on Time at the Dentist

- Mihir Veera

This phrase is totally dedicated to all the dentists around the globe. May this work of fiction or may be exaggeration, encourage more people to this profession.

NA’AH, just kidding!!!!!!!!!!!

Have a happy time reading this.

Or else just pretend you did enjoy it!!!!!!!!!!

It was afternoon during the rainy season. And believe it or not it was raining very heavily!!! J. I had already taken an appointment from the dentist because I knew I would have to wait and I hate waiting. The appointment was for 13:45, but to beat the rains I left from home early. And consequently I reached the Clinic a bit early, something around 15 minutes early to be more specific. To my surprise there were 2 people present in the waiting room. And the doctor was practicing on the third one. I said practicing, to which even I am not sure why do the call it so? If they always practice, then when do they really work? Such questions are never really answered, are they? Anyways there were still two out of four seats empty and I occupied the third.

Due to the rains all the appointments were re-scheduled and even the Dentist had hard time managing them. Of the two persons sitting besides me, one was a male and other a female. Not an odd combination though, but they didn’t knew each other as they were not talking. The person inside was a kid, 09-10 years of age. He may be here for getting rid of one of his milk tooth I suppose, and even the sounds made inside the cabin gave an affirmation to my belief. I knew it was a kid from his sneakers that were left outside the door of the cabin. So now I had one hope that one of the two persons sitting besides me may be with the kid and was just here to accompany him. The act of tooth removal doesn’t take long time. So now I only had to worry about one of the two, as per my belief. Hope it doesn’t take long.

It really becomes boring atmosphere when you are alone in a waiting room with no one to talk too. So I approached the man for a piece of entertainment. I enquired about his professional as well as a part of his personal life. He replied each question with suitable answers followed by the same question addressed to me. This made me ask only those questions which I was comfortable answering, not revealing some of the personal stuff which I would avoid to answer. But that did not matter as it was clearing my boredom, which was my motive of making the conversation. It did not lasted longer though, it fells nice to know new people.

I was just planning to ask the lady when Ms. Assistant interrupted my thought. I did not convict her as she was here for admitting one of us. Of course it was first come first serve basis, but I really wanted that the sequence should follow by the order of appointment. HURRAY! Hopes do come true! The female was the kid’s mother and so I have to only wait till one more patients. The man did not take long, and I don’t have a clue why. But whatever it may be I was happy that even I won’t have to wait a long time there.

Some happiness doesn’t live longer. They are bound to die sooner or later… Sooner or later some categories of happiness cease to exist. I think you may have got my point till now. Let’s not move away from the topic. The moment I entered I was scared. My legs froze at the entrance itself. The dentist was waiting near the chair on which I was supposed to sit. Two assistants waiting besides her to assist in the torture they were going to address to me. I knew she was a lady because I called her for an appointment. All three of them were looking at me, like they were welcoming me to that torture room. The dentist was smiling at me, but I can’t tell whether it was a smile for ‘don’t worry’ or a wicked smile saying ‘so u decided to come’ because of the mask she was wearing. But I can say she was smiling as the mask had been all horizontal stretching to both of her ears and both of her cheek bones bulging out of the mask. I didn’t want to enter but some part of my brain was saying ‘Then why the hell are you here for, you Moron’!’ without any second thought I entered the cabin. There was a chair placed in the middle of the room asking me to sit on it. It was added with extra cushion and comfort you require in those special parts of your body. An all in one – a complete temptation. 

It’s hard to resist a temptation, you know. So obviously I went for it. Not a smart decision – as you may say, but hey! You never know until you try. The more I got closer to the chair, the more I felt the fear inside me maturating. I could not obviate the tools that were kept near the chair. I was about to ask the lady – are these things u goanna assault me with, but I kept my thought to myself. They looked similar to the tools that a surgeon will use for an operation; but this time the patient would be conscious and well aware of everything, and that would be me. To draw another analogy you can compare them with a tools similar to a soldier uses on a battlefield – ‘weapons of mass destruction’. I may start begging now for letting me go home, but gradually the lust of the chair bought me in and there was no excuse to get out. So in I was waiting for my worst nightmare.

Among the tools there were; a drill machine, not the similar one of the carpenter but an even more dangerous. When switched ON, it made a noise – ziz ziz zzi zzi zzzz ziz ziz – That was not enough irritating for you then think that, that thing would be put into your mouth. There was a tray kept on the table above the drill handler contained a box full of drill bits – for different types of tooth. So easy to replace; remove one from the drill, search for the appropriate one, pick it up with pickers because they are so tiny; and put them back in the drill. Then there was a thing similar to what Shepard use with them, the wooden stick sharpened and folded on the top just like a hook, but this one was flat at the bottom and small enough to almost fit into your hands. Hard though to tell which one is top and which one is bottom, that’s up to you how u hold it. I learned that the sharp, bent end was for digging and the other flat end was for padding. I would call this one pincher. Boxes of cotton were kept in a corner; I suppose half of the total cultivation of cotton would be wiped out by the clinical people – doctors, scientists, dentists and other s(ts)’. No cloth or other thing but cotton was used to clean all the equipments; I wonder would they use paper towels or do away with cottons. Well it’s their cup of tea and we rather not take a sip. The other equipment was same as the drill but would go slower for the frail tooth– even more irritating. There was even something of a shape of garden bucket – similar to one used for watering plants but all packed, having two buttons at the top; one for water and other for blower. There was one similar to a 0.5 lead pencil body, empty from inside, only the top button kept intact. I thought the dentist must have broken it while making notes, but it was “filler” as they call it. Wonder what it can fill? There was a mirror which was pretty obvious to be kept there. Some equipments I could not even predict why they were there, but they were.

All three of them gathered around me waiting for my mouth to be open so they can all pounce on it. In a matter of fact I did. Four hands came rushing towards me without even bothered to get crashed with each other. The most annoying thing is that you can never see what was going to happen in there, not even feel it. And so we worry more. You must really trust your dentist, more than you trust your barber, because in the former you cannot direct the process in your own way; you can hardly see what is going on. The fifth hand belonging to an assistant switched on a bright lamp placed above my head, focusing to the entire face area. It was the sign saying ‘either way u cannot see what is happening; if u stare at me I’ll surely blind you; so you better keep your eyes shut!!”. Even if you open your eyes all you can see were the light, two foreheads and a chin. The woman possessing the forehead was hidden behind the mask. So, I can’t describe it to you how she looked.

One of the assistant inserted a pipe in my mouth, when the doctor said suction. First I thought she was telling to me to suck it, but then I realized it was the work of the machine, to suck the saliva out of my mouth and also the debris (dead parts) of my tooth. She said that she was cleaning my tooth and when done she would fill it with cement, which was temporary. Then in the second sitting, she would remove the cement following the same process and fill it with silver. Prices of silver are at all time high. I was wondering what refund I would get if I sell my tooth. I hope prices of silver still increases.

The drill had passed the upper enamel of my tooth and had reached the cavity. Now it had really started to pain. I wanted to scream, but I was pretending to be calm. Because of the pain my lips wanted to kiss each other and press my teeth hard. In short my mouth began to close. The dentist screamed “open”. Once I almost reached the zip of my pant, but kept all the humor to myself and opened my mouth wider. This incident occurred numerous times. And I really was counting the time to end.

After some time the drill stopped and the suction pump was removed, I was asked to close my mouth. I so wanted to leave the place, but I remembered the process and stayed glued. She used the filler and secreted some liquid into my tooth, which tasted like clove juice. She then filled my tooth with cement and pressed it really hard. I thought it would take an exit from my chin, but it didn’t. She was shaping it properly, so that it won’t bulge out and create trouble while biting or chewing. Such a nice lady, wasn’t she? I could only have a mental picture of what was happening inside my mouth. Even my tongue could not feel anything because of the syrup.

Finally she told me that it was over. ‘I can leave and live happily ever after’ – that’s what I thought. She opened her dairy and slapped me with a new date as another appointment. It really hurts; hurts badly.

To tell you a secret – It was not that bad after all; exaggeration can surely cross its limits sometimes.