2026, Health, Mysteries, Technology

Little Dental Offender

23 Comments

Backstory to today’s story.   Quite a few years ago, one of my back teeth broke (no pain.)  And I mean lots of pieces broke.  My dentist sent me to a specialist to extract it (no pain).  Then after a few weeks, I got a bridge.   Fast forward about six years and I was having some discomfort (ok, yeah, pain) and it turns out that the very back tooth of the bridge needed a root canal.  Sigh.  Off to the endodontist for this.  That morning she said she was a bit concerned due a small crack in the tooth but she thought she could make it work.  Easy peasy (no pain).  This was two years back.

Fast forward again to about 3 months ago when I noticed a bit of discomfort during brushing (no pain, just discomfort).  I paid a lot of attention to this because I figured it was the bridge/root canal acting up after two years.  The discomfort really didn’t change so I decided to let it ride until my usual dentist appointment yesterday.

I explained it to the hygienist (Kenzie) and when she poked at the area, there was a little jolt (yes, of pain) and she backed off.  When the dentist came in to do her check, Kenzie said “I saw a little something stuck there”.   I wasn’t sure what in heavens name could be stuck there – I am an every-night brusher/flosser, including under the bridge.  I was prepared this time for the discomfort when the dentist poked about (a smidge of pain).  She mentioned a tooth fragment while she was poking and that gave me immediate thoughts of one of those bridge teeth disintegrating and all those implant commercials I’ve seen recently flooded my brain.  Turns out that the fragment is NOT from any of my current teeth.  It is almost certainly a fragment left over from the initial tooth that was extracted eight years ago.  The dentist showed me a couple of past x-rays and pointed out what she thought may have been the fragment slowly migrating to the surface. 

WOW. Seems like science fiction to me and I probably said “wow” more than once.  And, of course, I was instantly so relieved.   I couldn’t leave the little fragment just sitting there on the dental tray so I convinced Kenzie to find a little sleeve to put it in.  I’m pretty sure I won’t keep it for more than a couple of weeks, but really – WOW.

I’ve never had a souvenir from the dentist before – unless you count floss and toothpaste.  Truly I’m pretty sure I ever want another but for now, this will do.

What’s one of your most unlikely souvenirs? Bonus points if you know where the phrase “little offenders” comes from.

23 thoughts on “Little Dental Offender”

    1. I have a friend living in a rural area in Wisconsin. When her kids were little, ticks were far from uncommon. Her routine was that every time someone in the houshold got a tick, the extracted offender was taped to the refrigerator door with a name and date. The name of the tick’s victim, not the tick itself.

      No one became seriously ill.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

      1. But why??? I’m thinking dead ticks on the fridge could only be good as a weight loss measure….

        Like

        Reply

        1. There are labs that test ticks for pathogens. My friend worked at the U of W, and it’s quite possible she could bring a specimen there, if symptoms developed.

          I imagine they could also serve as a reminder to apply insect repellent before going out.

          Like

    1. How did you find them? I watched for Phoebe’s and McGee’s and only found one tiny Phoebe tooth. The rest went into the vacuum I am sure.

      Liked by 3 people

      Reply

      1. I watched her remove several of them. She started kind of licking and moving her mouth around, then a tooth would come out. I have 7 or 8 of them. I also saw them lying on the rug, and because I didn’t want her eating foreign objects, I always picked up whatever it was and saw that she had lost another tooth. I’m sure all the rest ended up in the vacuum too.

        Liked by 3 people

        Reply

    2. Shortly after we moved into this house, our street was repaved and curbs added. I still have a chunk of limestone that is full of shells, to remind me of who was living here before.

      Like

      Reply

  4. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    7 years ago, during the summer before my knee replacement, I picked up a rose thorn in my calf. This was in my right leg which was also the knee which needed replacing. I thought this was a bee sting because the calf was tender and slightly swollen, but nothing else was apparent. About 6 weeks later the area was red and swollen. I poked at the area and out popped a pretty large (about 1/2′) rose thorn. I kept that thorn for a couple of weeks because it was so weird? Horrifying? Interesting? I am not sure why. The only reason it was horrifying was because an infection in that site could have derailed my knee replacement. Surgeons are pretty careful about such things. But since it took care of itself, all was fine. That was a weird experience.

    Other souvenirs:

    In my great-grandfather’s things: a hate letter to his sister regarding the care of his second wife written in the 1920s. He was still mad because the sister intervened in his wife’s care when she found she had bedsores. He was not concerned for his wife’s care and comfort, only that his sister intervened. He does not mention why he was not caring for her effectively. That letter explained a lot of family conflict and grudges. What a mess.

    In my grandparents things, hundreds of unlabeled black and white pictures of hogs and cows that must have represented something to them. Locks of baby hair in envelopes. My paternal Grandmother kept valentines and postcards from the 1910s and 1920s. Those have some value. My grandfather had a stash of handmade, clay marbles that he played with as a child in the 1890s-1900s that are a real find. He also had a bag of Indianhead pennies that I still have.

    In my mother’s things–several cancelled checks covering the cost of my birth and my mother’s education. Lots of baby teeth (they must have been those of her children) in little medicine bottles as well. When I cleaned out her house I found shoe boxes full of cards, letters, and pictures from various relatives and a few friends which she had kept for years and years. I could understand a few letters and cards, but a dozen shoeboxes full? HMM

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply


  6. I hope this picture comes through.True story.
    This fossil is about 10 inches long and 5 inches high 4 inches wide. Quite large. The teeth-like structure in the middle is likely a fern imprint. Age unknown. I found it last year in the ground next to my apartment building just staring up at me. It looks like the creature from the Alien movies.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  7. “Little Offenders” resonates but I can’t place it. Movie or television, not a book.

    I would consider a souvenir a token of something we had personally experienced, not simply something passed down to us or that we had acquired independent of an associated experience. Magpies that we are, we have a wealth of curious objects and collections but few of them reflect a personally specific time and place. And none of them are former body parts.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  9. Lucky thing the fragment decided to migrate the direction it did. If it had gone the other way it could have been years before it finally emerged.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

Leave a comment