I can't help but feel like this is some sort of generational milestone. First your teeth. Then your laugh lines linger a few minutes too long. Then your hair sprouts a shock of gray announcing to all it's time to start swigging Arbor Mist and curling up to TV movies staring Tracy Gold.
Now, I know that the yoga loving, granola crunching side of me embraces the idea of aging with dignified, open arms. There is a respectable gracefulness to aging, although most women are ever ready to shoot botulism into their necks and spackle make-up like stucco to hide it. I just never imagined it was literally going to hurt.
I know I must eventually come to a place of quarter-generational acceptance. RIP, right front canine! We've had some great times together. The apples we pierced, the turkey sandwiches we masticated. I guess I can let you go and promise to cherish the memories. But please don't incite a rash of copycat suicides amongst the ranks! I may have been naive to think my 20s would be physically uneventful, but call me vain for wanting to make it through without finding sincere need for Polident.
.jpg?t=20120527181101)
Article comments
1 - Joanne Huspek
Girl, get a second opinion. Dentists can be just as wrong as doctors.
2 - Marcia Neil
During mid-life growth spurts, smiles must stretch which means that the teeth re-position themselves from deeply set-in positions -- causing pain. They also move around, even fall out, but can be returned to the socket to be tightly held once again. There is literature that claims that teeth are alive, but the teeth dry out when outside the mouth, making them brittle things that can be swallowed if care is not taken during the re-arrangement "cracking" period of the growth spurt.
3 - El Bicho
"During mid-life growth spurts,"
So I should expect a growth spurt in my 40s?
4 - Joanne Huspek
I think that's a sideway growth spurt, El B.
5 - Marcia Neil
If space is limited, the teeth will be affected negatively growth spurt or not.
6 - George Magowan
I live in Ireland where we are firm believers in the Tooth Fairy. When a child's tooth falls out they put it under their pillow at night and low and behold there is a £2 coin there in it's place in the morning. Wonder how that happened?