moving to mexico -- fixing the teeth

Yeah. I know what you are asking.

How can this guy be so antiquated that he does not know how to take a selfie? He's looking at the bottom of his telephone, not at the lens. And the angle -- it makes him look a decade older.

Really? You aren't curious about that?

The tooth? Oh, yeah, the tooth. That is why I took my first selfie. I guess you could tell it was my first time.

Back to the tooth. That is not a special effect. My tooth is like Tara -- gone with the wind. Or, in this particular case, gone with a pretzel. A Snyder's sourdough pretzel to be exact.

I was sitting in the pool reading The Economist and eating pretzels when I felt something foreign in my mouth. There must be something primordial in our tongues -- or, at least my tongue -- that can immediately identify foreign objects. I knew what it was before my fingers grabbed it. A tooth.

A quick tonguing of my remaining teeth quickly found the gap. Right up front. One of my caps had been -- well, I guess, decapitated.

It was late Friday afternoon. I could not get to Manzanillo in time before my dentist left for the day. So, I went local.

I have seen Dr. Eduardo Pimienta Woo twice before. Once for a cleaning. The other for a Pyrrhic battle against infection in a molar. And I managed to catch him just as he was opening his office. He told me to return at 6:30. I did.

Here is what happened. When the cap was put on that tooth twenty or thirty years ago, my dentist needed to install a post to stabilize the installation. To give some support for the cap.

It was the post that failed. Snapped right in two.

Snapping in two meant there was still a portion of the post embedded in my jaw bone. That meant drilling. Without anaesthetic. Dr. Pimienta handed me a paper towel -- "Just in case you cry."

As it turned out, there was no pain. The partial post came out. Dr. Pimienta then constructed a fix using my rather expensive cap, and I was on my way.

These stories always include information about the actual cost incurred. And this one will, as well. For about an hour in the chair, he charged me $600 (Mx). About $32 (US). The cost of a dinner.

To go from the photograph at the top of the essay, to this for $32 is money well spent.

OK. My selfie-taking ability did not improve yesterday. But my smile certainly did. Without much trauma to my wallet.