I originally thought this tooth story could be told with simply a before and after picture. But then it seems not that simple In part because it happened over a long period of time, months. So now a metal rod is buried in my jaw bone with a new tooth attached to it. And while I didn’t see the conspicuous space with no tooth for these many months, others have, especially my spouse.
What I realized early on was how quickly we make judgement on others based upon the appearance of their mouth. A missing front tooth seems to signal an intelligence deficiency, maybe even illiteracy. And while we know, most of us, judging negatively a person based on skin color is wrong, what about the toothless? I would argue, the absence of a tooth doesn’t indicate a lack of intelligence.. But with the new tooth I returned from an illiterate bumpkin back to my mostly articulate self.