You might have heard of instances like "I bit a murukku and my tooth broke", "I bit a seedai and my tooth fell off". Have you ever heard this statement - "I bit into a samosa and my teeth came out". Well, that's what happened to me 3 Sundays back. After a long long time, I was tempted to eat a samosa. I bought home a piece from my favorite sweet shop, poured the chutneys on top of it, and took ONE bite from my front teeth. My next reaction was OMG! My 4 front teeth dropped off on my plate.
If you are shocked at this point, let me admit - the teeth that broke were my 10-year old ceramic bridge. From my teens, I had many tooth cavities, got many root canal treatments done in my 20s, and had to get a ceramic bridge in 2010.
I shouldn't be blaming the samosa or the fact that I was tempted to eat it. The incident happened, which was beyond my control and I had to fix the issue. Over the past 3 weeks, after multiple trips to my dentist and various procedures, I got a new ceramic bridge fixed. Thankfully, since wearing masks being the norm, I could manage conversations with people, without feeling awkward.
Because of the dental procedures and lack of front teeth, I could hardly eat much, mostly semi-solid food like kanji, kichdi, or rice-based meals. Around the same 3 week period, I also experienced severe pain in my feet and legs during the nights. Checked with a couple of doctors and seems like the pain was due to Vitamin B12 deficiency. I'm currently on supplements and slowly recovering from the pain.
These 3 weeks have taught me two valuable lessons.
(1) Health is NOT only influenced by these factors - nutrition, activity, exercise, sleep, meditation, sun exposure, self-reflection, etc. There will be circumstances beyond your control, which might end up affecting your health. In such situations, surrendering to the discomfort without resisting too much is the key.
(2) When the factors (that are under your control) are taken care of, the unexpected circumstances become more manageable. The recovery is faster. Though these circumstances might make you uncomfortable, you will have the inner strength to sail through.
As I'm "chewing" a plate of kambu idlis along with tiffin sambhar for breakfast this morning, I feel so much gratitude for my teeth (both the natural and the ceramic ones).