The Dentist

Every dentist I've ever had has been nice to me....never hurt me.

From the beginning there was nice Dr. Beltz. When I was in elementary school, after a dentist visit he would give me a certificate for the soda fountain at Thrifty Drug (kind of ironic, isn't it?), where I would go and have a small bowl of orange sherbet. (all the while, spinning on the counter/bar stools and sometimes feeling the gum under the counter with my finger tips. I thought it was made that way...bumpy. I had no idea it was gum until years later)

Then there was Dr. Stevens (his name has been changed to protect the innocent) I went to him when I was a young new mother. He pulled my wisdom teeth ---all 5 of them (I had a secret little baby one hiding under one ) in one day! It was a Saturday, and I went in and no one else was there...the office was closed, save for me and his assistant, whom I later learned he was having an affair with. But that day, under the "laughing gas" and Novocain, I thought their playful banter and sweet talking was for me alone (heck I was joking right along with them) because I was so nervous.

Then flash forward to me with 3 children in Elko, NV, and Dr. Price. Dr. Price fixed a tooth of mine, dressed as a circus clown. With a big read nose. It was Halloween.
Okay, that alone is kind of creepy...clowns are really not that funny..... but there he was with his big red nose, and Cinderella was handing him his dental tools and doing the suction.
At the end of my appointment, he said, "you know...I thought we'd have more kids in today".

Flash forward again to Los Banos, CA and my children are now teenagers. Dr. Soares, who told me if he hurt m, I was allowed to hit him over the head with the magazine I had rolled up in my hand. ( I had subconsciously rolled it tight in my nervousness while waiting for him). I never did have to hit him with it, because he was great!

Today....some minor dental surgery... Dr. Debonis in Winnemucca. He is so gentle, so kind.... I LOVE HIM. Even when he kept his magnifiers on, while explaining what he was going to do to me, so his eyes looked like big bug eyes--he was making feel less nervous and and more relaxed. ( I really do love Dr. Dan)

So now, minor dental surgery is over... I am home. I feel fine (I'll be sore when the Novocain wears off, I'm sure)

But why...why...am I so afraid of dentists when none of them have ever been bad? I've never had a bad experience while I was AT the dentist office....only in my mind, leading up to it.
I seriously freak out! But only in my mind. No one knows...except the Handyman.
I think it's because they lay their "torture" tools out there for me to see.... That pick thing looks deadly.

Oh well.....
Now, I'm thinking some homemade chicken noodle soup sounds good!
Anyone? I'll be laying on the couch reading my book, so you just let yourselves in a put the pot on the stove......

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