A Geek Too Far

Okay, so full disclosure (and irony, please) - this happened last night, while I was watching "Bram Stoker's Dracula" for the first time in probably nineteen or however-many years it's been since that came out. So please appreciate not the embarrassment of my nerd-lery here, but the particular piece of entertainment at hand.

All righty then.

I'm watching this at ten or so at night, because heck if there is anything worth giving broadcast time to. And I've had pasta and broccoli for dinner, and it was good, so I go back for the last bite or so of leftovers, and I get a piece of broccoli stuck on my tooth.

Not *between* my teeth, but on the very tip-end of one of my incisors. This is pretty weird, considering broccoli isn't your typical sticky food.

It's the second time something's gotten stuck there, too, in the past several days.

Uh oh.


***


Okay, so here is the thing. Much of the dental assets I have on view are bonding - not actual biological teeth. I had a bike wreck when I was ten. Since then, four times now, every ten years or so, I have gotten a new set of teeth.

My incisors, the pride of my whole historical collection, are the first set I've had of nice pointy canines, since the seventies. I love my incisors, and not because I'm a big old vampire nit. Just because I *have* some!

So something sticking on the tip of one of my canines tells me this: my three-year-old tootscape is chipping. I found a nick on the right hand side not long ago, and this is the left.

The great thing here is, in both my COBRA elections and in my new elections at the current employer: I skipped dental coverage, to wait for the first of the year.

Naturally.

For now, the tooth is intact, and the right hand side I'm not worried about. If one goes, I may have to do something about the other one, rather than getting the first one fixed right away.

What I am saying leads me to the REAL meat of my geekiness matter. For those with dental squeamishness - STOP READING RIGHT NOW.

Because here is what I had to do.

I had to file off the rough spot.

Now, for me, this is not an impressive matter. I've had to do it before. I've had my front teeth replaced four times in thirty years. I once had this done without novocaine, kids. A pumice file to the nonliving tip of one incisor is nothing to me. But a matter of practicality.

But here is the thing. I'm a dang Ferengi, here.

THAT. Even for me. Is definitely too much.





Yep. "Health and beauty" is a tag for a post about the Ferengi and me filing my teeth.

Man life is weird stuff.