First time your tooth was taken out

For the inspiration behind this blog click here.

I had toothache today - a real dull throb in the back of my mouth. Boom, boom, boom. I've been telling myself its probably nothing and that the usual remedy of buying a tube of Sensidine toothpaste will do the trick, but in the back of my mind I have a niggling doubt as to how long I can keep the ache at bay in this way. Am I storing upa problem for later? I'll keep you posted.

It got me thinking about the dentist, naturally, and the first time I had a tooth taken out. I couldn't tell you how old I was but it was the days of the gas mask over your face and the countdown....10...9....8....7....doubt it ever reached 6 or beyond......

It's perhaps a memory some of us want to or even choose to forget. The sights (clinical, white, waiting room chairs), sounds (that drill – doesn't the noise just scream out in your ears; the "sucker tube thing" and girgling of saliva), and of course the smells (the mouth-wash, the toothy, drilling smell), they all make the memory. Of course, we notice different things as we get older – the younger age memories are just those – of a younger mind........

Here I share my own memory and those of friends and colleagues that I've gathered over the last few weeks.

Flowers everywhere

“I remember I was little. My Dad came with me and was trying to calm me down. I was lying back on the chair and saw the familiar map of the world on the ceiling of the surgery. But it wasn’t of interest now. I was really scared.

The dentist had glasses and when the mask for the gas came towards me I kept pulling myself out of the seat because I could see the reflection in his specs. My Dad sussed it out.

He told me to close my eyes and dream of fields of daffodils because that’s what he dreams of when he’s trying to sleep. I thought this was amazing….my Dad was giving me his dreams. Isn’t it funny what you remember?

I guess at this point I was under the gas. …..a field of yellow flowers later, I woke up in agony. I was told later that I must have subconsciously felt the pull on my tooth and the pain, because my arm shot out and my hand grabbed the dentist between his legs!!”

Stereo sounds and visions

“I didn’t mind the dentist really. They used to give me earphones to put on that plugged into a stereo with that “mood” music playing. All “tra, la, la” music.

I got gas for my getting teeth out. I remember the first time, sitting there with my earphones on and when the mask came down on me I remember all I saw was the circle of people staring at me. They were staring down at me and it was as if they were getting closer and closer to me. I kept thinking that they’d fall over and land on me if they didn’t move away. Then I was under and don’t remember.

Of course all the faces were the dentist, the nurse, my sister and my Dad. At least I knew them!”

Just the braces

“I remember I was wearing shorts and braces. Funny I remember that but they are so vivid in my memory…me, a girl, wearing blue checked shorts with red braces….my Mum must have been mad! I had just come out of the dentist and remember being hauled by the braces to keep me upright because the gas effect hadn’t worn off.”

Ahh the irish

“I was sixteen when I got gassed by the dentist for the first time. I had a baby tooth that hadn’t come out. The adult tooth had grown behind it and forced it into an odd angle. It was hanging by a thread. In Ireland they use laughing gas and I remember laughing at the dentist pulling this tooth out with the pliers, so hard, that the tooth fell on the floor. I was awake the whole way through! But, let me tell you, it was f**king agony when it wore off!”