Dr. Doug, who I have had the pleasure to work with here in Togo, wrote this wonderful piece. He said I could share it. I enjoyed it very much so I hope you do as well! 

 

“ROOTS"
 Some people come to Africa on big game hunting safaris and keep the taxidermists employed.  I came to Africa to keep the tooth fairy employed.  An even dozen cleaned themselves up to show the world their peculiarities.          
ROW ONE. PICTURED LEFT TO RIGHT:  Mildred Molar.   She came out in one piece.  Barry Bicuspid.  A first bicuspid, upper right side, tooth #14.  Huge internal cavity. Wouldn’t budge with the pry bar.  Applied vise grip......snap right at bone level.  Roto rooter time.  Even with  a lot of roots exposed, still wouldn’t budge....more cold steel and sunshine....pry bar finally cracked it in half and revealed it’s unbudgeability.....two roots,  one headed east and the other west.    Whew, very very stubborn tooth.
        Winnie Wisdomless.  This fine specimen could be a candidate for Guinness Book.   It’s the only 4 rooted upper wisdom tooth I’ve ever seen.  Calvin Clingon. This is what’s left of a upper cuspid that just would not give up.  Like extricating a fist that got in a bucket of cement.  The Swiss roto rooter put in some overtime on this one.  Had to put the drill bit half way out of the chuck to get enough length to get deep enough to finally get to the bulge creating a big enough opening to tease it out.
        Harry Humpback.  This obstinate fellow was the front root of a lower first molar.       Chair six front row:  Almost called in the x-ray team for this guy.  Both front and back roots of this lower third molar kept breaking of when the pry bar was applied.  Check out the hook on the back root.   MAMA MIA
        ROW TWO:   Chair one-  Samuel Supernumerary.  This  is a lower bicuspid that was a twin of it’s neighbor.  Instead of having the normal two lower left bicuspids, she had four. With the extra two in a row by the tongue. Samuel had a slight bump on the end of his root.  Molly Molar came out in one piece, amazingly.  Tenacious Theodore.  You’ve seen this dude before.  Reattached his legs with super glue.   Marlboro Man.  Second Row chair 4.  This was another first for me.  A lower second bicuspid.   Big cavity into Mr. Nerve.  Another non budge-er.  Crown snapped off.  As I was roto rooting the root, the root anatomy was non-typical, not round as normal, but fatter front to back.  Going deeper into the bone, two roots showed up.   Wow, another tooth entry for Guinness.
        Mary Marvelette.  This curvy lady didn’t want anything to do with the Swiss Dude, she was stubborn, but finally succumbed.  All three of her roots, had they snapped off, would have been another challenge.  And last but not least:  Lucy Not Loosie.  The checkside roots of this lovely lady snapped off.  Fortunately they were fused together and did check out with a little coaxing. Super Glue to the rescue.
        SO....now you know why I refer to this work:  “Life is like a box of chocolates:   You NEVER know what you are gonna get.”

Written by Dr. Doug