Tortures of Life

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The road to success is always under construction - Lilly Tomlin

Over the past month or so there has been a bunch of road construction in front of my house AND around my work. In front of the house they are laying a big water pipe and in front of my work…I don’t really know. But whatever it is, it’s taking a long time and using A LOT of heavy machinery.

I had to go to the dentist today and maybe because I’m driving through and around it every day, I couldn’t help but notice that going to the dentist is a lot like road construction.

In front of the house the surveyors, took pictures, measurements and marked up the road.

At the dentist the assistant took x-rays, measurements and marked up my chart.

In front of the house the construction dudes brought in that special concrete cutting machine to make a precise cut in the road before excavation began.

At the dentist the Doctor used the special needle to give me a precise shot (well 3 or 4 actually) to numb up the area before excavation began. (By the way, I love my dentist. He kind of hides the big needle out of the patients view so you never actually see the giant hypodermic going into your mouth and he’s really so great at it that you hardly even feel the needle go in – brilliant!)

In front of the house the construction dudes barricaded the street then brought in all sorts of heavy equipment, parked it in the middle of the street then disappeared for about a week.

At the dentist the Doctor barricaded my gums with those big cotton rolls to lift the cheeks away from the teeth, filled my mouth with a bunch of braces and other equipment, then disappeared for about 15 minutes to finish up with another patient (waiting for the novocaine to REALLY take effect I guess).

In front of the house the construction dudes used the concrete cutter, the jack hammer, the front loaders and just plain dudes with shovels to dig out a big section of pipe we never even knew there was problem with. They made a lot of noise and caused a lot of dust and irritation to the neighborhood. But if they hadn’t dug it out, it would have eventually caused a lot of pain and irritation to a lot of people.

At the dentist the Doctor used the small drill, the big drill (the one that feels like a jack hammer), the rinse and sucker thing and then just those little hooky pick things to dig out a big section in the middle of my tooth that I never even knew there was a problem with. He made a lot of noise and caused a lot of smoke (or maybe water vapor – I don’t know, but at one point there was definitely some kind of smoke-like substance coming out of my mouth) and irritation to me. But if he hadn’t dug it out it would have eventually caused me a whole lot more pain and irritation.

In front of the house they replaced the pipe, filled in the hole, repaved the hole, and moved all the equipment off of the street. And now the neighborhood is pretty much back to normal. There is a long dark lump down the middle of the road where the new concrete that covers the trench isn’t quite as smooth as the old road surface - but all in all things are good.

At the dentist, the Doctor replaced the portion of the tooth that he dug out with a filling, smoothed the whole thing over and took all of the equipment out of my mouth (whew). And now my mouth is pretty much back to normal. It’s a little sore around the edges of my tooth and the filling isn’t quite as smooth as the old tooth surface – but all in all things are good.

On our front door the other day we received a notice that the pipe replacement project would resume again on our street in 2 or 3 months.

Before I left the dentist, the Doctor suggested that I come back again in 2 or 3 months so to work on the molar on the other side of my mouth.

Some tortures are physical and some are mental, but I think when it comes to road construction and dental work – it is both.