Had a tooth removed today. The infection I had on a root-canal a while ago never really went away. I didn’t feel it anymore, but a recent xray showed that it was still there and affecting the bone. Instead of getting surgery and having amalgam shoved into the tooth and the infection cut out, I opted for having the tooth pulled and getting a bridge.

So, as of today I am 100% amalgam free as I had three other amalgam fillings removed last year.

I am a dental relic – a person with four fully developed wisdom teeth and a mouth large enough to contain them without pushing against my other teeth. My mother always said I did have a big mouth…

Very few people develop all four wisdom teeth anymore. One theory suggests that is so because people don’t eat a lot of grains anymore and don’t seem to need them. In any case I have learned quite a bit about teeth on the Internet last year. My x-dentist wanted to pull all four of my wisdom teeth – slipping them out he called it – because bacteria can grow in the shadow of those teeth, which are hard to reach with floss or brush… three of my wisdom teeth were in good condition, only the fourth one needed a filling.

I didn’t like the idea very much and started educating myself. I learned that pulling wisdom teeth after the age of 25 means a small chance of having nerve-damage and talking funny… and I don’t like the idea of sitting on stage and drooling onto my guitar in front of a couple of thousand people… And extracting those wisdom teeth is not slipping, but yanking and cutting, because those teeth have some serious roots…

I started looking around and found a dentist I love. She has practiced Natural Dentistry for over twenty years and is a great doctor. Over the last half year my new dentist removed the amalgam fillings I had had for years and showed me how to inject a Baking-Soda solution (most natural mouthwashes contain no alcohol, but Baking–Soda, which changes the PH in your mouth, which in turn makes negative bacteria unhappy without killing the good bacteria) around my wisdom teeth so they can stay healthy. The amalgam fillings were replaced with a very modern compound that is made from, if I remember this right, diamond powder, ceramics and a material that hardens almost instantly when light is added. In other words the filling is prepared, placed into the tooth and shaped, and then a UV light is placed right over the tooth which causes the compound to harden instantly. You can walk out of the office and bite into anything right away.

PS: Saturday – Anyway, I feel almost brand new. I have ingested only juices since yesterday and the hole in my mouth is starting to heal nicely. My teeth are in good shape and the studio is renovated. The tiny new recorder arrived on Thursday and a new guitar is arriving on Tuesday. I am ready to go.