Years later we’ve finally gotten most of the parasites on our houseplants under control. To refresh your memory, our houseplants have suffered from a combination of scale insects, mealybugs, and spider mites. All of these pests were introduced from infected plants that were either donated to us, or bought from stores (Home Depot).

Control of the pests has consisted of sprays (Ender’s EndAll) and biologic methods. The spray helps to rapidly reduce a large active population, but doesn’t kill eggs. Weeks later, recurrent infestations occur. Ideally, the spray should be used on a regular basis for some time after bugs are no long noticeable. This helps to erradicate newly hatched pests that we can’t visualize — that are hidden in between leaves and stems — before they lay more eggs.

Unfortunately we have too many plants and too many sensitive animals in the house to use pesticide spray that often. So in the past we resorted to killing off the spider mites with spider mite predators.

Biologic control of pests by using other predatory insects is a costly venture — much more expensive than pesticide spray. Yet if the temperature and humidity are proper for the predators to thrive it is orders of magnitude more effective. I had to order and re-order the spider mite killers through the winter that we used them because conditions were not ideal for them. Yet over time, recurrent spider mite flareups became a thing of the past.

Now, we’re dealing with exploding mealybug and scale insect populations as our houseplants go a bit more dormant for the winter. Enter Green Lacewings.

Our Lacewings were shipped as eggs. The larvae of these Green Lacewings are hungry little suckers and once hatched seek out any other insect they can find to feed off of. If they can’t find other insects, they’ll go after one another. This is bad news for scale insects, mealybugs, spider mites, aphids, and lots of other plant-sucking pests. It’s good news for us.

She: You know, eye doctors have this thing where the patient lies on their back and it rotates.

Me: Uh huh?

She: Yeah, maybe dentists should look into something like that.

Me: Uh huh?

She: It’s like the thing that mechanics use. You know, where they lie on it and then it slides under the car.

Me: Uh huh?

She: So the eye doctor rotates the patient so that they are lying upside down and the eyes fall forward and the doctor works on them from underneath.

Me: Hmm. Uh huh?

She: So wouldn’t that be easier for dentists and their patients too?

Me: Working from underneath you like you’re a car?

She: Yeah…like that…

Me: Except you’d drool all over me. No thank you.

She: Oh, you’re right. Hmm.

Me: Uh huh.

The first picture is how this premolar arrived (with the patient) to my office. Discharge was present through the gums from a chronic abscess. Looks like a radiolucent post was placed practically to the apex. There’s some remnant gutta-percha or cement mid-root and probably an apical perforation at the base of the post.

The tooth was retreated over a couple of appointments. Sure enough there was a perforation at the apex of the root, but laterally. I was never able to regain the true canal beyond the perf. A carbon fiber post was removed, Calcium Hydroxide was used as an interappointment intracanal dressing, and then MTA (Mineral Trioxide Aggregate) was used to fully obturate the canal.

There is a 21 month interval between the two films. Osseous healing is progressing well, and no mucosal lesions were evident at the time of the second film.

This case also serves as an example of the fact that a 1-year recall on endodontic cases does not provide enough time to properly evaluate healing. From a strict radiographic interpretation, this case has not healed and is therefore not currently a success. One strike against the relevance or clinical significance of that Cochrane Review.

By the way, I did address the molar’s obvious periodontal issue verbally. The patient is aware of a guarded long-term prognosis there.

From Clive Barker’s Cabal:

Of all the rash and midnight promises made in the name of love, none, Boone knew, was more certain to be broken than “I’ll never leave you.”

What time didn’t steal from under your nose, circumstance did. It was useless to hope otherwise, useless to dream that the world somehow meant you good. Everything of value, everything you clung to for your sanity, would rot or be snatched in the long run, and the abyss would gape beneath you, as it gaped for Boone now, and suddenly, without so much as a breath of explanation, you were gone. Gone to hell or worse, professions of love and all.

And I never thought that I could bring myself to say it again. Not even to you. Not ever in this lifetime again.

You, who brought living back to my life; you, who for me over these last few years, lost sanity and soul; you, who sacrificed your family for us; you have healed me.

Without you I am rot, I am insane, I am an abyss agape with hopelessness.

The whispers of broken promises will forever scar my body but my body is just a vessel. My body is a vessel of soul — a placid lake full of love for you — unscarred and brimming over.

My soul is yours.

I’ll never leave you.