In her 3rd trimester my mom suddenly got dangerously high blood pressure. For that she had to take medicines that are not to be taken during pregnancy and can have harmful effects on the baby…
The result: My mom survived. I was born pre-term and had dental caries. My front teeth were black and broken, reminiscent of some ugly monster you see in the movies. My smiles were painful episodes for those around me 
The solution was pretty obvious. The teeth just had to be removed, all 4 of em. Try explaining that to a five year old. I would start bawling my head off if the topic was even mentioned. My gentle dentist, himself a father, proposed putting me under general anesthesia and then pulling ‘em out. But that would have been dangerous for a little girl.
A big bad dentist came to the rescue. He was made of stern stuff and looked the part. One glimpse at him made the tears go leaking. But my father was adamant that the ordeal had to be done. He escaped to his clinic to flee my piteous screams.
I was strapped to a huge chair with lots of ugly equipment. I was wailing at the top of my voice in a feeble effort to make my father come back. Bereft of abba, ammi and the security that I had always known, I cried and cried till I could cry no more.
As the dentist made howling noises pretending to be a werewolf, I could only hiccup. All the tears had dried up.
I got 2 injections in my jaws that day. All 4 teeth was pulled out leaving big gaps behind. Before I had an ugly smile. Now I had a toothless smile.
Guiltily my father returned when the deed had been done. I was in too much pain to even rebuke him.
Abba bought me a Jans broast which I couldn’t eat (had no teeth). However just looking at it cheered me up considerably
We waited with bated breath to see how my permanent teeth would turn out. They came out just fine, not a spec of caries in them.
Today when I smile no one grimaces. Alls well that ends well!
