When it comes to visiting the dentist, there’s no denying I’m a white-knuckle patient. I think the root of my discomfort in the dental chair is due to my early experiences. I distinctly remember sitting in the dentist’s chair as a child and watching my dentist hold a cigarette in his mouth (yes, as he worked on my teeth) and the ashes at the end of the cigarette grew alarmingly lengthier with each moment. Since he was perched with his face directly above mine, I felt quite sure those ashes would fall from the cigarette and land straight in my gaping, open mouth!
Whenever I have my dental checkups or other dental work needing to be done, this visual image isn’t far from my mind. Thankfully today, dentists rarely smoke and would never do so while caring for patients. I suppose this shows just how far we’ve come from the days when I was a little girl … again, thankfully! Continue reading “Tooth Dismay”