Have you ever had a tooth-filling fall out, or a broken
tooth?
When this
happens, one’s tongue seems automatically to be attracted to the abnormality in
one’s mouth. The sharp bits then seem to become sharper and more disturbing to
one’s tongue and daily life – until the dentist can conduct his craft to help.
This
happened to me. A bit of a filling came out, then more. And, of course, my
tongue was attracted to the tooth as if by magnetism.
Now it so
happened that I had read in a newspaper article that a jawbone from ancient man
that had been lying in a museum for donkey’s years was inspected and found to
have a tooth with a beeswax filling.
So, until I
could telephone the dentist in office hours, I went to my supply of beeswax.
This I have used since art student days as a medium for painting in oil colour
and, as an unexpected bonus, as the best wood polish imaginable. (A block of
beeswax is added to boiling water, allowed to dissolve, emulsified with
ammonia, and the cold resultant crust lifted from the water’s surface and
amalgamated with white spirit.)
So I cut
off a little of the untreated wax from its block, softened it between my
fingers, and pressed it into the tooth where the filling had previously
resided.
I was
delighted with the result. My tongue returned to its normal usage, ignoring the
wax-filled tooth.
But success
was short lived.
After the
first meal the wax had gone down with the food.
Wax is not
hurtful to one’s digestive system. It is consumed whenever honey is eaten with
the comb.
Next, the
tooth’s cavity was dried with kitchen paper and more (actually less) wax
applied. A closed jaw ensured that the cavity had been filled and the wax
pressed in. Surplus wax was scraped away and discarded.
Night came.
In the morning I had no idea which tooth it was that had needed attention.
After
breakfast a ragged tooth edge gave an indication of which tooth had had
attention – but the cavity itself remained filled with wax.
An
appointment with the dentist was made.
So, as an
emergency measure, Neolithic man, or whoever and whenever he was, had a cunning
plan that worked – as an emergency measure at least. So keep a little lump of
beeswax at the ready.
