About five years ago a filling came out of a back tooth and the tooth was most painful. At the time I was doing work that made it difficult for me to get to the dentist without asking for special time off, so an appointment was made for two weeks later. After making the appointment I was most unhappy, for it was the first time in many years that I had accepted the suggestion to turn to material means. Many times during each day I turned to "the scientific statement of being" and tried to know that "there is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all" (Science and Health, p. 468). I never seemed to get any farther than that, for as I realized, each time more clearly, that "God is All-in-all" therefore filled all space, I saw there could be no vacancies, for God is ever present, and matter has no intelligence, but is just a dream from which I must awaken and in its place see the Christ, Truth. By the time I had realized something of the above the pain was overcome for a while and day by day I was bothered less frequently, until, shortly before I went to the dentist, I had ceased being conscious of it at all. I am happy to say when I got to the dentist no cavity could be found.
At another time I went through a period of unhappiness and restlessness. My work was heavy and it seemed that I never had any time for recreation, the few hours I was off duty being taken up in sleeping or resting; and if I was not tired I would seek some recreation instead of turning to our textbooks, the Bible and Science and Health, as had been my custom before. There was a great desire to give up my nursing and to have fun as other girls of my age did. It was but a short time after this that the gums of both my upper and lower jaw started to recede from my teeth. The gums were so sensitive that I had trouble when eating sweets or taking anything hot or cold and it was impossible to use a toothbrush. At the same time another filling came out. I was afraid to go to the dentist, to have the filling put in, with my gums in that condition for fear I should be told that all my teeth would have to come out. Then came the thought that I had proved before that a tooth can be filled without material means, by applying the truth as we learn to do in Christian Science, and that I could prove it again, so my books were taken out and real study commenced. It was not many days before I woke up to the fact that error had tried to blind me as to what my real desires were by making me think I wanted pleasure in matter. Because I accepted the thought that matter could give pleasure I was believing that it could also give pain, and this receding was nothing but the outward manifestation of that wrong thinking. That night I went home and gave my teeth a good cleaning. Indeed, it was not very comfortable, but I was done with catering to error and I was going forward to prove that God is all-power.
After several months I made an appointment to have my teeth cleaned. The dentist could find no cavity, and when he had finished cleaning them remarked that it had been a long time since he had seen such healthy teeth and gums, for they had not even bled. Naturally I was most grateful and happy not only for the healing and added proof that the truth does heal, but that once more the battle with mortal mind had been won and that God and His cause were all-in-all to me. Twice since then a filling has come out, but the truth about God and man and the nothingness of matter has brought about a healing.
