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January 13, 2006
Dentists
My first Dentist was an evil tyrant who obviously had an inherent hatred of children, or perhaps an inherent hatred of humankind. If you didn’t spend at least 7 hours brushing and flossing after every meal, or had ever been within a four-mile radius of the sweet aisle of the supermarket, then you were a worthless slob who was wasting his precious time.
For my brother and myself the sound of his drill was a welcome relief from his constant metaphorical drilling into our brain.
I moved out of that area many years ago but my fear of Dentists has not yet subsided. I still expect my new Dentist to bend down and snarl in my ear, ‘You had a piece of cake on your birthday didn’t you? Don’t bother denying it, I can tell.’
Anyway to cut a long story short, yesterday I had to take Littleone to the Emergency Dentist and would you believe it she actually treated her like a human being? Asking Littleone all the questions first instead of talking to me as if she wasn’t there, ‘When did your tooth start hurting?’ ‘How many teeth have you got? Shall we count them?’ etc.
And then she explained her procedure every step of the way ‘I’m just putting the gloves on, do you like the colour?’ and showed her every implement before she put it in her mouth, constantly telling her what a brave girl she was.
It didn’t take much effort and as a result Littleone can walk into future appointments with her head held high. If only my childhood dentist had thought a little more about his actions and then maybe 25 years later I wouldn’t still be sitting in the corner quivering and trying not to let it show, so that I don’t pass on my own fears to my daughter.
Not that there’s any chance of that, when we got out of the door she said,
‘I like the Dentist. When can we come again?’
Posted by purple elephant at January 13, 2006 06:58 PM