Elephant’s tusk removed with chain saw

Elephant’s tusk removed with chain saw:

The next time you dread a trip to the dentist, consider the plight of poor Tusko the elephant. It took veterinarians and a dentist nearly five hours Saturday to remove what was left of an elephant’s infected tusk at the Oregon Zoo, and it took a chain saw, hand saws and a drill that can punch through concrete to do the job.

Oh, I sympathize. I love my dentist. I’ve been going to the same dental practice since I was at sun (recommended to me by Karen Shannon, all those years ago), although the original dentist retired and sold the practice. I’ve had the same hygenist for so long I almost feel like I’ve been part of her daughter growing up….

But I’ve done pretty well at taking care of the teeth, and they’ve been pretty good to me overall, but time moves on, and a couple of molars are almost at the ready for crowns, so rather than wait until all hell breaks loose, we started the planning now, and we’ll likely decide to put them in during one o f the next two visits… After having had a wisdom tooth removed the hard way (the dentist didn’t notice a hook under the jawbone, and it came out in three hours and six pieces, under a local… the other three got removed by oral surgery and a valium drip years later…), I’m all for avoiding taht damn chainsaw…

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1. The elephant in the sitting room… Scott wrote a comment on my post a couple of days ago that makes a good opening as I shift gears a bit: Chuq, do...