I must confess a secret. When I used to read the "Uncanny X-Men" back in my middle school days, I used to pine about what "mutant power" I thought I possessed. Everyone secretly believes that they are special in some way biologically that would, in some circumstance, allow them to save a fairer member of their more favorable sex if they were only placed in a situation where that long dormant power would surface.

Much like how Lance Armstrong first figured out that he’d dominate on a bike because of his freakishly large heart, all I needed to do is find out what mutant power would surface when I was pushed to some sort of limit. I thought I had discovered my own power long ago. I always thought I had teeth that were impervious to cavities. No matter how much cola I drank, or how (in)frequently I sometimes brushed my teeth, I never had any cavities. Either I had drank some irradiated milk as a child that imbued me with these powers, or I was very lucky.

It turns out this is not the case. While eating breakfast in the morning, I noticed a strange hole in a tooth that I previously never felt. Nothing sets me on edge like a dental related problem, as I can’t help but "tongue-ing" any oral irregularity that I find. My wife and I immediately set off the one of the many dental offices near our apartment. No appointment needed, we just walked in, described the problem, then waited for a dentist to get ready. It seems we caught the dentist on the way out, but he had plenty of time to give me a root canal.

According to the x-ray, the cavity was deep enough to require the root canal, which will kill my tooth and require me to have it replaced. After they started the repair work, they found out the the root wasn’t exposed, but they went ahead and pulled it out anyway. They seemed surprised to realize that the root was clean. Unnecessary surgery, hooray! We know of other dentists that have a scam going on, requesting unneeded dental work by playing on the fears of parents. Perhaps I’m another sucker, as it certainly won’t be cheap to repair my tooth and make it look good at the same time.

I’ll have to return two more times. One for the measuring and shaping of the new ceramic tooth, and one for the placement. They are going to hack out my tooth, put a metal stud in my gum, and then screw a new tooth on the metal now locked to my jaw. I might, or might not, end up looking like Jaws. We can only hope.

This will be the second time I’ve have this procedure done. The first time was a painful three hour session in high school that left me with enough dentist related trauma that I’m surprised I didn’t become an "Anti-dentite". It did help me enjoy this song a little more. And with that, I’m all out of cultural quips, I have a hole in my tooth, and I have two weeks of more dental pain in my future.

My search for a possible mutant power continues.