I just got back from the dentist. Okay actually, I just got back from a late lunch with my bride which I went to after the dentist. Nonetheless, I learned something interesting. According to my loquacious dental hygenist, specialists in dentistry aren’t allowed to practice general dentistry and vice versa. In other words, if you do root canals, you pretty much can only do root canals. If you’re a kids dentist, you can’t handle grown-ups. Etc. I found this out when I (wink, wink) jokingly asked for as much nitrous as they could spare. She said they didn’t have any because they don’t do anything that requires it in their practice. I said, “What happens when you’ve got to pull some teeth? (Or when you want to have a righteous nitrous-and-Quiet-Riot party?). She said they aren’t allowed to do extractions. From their she spilled the beans.

I didn’t get much info about why this is so. I can’t imagine there’s a federal law about this and if it was up to the states it wouldn’t be a nationwide policy. Now I could be misinformed, but I suspect there’s a racket here. I willl find out more…or I won’t. It’s that kind of hard-hitting, definitive reporting you’ve come to expect from me.