Lying low today

Before the doc wrenched out my dead monster molar yesterday morning, I asked whether the idea I'd heard that redheads are particularly subject to dental pain was true.

"Maybe 50 percent of the time," he offered.

I used to be a redhead, so perhaps that's why I have such troublesome teeth?

The dead tooth wasn't as large as this, but it was large.

Thank you, Google, here's a 2009 New York Times report on red hair and teeth. It exactly describes how I approached dental visits for many years -- I didn't!

A growing body of research shows that people with red hair need larger doses of anesthesia and often are resistant to local pain blockers like Novocaine. As a result, redheads tend to be particularly nervous about dental procedures and are twice as likely to avoid going to the dentist as people with other hair colors, according to new research published in The Journal of the American Dental Association.

Researchers believe redheads are more sensitive to pain because of a mutation in a gene that affects hair color. ...

... People with the MC1R gene variant had more dental care–related anxiety and fear of dental pain than those without the gene variant. And they were more than twice as likely to avoid dental care. ...

... “Because they’re resistant, many redheads have had bad experiences,” Dr. Sessler said. “If they go to the dentist or have a cut sutured, they’ll need more local anesthetic than other people.” 

That's me. Or at least it used to be. Of late dentists have become more believing about this and dental visits have become mostly just expensive, not agonizing ...