When I was in Chicago a week ago, I kept looking at dental offices around Roscoe Village and the Belmont corridor. There are probably ten different offices within easy walking distance of our condo. Today when I was driving home from an appointment at my Richmond dentist in an unnerved state, completely numb on the left side of my face with tears flowing, I thought I might be better off walking.  A dentist within walking distance should be a nice perk as a result of moving and downsizing.

I still think of dentistry as a middle age science. Remember the SNL skit with Steve Martin as Theodoric of York, Medieval Barber?  I loved this skit.  My childhood dentist did not use novacaine, but I was always rewarded at the end of each wretched visit with a large roll of Bazooka bubblegum. It was kind of like the middle ages at the dentist office in the early 1960s. Some things have changed in 2012, but there’s still an awful lot of drilling, scraping, smoke and “pass the powder of staghorn.”

Wish me luck and give me recommendations for a new dentist in Chicago.