Army Bacon and the Dentist

So this morning I went into our food locker for my daily bowl of Apple Jacks or Frosted Flakes, but all that was left was Special K (ugh!).  I was actually pretty hungry as breakfast has become the defacto start to my day lately.  Next to the cereal was the unadorned brown and green plastic boxes that are known military wide as mermites, and despised just as widely. 

For those who don’t know mermites are big insulated plastic boxes that hold food either warm or or cold.  They make eggs turn green and hard, toast go soft, and for some reason one always contains gravy, no matter what the meal is.  Anyway, this mornings mermites included french toast, eggs, bacon and sausage, and gravy.  I grabbed a plate and helped myself to some french toast and bacon.

I went and sat down at the table and began eating and talking to some fellow medics.  I bit down on some bacon, hit what I thought was gristle, and threw it on the ground.  Turns out it wasn’t gristle but the cap I have had on my front tooth since I was 10.  Once I realized what happened and let out a small round of colorful expressions, I searched for the missing cap gathered it up and went to inform my pilots that I needed to see the dentist. 

Seeing the dentist has never been much fun for me. Lucky I have been granted with good hard teeth and short of this cap, and one cavity I have never had any problems.  I was quite worried about having to deal with a “snaggle tooth” for the next several months.. After all this is a combat zone and cosmetic dentistry is not much of a priority.  As it turned out though, there are some advantages to being on a big FOB, namely a real dentist. 

After signing in and explaining that I had broken a tooth I watched a couple of officers be ushered in in front of me for routine stuff.  A couple hours went by and I was finally seen.  The dentist replaced the old cap with a new temporary cap and veneer and set me up for a crown and veneer right here in theater in a month or so!  He didn’t even need to numb me up to repair the tooth, and I was able to go right back to duty.  I would have to say that if the Army can manage that in Iraq, then dentistry as a whole has come a long way from the days of horrid scratching, drilling, and toe curling pain.  The only restriction the dentist gave me was not to bite down on carrots with the temporary as it would likely chip. 

Anyway, that’s about all there is to the story. Like I said in my earlier post, not a lot happening here so the mundane is all there is to write.