I’ve been to the dentist today, it was quite a long appointment (I have high maintenance teeth) the dentist kept apologising for any discomfort, but there was no need, it was fine and dandy (and I’d chosen to get it all over in one go, he did offer me two appointments) Our NHS dentist and his staff are lovely, the surgery is modern and bright (my only frustration being I can’t join in the lively conversations, when I’ve a mouth full of dental implements).
For me anything has to better than the dentist I endured as a child, which to my memory was like visiting a torture chamber, with a dentist who had the chairside manner of an hangman. When I visited Quarry Bank Mill a few months ago there was on display, in one of the galleries, dedicated to the health of the mill workers (which was primitive, leeches and the like, but probably good for it’s time) a dentist chair, I stood and looked at it and thought OMG that looks just like the one I had to sit in as a child and have extractions… but I’m not that old! This is a museum piece I m looking after after all. I was greatly relived when another chap in the tour party, voiced thoughts in line with mine (thankfully he looked my sort of age, not an octogenarian) he too remembered chairs like this in the 1960’s
We didn’t have lights like this though, which are rather nice if you are not staring up at them in terror!
June 28, 2011 at 11:04 pm
Yes, times are changing fast – in our parts of the world. In Asia I have seen dentists working on the pavement ….
June 29, 2011 at 3:07 am
Hate going to the dentist. Need to go to the dentist……I’ve put it off much too long. Yuck!
June 29, 2011 at 11:58 am
I have my dentist well trained. He puts on the nitrous oxide, I turn on my MP3 player, and he wakes me when it’s over.
June 29, 2011 at 3:02 pm
I’ve always wondered if it’s part of their training to wait until your mouth is full of implements and fingers, then ask, “So, you’ve been flossing regularly?”. They must be experts at translating the sort of garbled nonsense they git in reply.
June 29, 2011 at 5:49 pm
I went to my dentist last week for a regular check and clean. Ten minutes in the chair then twice as long chatting about gardening! xx
July 1, 2011 at 8:52 pm
I go to the Dental School now. I find students pay more attention as they know their Senior Clinician is coming to check the work….
Also, I think I want dentists who have learned on people, not pig’s heads.
(But most of all it’s free.)