The Dreaded Dentist

I hope there are no dentists who are offended by the title of this blog.  We had family day at the dentist yesterday, and well, it brought up a lot of stories.  The first being that I remember my initial experiences as a child at the dentist.  Way back then, we went to Dr. Sitar and his lovely assistant Beverly.  She was so nice and pretty, and really helped you calm down.  The dentist was okay.  He had a hobby of painting Disney Figurines and you would get one if you had a good checkup.  There is the word - "If".  I was heartbroken the first time I did not get one of the seven dwarves.  Worse than that, I was devastated by the visit!  Back in the dark ages of my childhood, novacaine was not used and dentist chairs and appointments were a form of ritualistic torture when the drilling began!  To this day, even though I am in no pain whatsoever, I still clench the arms of the exam chair. 

I must have passed some of it on to "Mommy" because she would start crying as soon as she walked through the door out of the waiting room and into the patient area.  I can still remember her clutching her stuffed pony at age 12, and having the dentist say "I haven't even touched you!"  while tears were flowing down her face.  "Calvin"  should have been afraid.  He had the top bunk in the room and the tall chest of drawers stood next to his bed.  I was shocked the day I found the top drawer loaded with candy wrappers, but I suddenly understood why he had cavities.  "Mini Me" and "The Blonde"  were relatively safe. 

"Pook" always has the potential to create a situation.  I think he actually bit a dentist once. He is something like Pig Pen in the Charlie Brown cartoons.  His dust just goes with him.  His bottom adult teeth came in with marks on them.  We have been able to lighten them, but every dentist wants a shot at fixing it. Last year he had his wisdom teeth pulled. Leave it to him to have problems.  A simple procedure took three surgeries before he was okay.  I maintain it was because he was being mean to me at the time.  Mothers do have a variety of curses to use at their discretion you know. 

All of the kids benefitted from the services of an Orthodontist.  They were cooperative as long as they were maintained within my grasp.  They all managed to have a need to have baby teeth removed by the dentist also.  The numbers pulled per child ranged from seven to a high of thirteen.  "The Surprise" was probably the worst with respect to pulling teeth, but that is because he pulled his own.  Around age five or six, he found that his siblings were getting cash from the Tooth Fairy for teeth that had come out.  Leave it to him to decide to be an entrepreneur and pull his own teeth for cash.  Great idea until he spent about seven years in braces to get his teeth to line up properly!  I wonder how much he expects to make on his wisdom teeth next year when they get pulled?

Another era has started.  The grandchildren are beginning their visits to the dentist.  "Mommy" is trying hard to remain calm and not terrify her kids.  "MIni Me" is trying not to terrify herself, because in surgery where she works, she sees the worst of the worst.  I wonder what makes someone want to be a dentist?  Maybe they are just hoping to get lucky enough to care for a family like us.  We always leave them with a story and laughing!