I have just returned from the dentist and have a mouth deadened by Novocain. Being a canny Yorkshireman, I won't be going for a pint for fear of spilling the precious liquid, sacrilegious !!
Visiting the Dentist was in the past fraught with the fear - we were going to be hurt by the things a dentist has to do to do his job.
I go back to the 40s/50s when, because I had some sort of deficiency, it caused my teeth to deteriorate and a visit to the dentist was something I had to bear. In those days before the advent of high speed drills and effective pain killers the whole process was unpleasant.
My
Dad, before the war told of an extraction he had without pain killers.
Not much money around he thought he would save money on the gas, which
in those days was the method of relieving the pain. The dentist took
hold with his extraction tool (pliers in lay-man language) and began to
pull. As the tooth loosened so did the pain and down he went in the
chair lower and lower shrinking from the cause of the pain, he ended up
on the floor with the dentist in pursuit.
In
my case it was the exposure to the vibration of a belt driven, slow
revolution drill bit as he hacked away at the enamel,or from the gas
mask which was clamped on full face, no soothing conversation to put you
at ease, the dentist, a big chap compared to me a little chap, simply
held it in place as I struggled to get air and only got gas !!!
No a visit to the dentist usually filled one with dread.
Modern
dentistry is a far cry from those days. The interaction between the
dentist and the patient is based on the trust we place in him not to
hurt. From the discussion of what he is going to do in the treatment, to
the subtle approach of the needle from behind so you only catch a late
view as it enters the mouth. "Does that hurt" was not in the vocabulary
of my childhood dentist but your comfort is paramount with today's
compassionate, business savvy professional.
No comments:
Post a Comment