"Cause I'm a Dentist..."

The one good thing about going to the dentist is the after effects of it. You get a better smile, your teeth don't ache, and it prolongs the use of lovely dentures. Of course at a price. The one bad thing about going to the dentist is getting the work done. That could be a billion dollar industry right there - dentistry without the pain and without the drilling sounds. Brilliant. Until then though millions of people are lining up to get a needle injected in the mouth and try some form of momentary meditation to distract them from the horrible, high pitched, screeching noise. I'm one of them.

Now as I've gotten older, the needle isn't the worst part. Partly because I think dentists are finally starting to learn that if the patient doesn't see it, there's less pain. My dentist is great like that. He never lets me see it. He'll have the needle in his hand, but down by his side and he'll say to me, "Now you'll feel just a pinch," and out of the corner of my eye I can see his shoulder and arm move. I brace myself and before I can even take a deep breath in (this is called psyching yourself out), he's got something in my mouth. And he even has me situated in the chair that I don't see this spike of terror being plunged into my face, I see the TV that's embedded in the ceiling above me. Since I've been given the remote, I even start to flip through the channels. Hmmm, poker. Ooh that's a good hand, it will for sure beat out the other guy's. (note - I wish I could sound smart right here and spew out a fancy name for a hand but you just get Sasha-speak instead.) And, viola, it's happened! The needle is done and all I feel is a weird tingle creeping through one side of my nose and up to my eye. Half of my face is now completely frozen. My face looks hilarious when I try to talk... it somehow reminds me of the picture to the right.

It's mainly the drilling sounds that get me and the fear I have that they somehow didn't put enough freezing in my mouth. Suddenly I'm going to feel everything they're doing and it's going to send me through the roof. Hey, fears have to come from somewhere... Luckily that time I didn't get catapulted from my seat with pain, I just suppose me twitching every time they touched a certain area wasn't normal. Solution - just add a few more needles and she'll be fine. It's times like that when you're a kid are traumatizing.