In this episode, we dive into a personal narrative of a sudden dental emergency that leads to an unexpected oral surgery. Our host shares his firsthand experiences with the anxiety of going through a significant dental procedure and how he navigated the fears associated with it. From reminiscing about his past role in ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ to facing real-life dental horrors, we hear a unique blend of humor and vulnerability that only a seasoned storyteller can provide. You’ll be taken on a relatable journey through the process of managing post-surgery recovery with the help of modern technology like
You knew it was coming. I would have been disappointed if you hadn’t.
SPEAKER 03 :
Little Shop of Horrors, Steve Martin. When was this? When was the movie version of this? Like 1980-something?
SPEAKER 02 :
Do you know I once played Oren Scrivello, DDS, on stage in Little Shop of Horrors? I was the mad dentist in a production of Little Shop of Horrors in South Carolina years and years ago. Whoa! Don’t think when I had my tooth extraction yesterday I didn’t think about Oren Scrivello, DDS. I’ll bet. Because he was a sadistic. Look, this guy got up on top of that chair yesterday. I thought at one point he’s going to bring out a jackhammer, like the kind you get with the sidewalk. I thought, I’m hearing noises up there. to get this tooth taken out that I’d never heard in my life.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, I ask you, this was not, because you mentioned oral surgery, and I think I’ve had a couple of oral surgery moments, and it was kind of that mild general anesthesia where you’re out and then you’re not out, but you were awake for this and heard every sound and saw every spectacle?
SPEAKER 02 :
And kind of felt it, because with an upper molar like that, when they’re breaking up that tooth, that nerve kind of feels it. And I kept saying, I should be feeling this now? Because you know me. I mean, first of all, I feel so sorry for them. They had a big… 65-year-old baby, a baby Huey who walked in.
SPEAKER 03 :
Huge screaming baby fighting them at every step.
SPEAKER 02 :
Moaning and groaning. I mean, look, the Novocaine shots about did me in. I mean, they stuck that needle in my gum. I thought, well, this is she. I love it when they say, this will be a little pinch. That’s their way. That’s their way to trick you into thinking, well, a little pinch, maybe you won’t think about this.
SPEAKER 03 :
My other favorite, you’ll feel a little bit of pressure.
SPEAKER 02 :
Pressure. Yeah, pressure. Yeah, pressure. But, you know, you want to know the crazy part? I don’t have an ounce of pain. I thought I was going to be, after what he did with this, and it took him, I’m not kidding you, it probably took him 20 to 30 minutes to get this out.
SPEAKER 03 :
And this arose out of nowhere. I’m just going about my day, and all of a sudden, bloop, I go to the phone, and there you are saying, I’m on the way to oral surgery. Pray for me. It’s like, whoa, where’d that come from?
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, it started to hurt. The dentist has been telling me for a year, because I go regularly. I try to stay on top of cleanings, and I go every three months for a cleaning. And so they always take, about every other time, they take an x-ray. And they kept saying, does this upper tooth not bother you? Because they kept warning me that something below the gum line was showing something, you know, was not good. And I’m like, no, it doesn’t. Well, finally last week it started to bother me and started to hurt. And everybody told me, get ahead of it. Get it out because once it hits you, it could be a Saturday night at midnight and you’re going to be in agony.
SPEAKER 01 :
That’s right.
SPEAKER 02 :
So I go to the dentist to take the x-rays, and they’re going to refer me to the oral surgeon. And the dentist comes back and says, got good news. Want to go now? I said, now? What’s the good news? You mean like now? And I started thinking, well, it is kind of good. Might as well get it over with. Absolutely. Absolutely. So he gave me the referral and I drove up to the oral surgeon and they were great and he got it out and it’s the number two tooth.
SPEAKER 03 :
Which is upper right in the back.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, right next to the wisdom tooth. The wisdom tooth is still in there. They left that alone because that was under the gum. Wait a minute.
SPEAKER 03 :
So you’ve got one and then a gap and then the rest?
SPEAKER 02 :
But it’s way deep in the back? It’s the one next to the wisdom tooth.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right, but your wisdom tooth is still there, the number one wisdom tooth is still there.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, and then I’m going to have a gap. So then he said, do you want to have an implant or do you want to just go without it? And I said, look, what do people do? He goes, typically they just go without it. It’s far enough back. You don’t need it. And Joey Hudson, my buddy in South Carolina, he had the same exact thing. He said, look, I didn’t get an implant. I haven’t missed that.
SPEAKER 03 :
I’ve got a secret to share right now. I’ve never shared this with the audience. I don’t have a 31.
SPEAKER 02 :
Where’s 31?
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s lower right. It’s like, I mean, you’re, you know, no, I’m doing fine. Ten years.
SPEAKER 02 :
Doesn’t bother you. Yeah, I don’t think it’s that. Now, here’s the fun thing, fun fact. You know who was my best friend throughout this whole procedure? Chat GPT. I would show them, you know how you’re supposed to bite down on the gauze after the procedure because you want to form a blood clot. They put a couple sutures in there and all that. Well, I was showing ChatGPT pictures of the gauze. And ChatGPT was saying, it’s exactly what it should be doing. That’s great. You got a little streaking. Pictures of the gauze. Yeah, with the blood on it, because you bleed. There’s a little bit of, well, a lot of blood, not a lot.
SPEAKER 03 :
So you’re asking ChatGPT if basically you’re involved in a hemophiliac crisis and you’re going to bleed out and die, will I survive the day and it comforted you?
SPEAKER 02 :
I asked ChatGPT this morning before I hooked up with Mark Davis, can I have some oatmeal? They said, yep, you can have oatmeal. Make sure it’s cooked. Make sure it’s soft. And you can put some – I don’t know what I’m going to do from now on without ChatGPT. I’m getting rid of all of you. I don’t need you. I don’t need my kids. I don’t need Tracy. I don’t need Eric. I got ChatGPT. The future is now. It’s here. The future has arrived. And I said this morning, I said, ChatGPT – call it that, but I should give it a name. Bernie. Hey, Bernie. I’m up at 6 a.m. I had a tooth extraction yesterday at 4 p.m. I have zero pain. Is that a good sign? And ChatGPT said, this is an excellent sign. You’re on the road to great recovery. You’ve had no complications. The blood clot has likely formed without any problem. You’d probably be at your peak. And really, I think I would be hurting by now, don’t you?
SPEAKER 03 :
It depends on how much savaging and ravaging took place in there. There was savaging and ravaging that took place in there. As vivid as it was, it might have been a pretty clean extraction that didn’t leave an enormous amount of undue…
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, I don’t know how clean it was because I’m not kidding you. He kept saying – here was his comment. Now, the nurse was very – thankfully, she was giving me all the details. She was saying, you’re almost done. This is this. That’s normal. This is – because he wasn’t talking. He was just grunting. He was busy, and he kept saying – I’m not kidding you. At one point, that drill, I thought, this drill is going to make me go deaf. It was so loud, and I could hear the tooth breaking apart. I’m telling you, I get woozy thinking about it. Oh. But he kept saying, gosh, this tooth is brittle. Boy, this tooth is brittle. I thought, I want to say, will you stop saying the tooth is brittle and get the damn thing out? Would you knock it off with the brittle? But he kept saying, and it did. It took him like a long time. I don’t think it normally takes 20, 30 minutes to get a tooth out. But it took him all of that. But no pain. I’m great. And here you are. And here we are. I’m so brave.
SPEAKER 03 :
I’m so brave. And I wanted to give Mike an out like he needs that from me. I said, man, I don’t know. Maybe you want to take tomorrow off. And he said, nope.
SPEAKER 02 :
I’m out Friday, so this is it. Yep, long weekend. I’m off tomorrow. I’ve got Tara from South Carolina is going to guest host for me, her national debut. Oh, cool. She’s awesome. She really is terrific. She’s a really smart lady, and so she’s going to fill in. Are you taking your company? Didn’t you get a company day in March? Wait a minute. Everybody in the company got one.
SPEAKER 03 :
Even those of us who are kind of contractual?
SPEAKER 02 :
Everybody in the company got one. I’m taking mine tomorrow. You better believe I took it. Why don’t you take yours?
SPEAKER 03 :
I’ve got to look at my calendar next week.
SPEAKER 02 :
They didn’t exclude talent. They said, our company said, look, you all work so hard, and we appreciate you so much. We’re going to give everybody a paid day off in the month of March. Only caveat is, you’ve got to take it off in March. I mean, what about Rhonda, Matt?
SPEAKER 03 :
Have they taken their days? Yes. Matt tomorrow and Rhonda Monday.
SPEAKER 02 :
I’m taking mine tomorrow. I’m done. I’ll see you. See you Monday. Don’t threaten me with a good time. That’s what I’m saying.
SPEAKER 03 :
I got Monday and Tuesday. What?
SPEAKER 02 :
Why didn’t you take it? You’re going to run out of time.
SPEAKER 03 :
Because I’m apparently a big dummy. You missed your free day? Well, it was probably not good optics for me to talk about the amount of… Talking to you to talk about the amount of time that anybody takes off around here. Because I got my amount of time. You got even more. I think I’m good. I think I’m going to show an actual work ethic. I don’t have a work ethic.
SPEAKER 02 :
I actually feel a little naughty. I feel naughty taking the day. I feel a little like… I’m doing something wrong here, so I’m going to, well, look, I’m recovering from major life-altering surgery. Exactly right. I told the doctor, I told the surgeon, I said, look, I’m calling all my kids to give them my final words. He’s looking at me like I’m crazy. He’s cocking his head. I said, this is major. You know what threw me? They make you pay in advance. And so I thought, okay, well, all right, I’ll get my credit card out. Because Medicare doesn’t cover this, apparently, which is kind of weird.
SPEAKER 1 :
$360.
SPEAKER 02 :
Now, I’m thinking it was going to be $10,000, major surgery. To me, this is right a step above a kidney transplant. And $360. So then I was kind of relieved. I thought, well, this isn’t that big a deal. That’s not a bit. $360 for a tooth extraction? Yeah. So here we are. And the worst part, no Diet Cokes for like two weeks, which kills me.
SPEAKER 03 :
It said no carbonated beverage. But nothing carbonated. What’s weird about carbonation?
SPEAKER 02 :
I don’t know. Maybe it breaks up the blood clot or something.
SPEAKER 03 :
I don’t know.
SPEAKER 02 :
And I’m jonesing for a Diet Coke right now.
SPEAKER 03 :
I’ll bet you are. Oh, man, today should be an interesting show. I trust that with your day off, I trust you’re not going anywhere by air.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, no, no. I mean, why? What’s wrong with it? Oh, what are the lines like at DFW?
SPEAKER 03 :
It’s the craziest thing. I mean, it’s like the problem doesn’t exist in DFW very much at all. TSA is shipping our TSA guys down to Houston because Houston is a nightmare and we’re doing great. I don’t know.
SPEAKER 02 :
I don’t know. Well, DFW, people who live in North Texas don’t appreciate it enough. Appreciate it on DFW. It’s the best airport in America. Pretty great. It’s the most convenient airport. It’s got the best options. But I don’t know how this thing is going to end. I mean, last night it sounded like Republicans were willing to say, all right, you know what, we’ll figure out a carve-out away. And they’re like, nope, nope, nope. Unless you defund ICE, say the Democrats, we’re not going to budge.
SPEAKER 03 :
Nope, nope. And the Democrats aren’t going to go along with anything that doesn’t keep ICE defunded. I mean, it’s been funded, but it’s been frozen by this Democrat wall that they’ve built. And they love it because they think it’s winning for them. Why isn’t this backfiring on them more? Is it insufficient messaging? I mean, not from you. me or whatever. And every day I see news cycles filled with Republicans saying it’s the Schumer shutdown, it’s the Democrat shutdown, which it is. Public opinion still seems to be a pox on both your houses, a sort of a myth of equivalency that says, well, they both should get their act together, which is always easy to say. But this is a Democrat shutdown. And I just don’t think that’s resonating.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, maybe the mainstream media, though, is pretending it’s not. The Democrats are lying and saying it’s our fault. You know who I’ll ask that question of now that you gave me a great starting question? Congressman Brandon Gill, who’s going to be on the show today at 1130. Oh, the best. He’s fantastic. And I’ll ask him, that’s a good question. Why is this not backfiring? Look, Trump’s approval rating, if you believe the polls, it’s as low as it’s ever been. It’s in the 30s. We’ve got all these special elections that Democrats are winning. That’s not good. I mean, it’s not time to push the panic button.
SPEAKER 03 :
No.
SPEAKER 02 :
But I spent a lot of time on the show yesterday asking people what’s going on with the special elections, who in the world is going to vote for a Democrat. You know what kept coming up yesterday? What? Israel. Israel came up a lot. And, of course, there’s polling that suggests that for the first time ever, 51% of Republican voters think that Israel has an outside influence, an oversized influence in our foreign policy.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, Lord.
SPEAKER 02 :
Do you buy that?
SPEAKER 03 :
Nope. Oh, do I buy the poll result? Yeah, do you buy that that’s how people are feeling? Okay, it’s funny. It depends on how the thing is phrased, because I’m so keyed up in looking for anti-Semitism. I don’t want to find it where it does not exist, but that is one of the oldest anti-Semitic tropes is that the evil Jews have woven a spell over Trump. Somebody can objectively think that maybe we’re just a little too focused on Israel. Somebody can believe that, you know.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, but you’re right. It’s hard to extract our suspicions of anti-Semitism from that. Because you wonder, is that what’s driving it? I get tired. I really bristle at, well, you’re not sufficiently loyal to Israel, so you’re an anti-Semite. And that’s what Marjorie Taylor Greene is kind of, you know, she’s using that talking point. Incidentally, rumors that she’s going to run for president as an independent in 2028.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 02 :
Okay. Well, all right. Look, colorful character.
SPEAKER 03 :
The talk show gods are happy.
SPEAKER 02 :
Look, everybody. And the wisdom or the teeth gods are happy, too. So, thankfully, I’ve been blessed with no pain. Glad you survived.
SPEAKER 03 :
Zero pain. And have a good weekend, Mr. Dayoff. Yeah, I’ll see you next week.
SPEAKER 02 :
And I’ll see you on Monday. You betcha. I’ll see you Monday. Have a great weekend. All right.
SPEAKER 03 :
Love to see you. That is Mike Gallagher. He’s ready to go. 10 o’clock, as soon as we’re done. Right here on 660 AM, The Answer.
SPEAKER 01 :
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