A Visit To The Torturer...Umm, Dentist

Today I had my yearly visit to the dentist to get my teeth cleaned. As far as dental procedures go, getting your teeth cleaned is one of the less painful things. However, I still don't exactly look forward to it. Who can say that they look forward to seeing their dentist. Don't get me wrong, my dentist is fantastic. He makes sure I know what is happening at all times and checks whether I'm in pain. Other dentists I have been to have been totally awful and keep torturing me despite my obvious pain and attempts to get them to stop. A funny thing I always think of when I see my dentist is the TV show "Home Improvement". On that show, we never see Tim's neighbour, Wilson's face. He was always covered up by the fence or some other strategically placed item. It's the same thing with my dentist. He always has on his surgical mask and I only see his eyes. I don't think I would notice him if I bumped into him in the street, not until he spoke and I heard his voice anyway.

My dental appointment went well. As usual the dentist commented on how dirty my teeth was. This year was an improvement on last year after he suggested that I use an electric toothbrush last year. It really does do a better job of removing plaque. Last year I had so much plaque that after he was done cleaning my teeth, my whole mouth was covered in enough blood to feed a vampire for a week. However, I have still been too lazy to clean my teeth properly. I always forget to floss so a lot of plaque still developed between my teeth.

I think dentists have the most thankless job. No one ever looks forward to seeing them. When you go to them, you are always in pain, or will be in pain, and are therefore not in a happy mood. All the dentist ever see of their patients is their dirty smelly mouths and teeths. Even when they talk to you and ask you questions, its not like you can exactly answer them. All I can ever mutter out is "Mmmm, aha, nnnnn". Although the dentist is there to help you, they usually have to inflict pain on you (filling cavities, pulling out teeth, root canal extraction etc) before your pain will go away. Whereas doctors can prescribe medication and you will thank them for making you better, you wont be thinking about thanking the dentist when you are in excrutiating pain. All the hideous torture like tools that the dentist puts into your mouth and hurts you with doesn't exactly get you in the mood for being thankful.

I remember when I had root canal surgery on my front teeth, that was so painful and I was grabbing the chair so hard. Afterwards when the anesthetic wore off, I was in pain for a whole night and couldn't sleep at all. I didn't think of thanking my dentist then. Only later on after some time did I think that my dentist did a great job. If he hadn't performed the surgery, my teeth would have still been infected and I would have been in even more pain. So here's a shout out to all the dentists out there and a thanks for helping us all with our pain, even if we don't say it.

Does anyone have any horror dentist story to share? My worst nightmare is that the dentist pulls the wrong teeth out or slips with that drill tool and cuts my mouth so that its all bleeding. Luckily that hasn't happened yet, and hopefully it will never happen.