assistant that I was almost beginning to miss them all!  An exchange of thanks, smiles, fees and goodbyes later I sailed out of his room humming ‘Top of the world’---like I mentioned earlier- I am the happiest person on earth today!