Dentist

Dentist appointments took on a whole new meaning for me this past week, it was a lot more fun than I expected - I kid you not.
Seeing a dentist has been defined by grim, miserable periods that I hoped I could wish away, not this time.

I went for a checkup two weeks ago and the nurses attended to me hand and foot, they were literally at my beck and call. May be it's the competition over here, they want to make sure you come back.

When I finally met the dentist (probably in his late 40's) he introduced himself and gave me a firm hand shake, now seriously, how many doctors do you know shake hands with their patients? (unless of course they have a relationship).

There was a screen in front of the patient chair on which I could see photos, x rays and digital drawings of all my teeth. The ones marked in red needed attention, lets just say with my chart you had to look for the ones not marked red :-(

So I made an appointment to get the project underway and this is how my second visit turned out.

The nurses were thrilled to see me again (I don't know how they do it but their energies are fierce). The nurse attending to me mentioned that it was going to be a really long procedure and asked if I would like to watch a movie. Errr... movie? here? now? or is that like after we are done with this?. She said something to the effect that they had some cool ones that had just come in and that I could make a choice.

What is going on? this is the dental clinic right? right, well I certainly checked that before walking in. She came back with a file of all the movie titles I could choose from, I smiled to myself, it was kind of weird you know - either this was really good or the dental work was going to be more than intense.

I played along, but since my mind was not in movie mode I asked her to make a choice - "baby mama it was, then I lay back in the reclining patient chair.

Before the movie begun she brought me a neck warmer and ear phones, nice!! now where is the pop corn and can of coke?

You've got to understand that this atesot girl (in all my years of seeing a dentist and believe me they have been many) had never ever experienced this kind of treatment, it bordered on a prank.

Ten minutes into the movie I had forgotten that I was in the dentist chair, well that's until the main man appeared and pulled out "the needle". After this short interruption I was back to my movie, true comedy, I kept giggling now and then. When the numbing finally took effect the doctor was back on site. Except for the sound of drilling and the doctors hand occasionally getting in the way of my viewing I was fine. I made sure to keep my eyes glued on the screen because some of those dental gadgets are scary you want to use the bathroom immediately.

Two major issues though, it's really hard to laugh (movie was hilarious) with an open mouth filled with gadgets so I had to stifle them lest I choke.
Secondly, only after I had left the office and was well on my way did the excruciating, unbearably distressing, "am-never-going-to-eat-another-sweet-again" pain set in.

Later that evening I received a call from the clinic asking how I was doing, "are you kidding me? am about to write my will, but thanks for asking". No seriously, I appreciated their professionalism, they advised me on what pain killers to take and to call if I had any questions.