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Thursday, June 26, 2008

Going to the Dentist



Going to the dentist is so nice compared to my memories of childhood. At that time it was considered normal to remove teeth on an annual basis. I have vivid memories of the smell of the gas and the injections, the drill and the feeling of sheer terror heading into the surgery. When the travelling dentist came to the school, some kids fainted with worry. I know that I had had numerous teeth removed and fillings completed by the time I was Hannah's age. Both sets of Grandparents had false teeth, which was a vivid reminder of how poor early 20th century Scottish oral hygiene practices and diet were. My mum was always giving her mum a row for giving us lollies when we saw her. She would take us for a walk and ply us with lollies.

Hannah and Ryan on the other hand are quite relaxed despite the evidence of the photograph from her trip to the dentist this week. The dentist reckons that her mouth is getting crowded. We are keen for her not to have teeth out. The last Orthodontist told us that current practice is to try to avoid removing teeth and to fix it later. So much advice. So much potential trauma. So much worry for Hannah.

Time for some humour to lighten things up from Pam Ayers

OH, I WISH I'D LOOKED AFTER MY TEETH
by
Pam Ayres

Oh, I wish I'd looked after me teeth,
And spotted the perils beneath,
All the toffees I chewed,
And the sweet sticky food,
Oh, I wish I'd looked after me teeth.

I wish I'd been that much more willin'
When I had more tooth there than fillin'
To pass up gobstoppers,
From respect to me choppers
And to buy something else with me shillin'.

When I think of the lollies I licked,
And the liquorice allsorts I picked,
Sherbet dabs, big and little,
All that hard peanut brittle,
My conscience gets horribly pricked.

My Mother, she told me no end,
"If you got a tooth, you got a friend"
I was young then, and careless,
My toothbrush was hairless,
I never had much time to spend.

Oh I showed them the toothpaste all right,
I flashed it about late at night,
But up-and-down brushin'
And pokin' and fussin'
Didn't seem worth the time... I could bite!

If I'd known I was paving the way,
To cavities, caps and decay,
The murder of fillin's
Injections and drillin's
I'd have thrown all me sherbet away.

So I lay in the old dentist's chair,
And I gaze up his nose in despair,
And his drill it do whine,
In these molars of mine,
"Two amalgum," he'll say, "for in there."

How I laughed at my Mother's false teeth,
As they foamed in the waters beneath,
But now comes the reckonin'
It's me they are beckonin'
Oh, I wish I'd looked after me teeth.,
Zemanta Pixie


Good advice I think.

10 comments:

Jayne said...

Dentists have evolved in a very nice, comfortable fashion these days, thank goodness!

Anonymous said...

My youngest son got braces when he was 13. It wasn't so bad (except for the hip pocket nerve). They don't take long to fit anymore, and aren't quite the railroad tracks they used to be :)

James Higham said...

Poor kid - I can feel it here.

Andrew Allison said...

I only recently went back to the dentist after many years away. I had to as my teeth were not in good shape and Becky got me in to her dentist. I was lucky as she was taking on any new patients.

I didn't go for so many years as my childhood memories of visiting the dentist were horrific. Even when I was in pain and told him, he just told me I wasn't and kept drilling away.

Colin Campbell said...

Jayne

I agreee. I can remember in the US with a Dentist, who was keen to pay down his mortgage with lots of crowns. I was paying that off for a long time. The actual treatment wasn't too bad.

Suze

That may well be in our future.

Andrew

Been there done that. I hate those long drilling sessions to set fillings. I think it makes washboarding look pretty benign.

jmb said...

This post resonated with me. I spent years driving both of mine to orthodontic appointments. I think one went for ten years and the other for at least eight. I'm sure I paid for a lot of groceries for that man's family.

Liz Hinds said...

I couldn't even take the children without getting nervous. And then i had to pretend to be brave and that there was anothing to worry about.

Geelong Dentist said...

Great post.

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