For the inspiration behind this blog click here.
I realised as I was composing my last entry that I have another "tooth/dentist" related memory that is very vivid. I'm sure you have them too. Those memories where you "touch wood" when recalling them, that they won't happen again. They are usually horror stories to those recalling them and you share a degree of empathy when you hear them. Of course, I know I'm guilty of the odd embellishment too when telling this type of story. Are you?
And hopefully the last time......tooth/dentist memory
“I was in sixth year at school and it was winter time. I was running away from someone about to lob a snowball at me, when someone in front of me stuck out their hand to stop me. I skidded right round them and landed flat on my face. I landed on tarmac. I was pulled up and I knew straight away something was wrong in my face. The pain was unbearable.
I’d clean broke my front tooth and the nerve ending was dangling down like rubber thread. I couldn’t help touching it with my tongue – oh.. but the pain.
As soon as people realised, I was taken to the headmaster to get a call into my parents. Some pupils who’d seen it were even looking in the snow for the piece of tooth that had been smashed – never did find it but I reckon I must have swallowed it.
I was taken down to my Dad’s surgery in town – he worked across the road from the dentist. He took me over and sat and waited with me. I remember the dentist wasn’t my normal one and I didn’t feel comfortable. I had a sodding great gap in my face but all I wanted was the pain to stop. He gave me an injection in the gums and sorted out the nerve – my god the needle looked huge! He took out bits of the tooth and filed it down to a tiny piece in the gum.
I ended up walking about without a front tooth for weeks while they made up a false one for me. When I got the temporary one in I used to have a party trick where I’d pop it out and grin away with this metal grey stump hanging down my face! People hated that one! Thankfully I’ve had this one in for over 10 years now without a mishap!”
Showing posts with label Dentist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dentist. Show all posts
Thursday, August 31, 2006
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!”
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!”
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