And god said . . . "Let there be teeth !!"

As most of you know I am celebrating my first week of health !! That is right folks, seven consequtive days without cold, cough, fever, cold sweats, sore throat, etc. etc.. Our blessed house has been hit by three rounds of flu..

First we owe this to our toddler who has finally learnt the art of sharing. We have been begging her for more than a year to share with friends.. Now that she is a "big girl" she insists on carrying a "chapstix" with her wherever she goes..(for those in India who are alien to this concept, lips get cracked here due to the cold, so we have vaseline in a lipstick tube which you apply on your lips !!) and you guessed it, she has been SHARING her chapstix with her friends in her daycare. This makes the daycare a virologists dream, what with the kids freely sharing germs and mutating them !!

Secondly, we owe this to the baby, cute, cuddly and very kissworthy, she is a biological weapon by herself. Between the two of them they run a germ factory that would put Saddam's men to shame. They also distribute free samples to us on a daily basis to promote their business . .

Finally, the fact that the entire house has internal air circulation, what comes into the house, stays in the house !! Opening the house gurantees you a cold anyways.

In spite of all the odds stacked against me, I managed to have seven cold free days, only to find out that I had to go to the dreaded Dentist chair !!

It has been six years since I sat in the Chair. Dentistry in the United States is more of a flourishing business than a branch of medicine. I still remember my dental visits in India. My dentist was so busy handling serious dental surgery patients that he would say "just keep brushing your teeth regularly.. we will see you if there is an emergency". If there WAS an emergency, he would take a quick X-ray, diagnose in two minutes, fix the problem in another 5 and off you went back to whatever you were doing.

Here, I had some irritation in my teeth. I go to the dentist and guess what ? They took 4 rounds of x-rays, including one where my face is held tight by a machine and it rotates around my head and takes a Panoramic X-ray !!. I got to see all my teeth in panoramic View and then the dentist proceeded to poke every teeth to make measurements on how bad my teeth, gums were. Then came the verdict "we cant fully fix your problem today because this is only a 15 min appointment. In Tamizh we have a saying "siru thurumbum pal kuththa udhavum" which literally means "even a small stick can be used as a toothpick". So imagine the possibility with the latest and greatest dental chair. It reminded me of the godess Kali who has 20+ hands with an assortement of weaponry in each one of them. After some harrowing moments, I was told that some temporary stuff had been done to reduce my pain, but I had to come back for DEEP CLEANING !!

I immediately knew that my wallet was also going to undergo a deep cleaning. They are charging a 1000 dollars for this procedure and I pay 200 bucks out of my pocket!! For that kind of money I can fly to India and get it cleaned (if necessary) for 50 bucks. The funny part is that the irritation is still there. Now I remember why I stopped going to the dentist six years ago !!