The Dentist

doodle taken from organizeddoodles

How many of you dread visiting the dentist?

Let me tell you a story of a girl. When she was in primary school, she loved to go to the dentist so much. Her mother worked at the district dental clinic as a clerk and she spent most of her time after kindergarten there. She loved the huge toothbrush they use to show the way to brush properly, she loved the big teeth model they put on display and in short she loved everything and everyone at the dental clinic, including the late Dr. T.J Ganesan who kept patting her head and Dr Mak who were busy 24/7.

She loved it so much that she always look forward for her tooth to be pulled out or caries to be patched in. She even pulled out her neighbour's tooth using a very sharp pencil when they were playing doctor (no kidding there).

Well that was not what happened to the girl now.

Yeah, she still love to visit the dentist and she still look forward for a scaling session. But she was putting off seeing the dentist for years because she knew she had a very healthy wisdom tooth that needed to be pulled out.

In 2002, she had gone through a minor surgery because her lower left wisdom tooth grew out horizontally instead of vertically. Back then the upper pair was still growing. Needless to say, that wisdom tooth were still healthy and she had to spend 30 minutes with too many anesthetic injected to her gum to make her feel numb. They cut the tooth and extracted the roots one by one. They had to inject her once more because the anesthetic worn off during the pulling session. Not a good experience. When the upper pair grew, it occupied the empty space down there and food kept sticking in between the wisdom tooth and the tooth in front.

So one day, the girl who had grown into a woman had to go for a medical check up so she could not avoid the visit to the dentist. As she predicted the dentist listed her up for an appointment that very afternoon.

She was scared. The dentist looked young and brand new and sang along to the radio when she did her check - keep bleeding, keep keep bleeding love - in this context, that song is freaky. The dentist injected her gum with anesthetic and sent her out of the surgery room with her face swollen and numb. 10 minutes after, she was called back and the dentist went on extracting the tooth. The hard part was to control her saliva since the suction machine was damaged by lightning. The good news was that she did not feel a thing. The bad news was one of her roots grew to be bent so the tooth broke and a small part of it was left inside. So the woman have to go for a second appointment to get the root out on 30th of December.

*Groans*