In Search of the Tooth Fairy

I had just finished brushing my teeth and I dropped my toothbrush on the floor. This sort of freaked me out, since, as I’ve written before, people pee right into the gutter, gutters overflow when it rains, I saw a cat pooping at the bottom of our stairs the other day – you get the idea. So, I figured the bottoms of our shoes are not very sanitary – even less so than at home (in America), or so my imagination says. The 5-second rule didn't sound very appealing.

Therefore, I decided that, since dentists recommend you should get a new toothbrush every 3 months and this one has been here since I first arrived in October, I should get a new one. But, it’s a nice one and I wasn’t sure I could find one like it here, plus, in a culture where everything is used until it wears out completely, I felt guilty about the idea of discarding the thing just because some dentist said so.

So,I decided that if I boiled it for 20 minutes or so, it would be good as new, fully disinfected and so on. I would be happy not to be brushing my teeth with cat poop and dentists should also be content with this solution. However, since the toothbrush is long, it wouldn’t fit in the standard sauce pans we have here, so I filled a frying pan with water and set it on the stove.

Then, I went into the office, intending to set an alarm, using Outlook, to remind myself when my toothbrush was “done”. Between the kitchen and the office (20 seconds at most), I forgot about setting the alarm and got busy working. Going into the kitchen later (how long?) to replenish my glass of water, I smelled my toothbrush before I was even halfway down the hall. The water had boiled away and there was nothing left but ash. Honestly.

So, dentists everywhere will be happy I did get a truly new toothbrush. But I only found Hard and Extra Hard and since I’m used to using the, dentist recommended, soft variety, it feels like a steel barbeque brush. But hey, arsonists can’t be choosy.
XO