I had a
repeat of a
dream I have every
couple of months or so.
I was in a normal, everyday situation, riding the tube when I started to wobble one of my molars with my tongue. It seemed to be attatched to the jaw quite strongly on the outer edge, but on the side nearest to my tongue it had come loose and I could push the tip under it, lifting it slightly from the gum. As I rocked it, little bubbles of spit got underneath and I could feel them squirting in and out. It felt quite interesting, so I kept doing it for a spell.
After a while the tooth was rocking much further and I found I could twist it and pull it by sucking at it. Eventually it was hanging onto my gum by just the thinnest thread and rolling around, into my cheek and back. It broke off. Worried now, I hurriedly push it forward and spit it into my hand. Nobody else in the carriage seems to be taking any notice, so I put my hand on the seat and subtly drop the tooth onto the floor, where I crush it under my shoe. It crumbles like a piece of biscuit.
The next thing I become aware of, besides my uneasiness as I explore the hole my tooth has left behind, is that a new one is already pushing up through the gum. It's coming up fast enough for me to be able to feel it squeezing through the bone and forcing its neighbours apart. At this point I start to get scared. The new tooth doesn't stop when it's in place, but just carries on coming and pops right out of its socket and into my mouth. Again I roll it forward with my tongue and spit it out.
My face starts to ache as another replacement begins to creep up into my mouth, but by this time my other teeth are starting to hurt too. They feel all bruised as if they have taken a knock, but soon they begin to turn and twist and rise out of their places. I cup my jaws in my hands and tears come into my eyes, as panic rises in my gut.
With an awful cracking noise, like rock splitting, my teeth just start to break off at the roots and my mouth fills up with pieces of fractured enamel. I find myself spitting out the rubble and wiping it off my lips with my fingers, but more teeth keep on growing up and forcing out more and more junk. It already feels like I have a mouth full of gravel, but it just keeps getting worse.
I soon start to have trouble breathing and find myself choking. I get up out of my seat and clutch at a handrail, blindly stumbling around the train. I am starting to frighten the other commuters, but nobody says anything. I can feel a rough mass in my throat and it's coming forwards, stretching out the back of my mouth, which is now totally full of broken teeth, so I can't even close it any more. It's like having a mouth full of hard, dry soil. I just have to lean forward and try to cough the debris out, making chewing motions restricted by the sheer amount of crap that's in there.
The force of whatever it is coming up my throat keeps on building and I gag as it comes forward, I don't know how, but I know its a thick column of shattered teeth, molded together into a solid branch. I can't breath and I can't see for tears of fear that are streaming from my eyes. All I can do is claw at my mouth, but there's no way to stop it. I vomit round the sides of it all and end up waking from the dream just as I am starting to breath in the sickly mixture.
Gently, I check all around my mouth with the tip of my tongue.
I relax.