A Near-Death Experience or How I Came to Love the Dentist
When we hear about near-death experiences, we tend to think about supernatural and paranormal phenomena, tunnels provided with lights at their end, neuroscience research or “stories from beyond the realm of consciousness”. My story is light years away from such concepts and as mundane (and yet unbelievable) as it can get: I was almost killed by a tooth cavity. The lesson I learned was harsh and life changing: check with your dentist regularly if you don’t want to leave behind a grieving widow, two orphan children and a medical record to be adapted into a medical drama TV series.
But let’s start with the beginning. At over forty years old, a woman thinks she knows it all. She thinks she reached an age when she is fully balanced, responsible and self-aware to make good choices — after all, if one can raise, protect and educate two children, one can be fully responsible for his own state of health, right? Well…
To my shame, I do belong in the 50% category of Americans who don’t see a dentist once a year. Lack of time and lack of serious oral health issues made me skip my dentist appointments, although my kids saw theirs on a regular basis. A toothache here and there and a swollen gum once in a while were not reasons enough to leave everything and rush towards my dentists’ office.
Streptococcus — scary bacteria usually responsible for tooth and gum disease. You cannot skip it, as it is forever present in our mouths, doing its dirty deeds unsuspected. Long story short, I noticed a vague tooth ache and correctly associated it with a tooth cavity. Since it wasn’t the only tooth cavity I owned back then, I made a mental note to make an appointment to the dentist and fix them all in a bundle. But caught up in the torrent of life, I kept the whole bunch of cavities right where they were, occasionally treating them with anti-inflammatory medication when the pain got irritating.
People don’t usually believe me when I tell them I left my cavity-infested teeth unattended for more than two years. Life passes by quite fast when you have two small children, but this is not a valid excuse. Things started to get serious when I ended up in a cardiologist’s office. I knew my heart was well, but this particular check-up revealed I had some issues both me and my doctor were heavily surprised of.
Professional medical assessment in a hospital revealed that I was dealing with some mysterious blood clots and a suspicious inflammation of blood vessels. In other words, I was a walking heart attack. It didn’t take a House M.D. diagnosis procedure to track down the culprit. After all risk factors and triggers have been eliminated, the only logical conclusion was that my cavities bacteria passed into my blood stream, causing the subsequent heart issues. It was not the bacon, the two jobs I was joggling, the stress or the family history. It was the Streptococcus and the PadA protein — of whose existence I also found out while everybody was running havoc trying to fix my heart before the clots and the damaged vessels caused me a heart attack or a stroke.
After scaring everybody crazy and assuming responsibility for my ignorance and lack of self-respect, I kept on with the treatment my cardiologist and my dentist put up together for me. I was a few steps away from hardcore heart surgery (and if you watch medical dramas you know endocarditis isn’t something to joke about).
The outcome of this experience however changed my life for good. I really don’t care if my dentist has both a DMD and DDS degree in the same time or if I have to drive for miles to reach my cardiologist’s office. I take my medication, pay the two professionals regular visits and invest in oral care more than I have invested in anything in my entire life. I changed my diet and workout habits and I teach my children to be as responsible with their own health as they can. After all, I must be a responsible adult to be able to raise responsible adults as well. So tend to your cavities, ladies and gentlemen and avoid near-death experiences!
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