A Visit to the Dentist

A visit to the dentist used to always scare the shit out of me and it still does, to a certain extent.

No thanks to the horrible experience I had when I was a young boy. At that time, all schools had an ad hoc dental clinic that was manned by nurses who were not too skilled. We kids trembled whenever our names were called.

During one time, the nurse who attended to me was supposed to do a tooth extraction. She had a big problem with getting it out and therefore decided to firstly crack the bad tooth into 3 pieces before yanking each chunk out, one at a time. The pain was so intense for me that I almost screamed in pain with tears flowing like a river. My mouth was literally filled with blood by then and I looked like a freaked out zombie. That traumatic episode tainted me for life and my fear of dental visits persisted.

My family members were generally born with a good set of teeth, except me. My tooth enamel was softer than normal. As a result, most of my teeth were chipped. My mum did ask a doctor about it and he suspected that it might have been caused by the Chinese medicine that she took while she was pregnant. Throughout my childhood, I tried to perfect my smile without showing any teeth, like Lee Majors from “The Six Million Dollar Man” TV show. One of my cousins eventually became a dentist and he decided to provide pro bono dental work for me, just before I started my undergraduate days.

With better technology nowadays, a dental appointment is much easier and less agonising for me, at least until I hear the sound of the drill and I become that 9-year-old again.

Guess what, I have a dental appointment today…