Another one of my wisdom teeth bites the dust. After two decades of trying to protect them from losing another member, I let go of this one. A total of two molars were lost. The first one was after giving birth to my son, my so-called sacrificial tooth or the victim of calcium loss during pregnancy.
Weird as it may sound, but I like every trip to the dentist for my regular cleaning and polishing. While some dread the mere sight of the clinic signboard, it is the opposite for me. After leaving the clinic, I'd have this satisfying feeling that my pearly whites are, indeed, pearly whites that are free from the stains of the morning and evening tea, and dark chocolate bars/drinks.
I complained to the dentist that I had been sleepless for two nights because of the pain the third molar caused. Despite the throbbing ache, I was upbeat. I was imagining the relief once the tooth is out. My dentist checked the shaky tooth, and he confirmed what I was looking forward to. I had to say goodbye to that troublesome tooth.
Anyway, the real story began when I sat on the dental chair. I thought injecting the anesthesia was the tormenting part. My dentist applied the anesthetics five times instead of two. The pain I felt with every move of the tooth extractor was unbearable. I never felt this when I had a tooth extraction the first time. Hence, the added anesthetics. My knee was jerking every time I would hear the cracking of my tooth with the left-and-right swinging of that dental tool inside my numb mouth. The dentist would stop every now and then because he said he was worried. Haha!
I was not worried. "Horrified" was the better word. The experience was totally unexpected. I never gave in to fear, though. During that ordeal, I decided to sing in my head a hymn that I sang when I had a health issue years back. I would sing this as well every time my blood pressure monitor would show elevated numbers. I was sort of meditating on a dental chair with Turn your Eyes upon Jesus playing in my head. No kidding, but it does wonders every time.
Then a realization about pain came. Pain is inevitable. It comes, but it also goes. The real clincher is what we do when we are in pain. Do we escape? Do we just go through with it?
More importantly, who do we go to when we experience pain? In my life, going to God is a time-tested way to coast through pain. It is not a religious thing. It is something more personal.
My desire for my loved ones, and for everyone, is the same. That we breeze through life by going to Jesus.
Going back to my wobbly tooth, the dentist finally showed it to me. I looked at it and felt a little "separation anxiety". That thing that caused my pain is now gone, but I felt a tinge of sadness. We are all like that sometimes. We unknowingly nurture the sources of our burdens and trouble. We'd only feel the relief after we give them up. That sadness was only for a minute. I became happy that I could sleep again unbothered by a wobbly tooth.
Now that's a life lesson.
Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full, in His wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace
