Joyride III

Whenever I thought about the word “flipper”, the image that came to my mind was one of a friendly aquatic mammal. It never occurred to me that a “flipper” was also a removable dental piece.
What started out as a routine dental checkup, rapidly converted into a crash course in Dentistry 101.
It turned out that I had a baby tooth. This tooth was hanging out in my mouth for all these years, hiding from the dental world afraid of being detected.
Who would’ve thought that a grown woman like me would still have a baby tooth? It felt like a bizarre tale straight out of an episode of “Ripley’s Believe It or Not.”
But the shocking moment wasn’t over yet, as I learned that it was loose. This meant that my tooth was going to be removed and replaced with a flipper. I went from having a baby tooth to having to use dentures, all in one day.
My tooth saga didn’t end there, as I learned that I had three more teeth that had the same destiny as this one. But, those teeth could wait a little as they were still too hard to be extracted.
“What about getting a dental implant?” I asked. The insertion of a dental implant is considered a cosmetic procedure.
Dental implants are not covered by health insurance and each tooth had a whopping out-of pocket price of $1,000. I was too broke to ever afford such expensive teeth. At that moment, the flipper went from being a mere dental piece to one of my most- prized possessions.
One day the inevitable happened, I lost my tooth. I felt as if the world was slowly disintegrating around me.
Growing up, my mom constantly bragged about how all of her children had the perfect smile. We didn’t have a single cavity and our teeth were straight. Having healthy teeth was our family’s trademark.
Life can be ironic. I went from having a complete set of teeth to desperately looking for a fake tooth on all fours.
Luckily I found my flipper. It was camouflaged on top of my pink bed spread. What a relief. I was able to breathe again.
I can’t believe that an orthodontic prosthesis had so changed my existence. I will soon have to take drastic measures to find a solution to my dental dilemma.
Call me vain. But, it is not the same to lose a tooth in kindergarten as it is to be toothless in college.
I thought about placing an ad that said “Will Work for Teeth,” but that sounds a little extreme. Perhaps, I should check under my pillow to see if the tooth fairy left a few dollars for me. Hopefully, she’s not going through a financial crisis like the rest of us.
Keith Forrest is an assistant professor of communication at Atlantic Cape Community College. His late Mother Libby Demp Forrest Moore wrote the Joyride column for this newspaper for 20 years..