What I learned from my dentist

It has nothing to do with teeth

All my life—because I am a serial rule follower—I have gone twice a year to the dentist for a cleaning and checkup. 

It hasn’t always been easy. When I was a child my mother took me to Dr. Thompson in Brielle, New Jersey, who filled my cavities without Novocain or pain prevention of any kind. It was scary and awful and I have never forgotten it. Those experiences left me with more than a little dental anxiety, which has gotten only marginally better with the past 50 years of kinder dentists. Those first 10 years left their mark.

Yet I persist because I want to have my own teeth when I’m 80, which, it occurs to me in this moment, is only 19 years away. Well.

And then Covid happened, and a few other things. 

During the last two years we sold our North Carolina farm

(yes, it was hard to leave) and moved it all to Virginia, including the 21 cows—have you ever moved cows 300 miles? It’s an adventure.

We started a new ministry project in Colorado with three other couples, made a major job change, I went to weekly therapy, we brought my elderly mother-in-law to live with us, then a year later moved her to a nursing home back in New Jersey, and started building a house. Things have been a little busy. 

Did I find a new dentist when we moved here?

No, I did not. I would say it wasn’t high on the priority list, but the truth is it didn’t even make the priority list.

So when I finally bit the bullet and went to my first appointment in more than two years, I was nervous. I just knew my teeth were going to be a wreck, full of cavities and in need of root canals and all the other horribly invasive tortures they could think of. My fears live on.

Finally, I made appointments for Ben and me with the most-recommended dentist in the Lynchburg Facebook group because everyone knows that is the best place to shop for high-quality medical care. 

Ben’s appointment was early in the morning, and he came home raving about how wonderful the doctor is, how friendly the office ladies are, and how much I was going to love them. 

And you know what? He was right! I’m already BFFs with the hygienist, maybe because we are both grandmothers and there is an instant bond between women who have grandbabies. 

Anyway, here’s what got me started telling you this story of dental neglect. You know how after you get your teeth cleaned you can feel all the little spaces between the teeth that you haven’t felt since the last visit because they have slowly filled in with gunk even though you brush twice a day and floss regularly and don’t eat too much sugar? It happens so gradually you don’t realize it is building up until all that tartar gets scraped off and your teeth are super clean again. I love that feeling!

It reminded me of how I go along in life thinking I’m doing great. But I let in a little bad attitude here, a tiny bit of anger there, maybe a smidge of envy over there, and before I know it, my whole heart and mind are gunked up with nastiness.

But God doesn’t leave us in that sorry state. He promises to not only forgive us, but to cleanse us.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)

He whips out the sharp instruments and gets to work. The scraping and digging are unpleasant, sometimes painful. There might be a little bit of bleeding. Once in a while it requires drilling out the rot and filling in with something good, something permanent that won’t ever decay. When the rot goes deep, he has to get to the root. Ouch!

It’s hard for the dentist to see it all even with his fancy goggles, but God has x-ray vision and a supernaturally bright lamp. He sees it all in every crack and crevice. He doesn’t have to wonder where all the gunk is—he knows. He doesn’t miss a thing. He drills out the rottenness and then he fills in the empty places with his Word and his Spirit.

We might be a little sore for a day or so, but we are good as new—no, better. We are healthy and whole, cleansed.

And then what happens right after you go to the dentist? You vow to floss twice a day, rinse with the nasty mouthwash they give you, brush every time you eat. Why? Because you love feeling clean.

So what’s the point of all this?

It’s to remind us to brush and floss and rinse—and oil-pull if you’re a hippie like me.

It’s to remind us of how awesome it is to feel all the spaces, knowing our teeth are as clean as they can get.

And it’s a reminder to watch for the little things that we let creep in—the attitude that’s not quite right, the anger, the impatience—and to go after them right away. Don’t let them sit there in your soul and harden into something that needs to be removed with the sharp scraper-thingie. Bring them to the Lord and get cleansed right away, before they get to the roots.

“. . . he is faithful . . . to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)