Crown of Swallow's

A parent will go to great lengths to save money when dollars are hard to come by.

When I was a child I was blessed with horrible dental problems. For whatever reason I was born with little or no enamel on my teeth. My first dentist visit found me with a mouthful of cavities. Basically every baby tooth had some degree of decay.

After discussions with my mother it was decided that my four front teeth would be pulled, as they would be coming out soon enough anyway. The rest of the teeth would be repaired over a several month span.

Before long I was making weekly visits to the dentist for drilling to be followed by fillings made from mercury, which was the flavor of the day. Two of the back teeth required crowns due to longevity expectations.

All the work was followed by lectures from mom and from the dental personnel on watching what I eat and proper care of my mouth. Especially restricted was the chewing of gum, taffy or any other sticky type substance.

Of course being a kid within a week the first thing I did was buy some taffy from the ice cream truck. It only took an afternoon before one of the crowns was missing and presumed lost.

My mother of course was furious with me. We retraced my steps of the past afternoon in search of the missing silver but to no avail. The problem was that as a single mom, my mother could not afford to replace a crown that had already cost her an arm and a leg.

Since we were unable to locate the crown she came up with an alternate plan. Logically she figured if the crown was not locatable outside of my mouth I must of swallowed it. Therefore, until it was located flushing became a distant memory. Mom insisted on checking each and every bowel movement until the crown was located.

To my disgust and amazement two days later she found the crown. After cleaning, boiling and sterilization she returned with me to the dentist where the crown was returned to its home.

I would like to say I learned my lesson but what kid ever really does. I continued eating the forbidden foods but fate smile on me and that was the one and only crown I ever lost.