As the family knows, I have been missing my right incisor tooth for 6 months.  Broken in a minor situation.

The story I tell people was that this was removed when Pat and I were in a bar and an Australian Truck Driver hit on my bride.  I fought him off, but ended up with a broken tooth… and my wife.

A good story.

I have been missing this tooth, and after the dentist checked it out, he removed the remainder of the root in September.

I went in for an implant procedure where they inserted cadaver bone material into my upper jaw to fill the hole from the missing tooth.  I assume the cadaver bone material was not from a grave robber.

I was told not to use the front teeth for biting until everything was completed.

Months went by where I sliced sandwiches into soldiers and only prepared meals that could be cut up and shoveled into the back of my mouth.

When I did try to make spaghetti a noodle would drape out of the missing gap in my front tooth.  Fortunately Pat found that amusing.

The delay was to get the cadaver bone to fill in the gap.  Eventually they drilled a hole into my jaw with a threaded shaft.   As an Engineer I found this interesting. Apparently a right hand thread.

This week they implanted a new tooth held in the jaw with a screw that required exactly 35 Newtons per CM of torque.  Again interesting.

In the end I have a new incisor tooth that the dentist tells me is stronger than all the teeth around it.  I could open beer bottle caps with it.

But here is what I have been waiting for.  Last night I had a hamburger where I could just take a bite.

And tonight I made Chicken Wings.  Now you need your front teeth for wings.  Great meal.