Column: 'An apple a day keeps the doctor away' is a big fat lie

LOS ANGELES -- I went to my dentist earlier this year for a regular checkup, and he made a series of observations nobody wants to hear.

I had a cavity.

It was under a crown.

And the crown was next to a wisdom tooth that might have to be yanked to make room for him to saw off the crown and fix the cavity.

So I went to see an oral surgeon, who had his own set of progressively worse observations.

Yes, the wisdom tooth would have to come out.

But an X-ray showed another cavity under another crown.

And the second cavity was worse than the first, and deep enough that I might need that tooth yanked out of my head as well.

OK, swell.