A dentist made a routine examination on my child, and something unpleasant was revealed: We had to extract a baby tooth.
“It’s not so terrible,” the dentist explained. “One cannot do a root canal on this tooth, because underneath it is the permanent tooth that will grow in. But leaving the tooth as it is, with the plaque that spread and formed cavities in it, is truly problematic.”
We understood. Moishe’le would have to have his tooth pulled. But what seemed to me unpleasant but normal was the end of the world for Moishe’le. “I don’t want to have my tooth pulled,” he insisted the moment we left the dentist’s office. “It hurts!”
“And your tooth isn’t hurting you now?” I asked.
He nodded. Obviously the tooth was hurting him. Several times in the darkness of night we had stuffed cotton with alcohol into the cavity. There was also the time that he ate lukshen kugel, and while eating he burst into tears because of the terrible pain it caused in the tooth.
But all this did not convince him to undergo the treatment. He was terribly afraid of the pain, even though in his mind he understood that this pain was small in comparison to the ongoing and totally unhealthy pain of living with the tooth as it was.
“Look, we must pull the tooth,” I told him, “so that’s what we’re going to do. But it’s possible that something will happen in the meantime and the tooth will be healed. Yes, it can happen. Daven to Hashem to heal the tooth so it doesn’t have to be pulled.”
We made an appointment to have the tooth pulled, and Moishe’le started davening. He davened to Hashem in his own words, asking from the depths of his heart that Hashem should heal the tooth for him and that he would not need to have it pulled. The appointment was set for three weeks later, and Moishe’le utilized the time for davening.
During that time, one day Moishe’le was suffering strong pain in that tooth, and he was taken in to the dentist for first aid. They cleaned out the cavity and put in some medication to calm the pain. The treatment worked temporarily, and the pain subsided.
A week later, it was time for his appointment. Moishe’le went to the dentist with his mother in the morning. I was very concerned, and as soon as seder ended in kollel, I called to find out what had happened.
“Nu, how was it?” I asked.
“It wasn’t!” came the surprising response. “The dentist checked the tooth again and again, and he said it was in good condition. The first aid treatment he received had a good effect, and now there’s no need to pull the tooth. We can wait for it to fall out on its own!”
We saw tangibly what an effect the true tefillos of tinokos shel beis rabban have. Moishe’le davened, and Hakadosh Baruch Hu heard him. The tooth remained in place!
