A few years ago, while I was at a dental checkup, my dentist said he was concerned because there were deep pockets in the gums around my teeth. He asked that I come in for a teeth cleaning every three months, rather than a standard cleaning schedule of returning every six months. He said that if my gums continued to get worse, I would need medication and possibly surgery performed by a specialist to slow the gum decay. The dentist said that this decay is common as people get older. At the end of the appointment, I thanked the staff and headed home. I wasn’t going to buy into the commonly held belief that with age comes decay. For me, age is only a number, and my number is not listed in what God knows to be true about me.
When I first heard the diagnosis, I turned my thought wholeheartedly to God as to how to handle this situation. In the past, I’d always found healing when I relied on Christian Science prayer in any time of trouble, and I felt that this condition could be healed through prayer as well.
I began my prayers by exploring the seven synonyms that Mary Baker Eddy uses to define God in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “Principle; Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love” (p. 587). I focused on ways in which God created me to express all the good qualities that these synonyms encompass.
For example, I reasoned that because God is the only Mind, that Mind was giving me the understanding to correctly know the truth about this situation. Because God is Principle, He is governing and ordering every aspect of my life with good. God is Soul; therefore, I could express only harmony and purity. And because God is Love, He is always caring for me. From this prayerful reasoning I saw that, as God’s creation, I express health and completeness.
I also studied many citations from Science and Health, and gained particular insight from this passage: “The indestructible faculties of Spirit exist without the conditions of matter and also without the false beliefs of a so-called material existence. Working out the rules of Science in practice, the author has restored health in cases of both acute and chronic disease in their severest forms. Secretions have been changed, the structure has been renewed, shortened limbs have been elongated, ankylosed joints have been made supple, and carious bones have been restored to healthy conditions” (p. 162).
This quote was special to me because it explains that as we practice Christian Science, “structures,” such as our teeth and gums, can be renewed, and that a knowledge that we have indestructible spiritual faculties makes needed adjustments in thought, which leads to healing.
These ideas gave me a sense of peace and I knew they were having a healing effect, but I was surprised to learn over the next few appointments that the condition was getting worse, instead of better, in the eyes of the dentist.
Between each appointment, I dedicated much of my time to try to see myself as the true, spiritual man whom God had created. And though I never lost confidence in the fact that Christian Science heals, I wondered if there was an insight I was missing.
Again, I had another appointment. But this time, before I went into the dental office, I sat outside for a few minutes and really focused on listening to what God was telling me. And then a new idea was revealed to me: I had prayed for myself and for my complete healing, but what about praying to understand that the dental workers could also see the true me—the perfect expression of God?
I hadn’t yet considered that idea. So I reasoned that if there is only one Mind, and that one Mind is reflected by all, then everyone can clearly see the perfect man. With this brief prayer, knowing I was healed, I headed confidently into the appointment.
When the dental hygienists checked my teeth, they were amazed to find that my gums were completely normal and healthy. In fact, they called all of the other workers to come into the room, where I was in the examining chair, and had them look at my previous X-rays and compare the “before” and “after” images.
The dentist and the workers asked me how was it possible to change the impossible? I freely explained that the results came from prayer and feeling the total love of God for me and everyone involved.
I was glad that the whole office that day could witness the power of prayer. The dentist said that I no longer needed to come in for extra teeth cleaning visits and that no medication or surgery was needed. I haven’t had any dental problems since.
This healing was a good lesson for me because now I know that when I’m confronted with a false belief about myself, I not only need to pray to see the truth about myself, but also pray to see that truth as universal for all humanity.
Shadow Hills, California, US
