The kids and I had dentist appointments this afternoon. As we waited for the hygienist to call one of us back, Meredith started talking about how much they like the dentist. Of course, I started laughing because I knew that if Emily has the ability to listen in on what we’re doing here on Earth, she’d totally be cringing.

There Was Something About Teeth

Many of us have random things that either gross us out or just bother us to the point we cringe or panic when we see or deal with them. For me, it’s blood draws. I can’t watch people draw my blood, I cringe when someone else gets their blood drawn (saw Emily get blood draws for labs a lot), and I hated seeing bags of blood in the hospital.

Of course, blood never bothered Emily. She stayed cool as a cucumber during her labs, and she even got excited about watching me get blood drawn for the migraine clinical trial.

So, what was the thing that bothered Emily? Oddly enough, it was teeth.

She didn’t like looking at teeth. She actively avoided going to the dentist. She hated when the kids would try to show her wiggly loose teeth. The list goes on and on.

I remember one day when I bit into something and a crown on one of my molars broke in half. I tried to ask her to look at it to see if the half I didn’t spit out was still attached to the root of the tooth. She was like, “Nope!” and explicitly told me to not talk to her about the issue until I went to the dentist and got it fixed. It bothered her that much.

I’ll never fully understand why teeth bothered her so much, but I guess there was just something about them that really got to her.

Forget The Dentist

Because Emily hated teeth, I’m sure you can imagine what getting her to go to the dentist was like. At one point, she told me she hadn’t gone to the dentist in like two years. Now, part of that she blamed on COVID, but a lot of it was simply because she didn’t want to go.

Of course, this was problematic for multiple reasons. First and foremost, she drank so much coffee. Also, people with a history of eating disorders often have issues with their teeth. But, most importantly, you can develop a number of infections in your mouth. And, for someone like her who is immunocompromised, that can quickly escalate from toothache to deadly.

There was only one dentist she would trust, and it was the one in Knoxville she had been going to for years (and he goes to the church she grew up in). So, she drove three hours one way for this dentist. I told her we should eventually find a place that offers sedation dentistry closer to home, but like many other things, we never got there.

Nightmares Made For Emily

Here’s the thing: Emily wasn’t just freaked out by teeth; she also dreamed about them. In fact, she had a recurring nightmare that would literally wake her up to the point that she would have to share. And it was about teeth.

In the dream, Emily could be doing anything. She could be at work, she could be on vacation, she could be about to eat a juicy burger. The details of the dream were always different, including what people were with her, what she was wearing, and anything else you can think of.

However, one thing was always the same: her teeth would fall out.

Most of the time, it was that they would just start falling out until they were all gone. So then she’d wake up, convinced her teeth were falling out, until someone checked them or she went into the bathroom and looked for herself. It was somewhat comical, albeit terrifying for her.

She had this dream so many times that many of the people in her life knew about it. Her parents knew about it, her college roommate/best friend knew about it… Heck, I even think she told one of my friends about it once.

She was the only person I knew who had such a random recurring dream. But, since she died last year, multiple people who knew about this dream have had it. And, anytime it happens, all we can do is laugh and blame Emily.

I will always find it slightly funny that Emily hated teeth so much. But, hey, at least it gives us all something to laugh about?