Pregame for Your Next Root Canal with Iowa Couple's New Book

Everyone hates going to the dentist, but a new book from a well-known Marion couple is out whose premise is to take a biting yet funny look a process you don't usually want to think about until you get there, let alone anytime outside your dentist's office.

Craig Campbell and Priscilla Steele, known to Eastern Iowans as cultural icons "Campbell Steele" have published a book designed to make it a more comforting experience the next time your grille goes under the drill.

It sounds more like Stephen King material and even the price on Amazon ($20) feels a bit like a root canal, but according to Radio Iowa, it's not about root canals. It explores the gritty world of orthodontics, the branch of dentistry focused on the straightening of teeth. In other words, the clinical term for getting braces.

"A History of Orthodontics through Time and Space" is intended to be part tooth-in-cheek and part serious subject matter.

The stories carry the reader from ancient Egypt to outer space and all points between, while the colorful illustrations include the classic portrait of the aforementioned first American president flanked by colonial soldiers who are pulling on his teeth with cables.

Sounds riveting. The couple was commissioned to work on an art project for a local dentist, which sparked the idea for a book. It's 64 pages of must-read material for anyone who's ever had braces or just didn't feel enough pain in the dentist chair the last time they visited. Perhaps supplemental reading for students interested in going into the dentistry field? Certainly no more painful than the current subject matter of the latest issue of Time or Newsweek sitting on the table in the waiting room of your dentist's office.

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