Local Instability!

The two had not been in a stable state since the outbreak of the pandemic or positively longer perhaps. The problem was they had always been extremely close to each other like next door neighbors; however, the problem was exacerbated by their close physical proximity. Well, neighbors can be next door, but they have separate entrances and independent four-wall habitable units. In this case of the two there was no such personal space, they are almost joined together with separation impossible unless in the extreme case of physical elimination; no social distancing possible even if they wanted which in fact they did want on many occasions. But they had been under a mortal dread of a new entity forcing in its entry if one of them were eliminated. This situation exists even now.

 

They need each other very frequently on jobs that they have to perform together. For those kinds of jobs they indeed cooperate as much as each one is personally capable of. However, perhaps because of the existence of many other neighbors in close physical proximity they cannot avoid tension and friction on many other occasions of the disputed kind. They fight hard, but each one of them always tries to remain safe and secure, ensuring the continuance of its own unique identity.

 

At times, their frictional ventures put one or the other at a much disadvantageous and perilous position, and in those times of an existential crisis the physically interfering role of a foreign entity becomes absolutely inevitable. The foreign entity puts the disadvantaged one back on its earlier or almost earlier position, and adjusts the other accordingly. At other times both of them find themselves on shaky ground, and in that rather infrequent situation a whole lot of the foreign entities has to get themselves involved, very physically. The story goes on like this…as if for eternity!

 

Eternity or not, we have to live in our present time hearty and healthy, however small that time might be, and so…let’s cut this rubbish short! I’m just talking about my own sweet self with a problem or two of the physical nature that the intelligent reader must’ve guessed already. However, I must make it all clear now. Once I get involved in a banter it becomes my holy duty to finish it less arbitrarily, taking into consideration the benefits, even though mired in grievous ambiguity,  for all of the readers, and in way, trying to put some ‘justification’ into it, for the benefits of the cynical souls like me.  

 

Realistically speaking, the two middle teeth in my lower jaw have been loose, trembling and shaking since the pandemic times in every kind of daily activity that involves them directly, obviously when I’m in the act of chewing, munching and eating, apart, of course, from the daily brushing and rinsing rituals. As far as humanly possible, I’ve always tried to avoid their direct involvement in the extremely obnoxious manual processes. But that is not possible every time.

 

At times, any of the mandatory activities displaces one dangerously in which eventuality I have to insert my hand (not exactly foreign in this case) and put the affected one straight and back to its original position. At other rather infrequent times, fortunately, one of them gets hurt and greatly offended, venting out its ire in unleashing a continuous ache that threatens to get severe any time. In such an eventuality my hand becomes an intruder, and I need the dental precision of the expert hands. How on earth could I have done that, pray?

 

We’ve been told all the time that the cursed human mouth or the saliva or anything related like the protruding nose or the like, are the most proactive agents of spreading infections. And imagine one mouth, surgically masked though, bent over hysterically close at the gaping hole of the other impacted mouth, for an unpredictable duration of minutes or hours! The virus would’ve waited gleefully for such an impudent exercise. Common sense, practical sense or for that matter, all kinds of senses, and the expert guidelines advise me against such ventures. I’d say this has been the COVID-specific Dontonomics, if we can use that word, irrespective of how much damage such colossally rampant mass actions could’ve meted out to the hapless dentists.

 

So, the story goes on… definitely not for eternity, at least in my personalized case!

 

(The title of this banter piece is tantalizingly inspired by the classic German novel ‘Local Anesthetic’ by Gunter Grass.)