I had one of those nasty moments last week when I felt a back tooth suddenly go crunch while eating lunch, and then I found myself spitting out parts of my tooth (or a filling, or a crown – who can really tell when you’re stuck on an island in the middle of nowhere, waiting for the impending bolt of lightning to strike one in the jaw now that a nerve has probably been exposed somewhere!).

A quick call to the local island dentist (yes, we do have one) revealed that they weren’t going to be on the island for a fortnight, so we hurredly booked a flight to the mainland for a session of emergency dentistry.

Unfortunately the weather decided to intervene, and although my flight got off the ground, it then had to turn back and land again when a nasty set of thunderstorms blocked the way between the island and the mainland. Once the storms cleared (two hours later), we were off again.

So I managed to book into see my mainland dentist Angela just in the nick of time ahead of the weekend (the flight arrived in Auckland at midday on Friday). Angela is a very thorough dentist (www.wellness-dentistry.com). She is the only dentist whose chair I have fallen asleep in, and that was during a root canal of all things!).

Much to my surprise, I found that I hadn’t broken a crown (like I had imagined). Much to Angela’s disgust, she found that my tooth had collapsed because of a nasty cavity that was about half a teaspoon of sugar away from a full root canal. Angela’s therapeutic hand (and drill) prized away the months of decay that I had neglected to manage, and a dentine filling and enamel reconstruction later, I was on my way. Fortunately I think I may have just scraped through not needing a root canal.

Angela is a minimal intervention dentist. She tries to educate her patients so that they can take steps to prevent the need for intensive dental work. This patient, however, had been naughty and hadn’t kept up with the maintenance, but Angela now has me back on track and armed with a flotilla of dental brushes, probes and flossing devices. If you want to have an excellent understanding of the state of your teeth and gums, as well as a game plan that will prevent you needing to spend thousands on dental work, then I’d thoroughly recommend a trip to Angela.

Right, I must be off now to floss!