CHAT: (OffTopic) false tooth <was Re: CHAT: Excessive alliteration>

In a message dated 2000/05/30 01:21:33 PM, Padraic wrote:

>I dearly wish I had kept the email now! A couple of years ago, a
>friend sent me an article about a Roman era false tooth found in
>a soldier in Gaul. It was apparently quite well shaped, made of
>iron, and shoved into the poor fellow's empty tooth socket with
>a rod. One can only imagine the quantities of alchohol imbibed
>before taking on such an operation! The operation itself didn't
>kill the fellow, since the bone had ample time to grow around
>the prosthesis. I suppose them rich Senators could afford some-
>thing more denturelike and rather less instrument-of-torture-
>like. Either that or they were really into pain.
>
    Reminds me of my tooth. I was in a motorcycle accident several years ago
in which the tooth next to my canine was knocked out. A friend, ex-Army
Ranger, was with me. I washed off my tooth & jammed it back into the socket.
Hard.
    My friend flipped out at what I did- cringing & shaking, he slapped me on
my head repeatedly & screamed at me: "Don't do THAT!" (I was freaking out
myself; he had mangled his foot trying to keep the motorcycle from injurying
us as we fishtailed down a hilly road in San Francisco).
    I still have the tooth in place. A dentist said I saved the tooth by my
quick action.
    Hurt like crazy.

    zHANg