Dad was a boxer in his younger days. The joke in our family was that he couldn’t pick up a ball bearing without crushing it. Except when he was in your mouth. Super gentle.
The town of Coleman was the first place he set up a practice. His first patient was a nervous and large coal miner. Dad started to examine the chap’s mouth. The guy bit him.
My father instantly knocked him senseless with an uppercut. Then extracted a tooth. When the guy came to — the patient said he was sorry. Dad said he understood and under the circumstances would only charge him for the extraction. The anesthetic was on the house.
If you went to my father, you might also remember a moment before he injected Novocaine that Dad would gently move your head a little to the right and as he did it, his palm would cover your eyes. You closed your eyes. You never saw the needle coming at you. And by the time you figured out what was going on the injection was over.
Dad claimed a large part of pain is what your mind anticipates. Between you and me, I think police extract a lot more information from perps by frightening them instead of beating them.
Dad was an expert at infraorbital nerve blocks. This freezes the ipsilateral lower eyelid, upper cheek, side of the nose, and upper lip. Your head feels like a block of ice. And if executed correctly Ty Cobb could use a baseball bat on your teeth and you would not feel it.
The injection site is usually into your face under your eye. Not through the roof of your mouth.
Anyway, Dad did it to Mother and the procedure was a partial success … She never felt any pain when he repaired a molar. As a matter of fact she never again felt anything in her upper lip. There goes most of the fun in kissing.
Maybe that’s why I never had a brother or sister.
