THERE ARE NO COINCIDENCES- How I Got a New Tooth in Record Time

I’ve always believed there are no coincidences in life and after reading “The Celestine Prophecy” years ago, I was assured this philosophy of life and way of thinking was right on track. Lately, I delight in watching it happen.

When my brother-in-law decided to choose buck hunting instead of attending my sister’s high school renunion, she asked me to be her date. At the event, I was reunited with my sister’s childhood best friend, Debbie, and her husband of many years, Dave Auchter, who happened to grow up in my suburban neighborhood. We car pooled to school, played flashlight tag, swam on the swim team together, and our parents were all buddies at church. Dave had gone on to become a dentist.

At the renunion, Deb shared how she missed her mother who had passed and that on days when she seems to need a boost the most, her mom seems to appear to her in the form of a cardinal. I was Christmas shopping shortly afterwards and came across a beautiful oil painting print of a male cardinal in the snow and thought Deb should have it. My sister delivered it while we were in China and when we returned, a card was waiting for me  with a very grateful message, saying she really needed a message from her mom on that day. It was an inexpensive gift and a small random act of kindness. It was a nothing.

When my tooth broke in China, I panicked, as my dentist who made my crowns moved to Tennessee. I did not want to live one more day with a black hole in my mouth. I quickly e-mailed my sister to see if she could contact Dave and get me in for a consultation appointment.

I had little hope. Only a stub remained of the original tooth. I was bracing myself for an implant with an oral surgeon. We flew home on the weekend and already that first Monday, Dave got me in. I was struggling with jet lag, sickness, coughing fits and lip sores. I figured I’d be in the office  all of 15 minutes.

But after examining the tooth and checking out the X-ray, Dave believed he could save it and BUILD ME A TOOTH.

“Do you have the time today? I freed up the afternoon for this. There are many involved steps. All are crucial. Drilling holes, inserting a steel post and 4 gold pins, building a new tooth around it, making a mold, capping it. Can you do it?”

“Let’s do it” I reply.

“You can’t cough,” he tells me, as I begin a coughing fit. “It must be kept dry. Tell me when you are done coughing.”

Oh dear God, I think. What if it happens again? I take a few sips of water. “I’m done,” I reassure him half-heartily, not convinced myself at all.

For two hours I laid there with my mouth open, not moving, trying to meditate, breath, envision soothing liquid running down my throat to bathe it. It worked. I have a beautiful tooth, two days after we returned home. And a new strong porcelain cap, with gold interior will be put on in a month. All for the bargain price of $1700 as opposed to a $4,000 implant. I feel like I have been given a deal, a gift.

Dave reminded me that my teeth are for eating only, that I should not open packages or bite hard things like lollipops. What he really reminded me was that there are no coincidences and the energy of a random act of kindness may find itself circling back to you in record time.