Rampant Decay

Sat. May 20, 1944

9:15 p.m.

 

Dear folks,

I was at the Dental Clinic most of the day. I came back at about 5:00 with a headache and a sort of tooth ache and I’ve been sleeping it off up to now so I’ll wait and do my writing tomorrow. I just wanted to start it tonight.

Sun. May 21 – 11:30 p.m. Well I’m sort of gypping you on a letter this weekend. I just got in from the late show. I owe you a couple long ones by now but I’ll catch up to you yet. Fri. night I got to bed at about 10. They pulled a fast one on us yesterday morning and got us up at 5:00 to scrub the upstairs of the barracks. I got up and dressed and did just as little as I could. I did sweep one length of the aisle & then brought the broom down and cleaned around my own bed. We finished by 6:00 and fell out for reveille at 6:15. I got my bed made & my mopping and straightening up done before breakfast – scrambled eggs, bread, butter, Wheaties, milk and an orange. I laid around until 7:30 when we took off for the dental clinic. Boy they really run a lot of people thru that place. First of all they examined us to see just what had to be done. My teeth were in pretty bad shape. Worse than I thought. I had 15 teeth with either cavities or defective fillings. Those fillings of Meghan’s were all going or gone. They started working on me at about 9:15 I guess and worked until 11:45. They did 2 on the upper right, the two molars next to the wisdom tooth. One of them was an old hole where a filling had been. He started to drill & it hit tender stuff & I guess I flinched a little. Anyway he got his needle & filled that side of my jaw with novacaine. It deadened it and he went at his drilling without my even feeling it. It felt as if he left just a hollow framework to hook the filling to. It’s a cinch there’s more filling than tooth there now. At 11:45 they quit for dinner & told me to come back at 12:45. I was 8 blocks from here so I ate a pie & some ice cream at the P.X. and then went back. I turned in my appointment & waited for them to call me. 3:00 rolled around & nothing had happened so I investigated & my slip had been mislaid. Finally I got under way. I had a different dentist & he really worked. He put 10 separate fillings in in 1 hr. & 45 min. One upper left molar was bad. He filled it & one next to it in 2 places each. Then he dropped to the bottom left & filled two front teeth along the gum line & 2 double teeth. He really drilled. Wow. I finally decided it couldn’t hurt anymore & quit worrying. I was thru at 4:45 but I have to go back Tues. night at 6. Oh me. He says I have rampant decay and to lay off candy, whenever I eat ice cream or sweets to rinse my teeth & to use Ipana. He says Colgate is too much powdered sugar. I came back & lay down at about 5:30 & woke up when I started this. Then I ate an orange & went to bed. My teeth are pretty sensitive but I believe the worst ones are taken care of. Maybe I better lay off the candy. That’s yesterday. I’ll take up today next time as I guess I better head for bed. So I’ll be seein’you.

 

Love

Son