Nothing But The Tooth

When I was about 5 years old, it was noticed that I had a permanent tooth coming in behind a baby tooth that showed no inclination to come out by the usual methods. It was decided that I would need to have it pulled. At that time, my grandparents lived with us. We had very little discretionary money for a household of 6 people. My mom tried to convince me that if I let her pull my tooth, there would be money to go to Disneyland. (We lived in Bellflower, CA at the time.)

The memory I have about this was my mom coming towards me holding what looked like a nasty, rusty pair of pliers. I was backing away into my bedroom watching those pliers coming closer and closer. She kept talking about Disneyland. I didn’t want any part of it…

Change scenes now to my dad taking me to the dentist. This must have been when he was working nights and my mom working days. Neither of my grandparents drove anymore. I had my bunny with me.

Dad stayed in the waiting room while I was taken back to the patient room. I don’t remember getting any kind of shot. What I remember was the dentist coming in, leaning over me, opening my mouth and him YANKING that tooth out with no preamble or preparation. A matter of seconds. He immediately leaned over me, very close, and said something like, “Now don’t you cry or the others will hear you!!” in a very stern voice. I was totally silent. Cotton was packed in the area and I went out to my dad. He was sitting in a chair reading a paper with Bunny in his lap. Since I couldn’t talk with all the blood and cotton in my mouth I just stood in front of him until he noticed me. He was surprised I was there so quietly.

We drove home and I still had my mouth closed tightly as it filled with blood and saliva. When we got out of the car my dad seemed to realize what was going on and had me spit on the ground. I don’t remember any residual pain. My parents never knew about any of this. I didn’t even get my tooth back from the dentist to put under my pillow.