For Your Consideration

Abducted by aliens or a trip to the dentist?

Thom relates a thoroughly unpleasant experience with kudos to the people responsible

I feel great.

I was just going to write a private letter to the staff over at Tyhee Dental because too often a job well done goes unacknowledged. But what the heck, what’s the point of having a public platform on page 6 if you can’t use it once in a while to spread some kudos.

Some background. For a few years, I’ve been having issues with sensitivity on my wisdom teeth and upper molars. It wasn’t debilitating by any means, so being the type of person who procrastinates at the best of times, and because of lack of access to dentistry where I used to live, I had been putting off doing anything about it for a long time.

I knew I was going to lose the wisdom on the right (it was loose) and possibly the molar on the left (it was starting to wiggle just a touch), so I bit the bullet, so to speak, and made an appointment.

LAST WEEK: I swear I am not demonstrating esquivalience

The doc pulled the right wisdom and gave me some antibiotics to tackle some inflammation so we could decide if we could save the left molar and whether to do a root canal on the tooth next to it. I was supposed to have a followup, but COVID.

By the time I got back in, it was bothering me more than it ever had before and we decided to pull the one and do some prep work for an eventual root canal on the other.

After another round of antibiotics, I felt pretty good, but still sensitive on the left.

Wait times being what they are, I suffered through it until I was finally able to get an appointment for the root canal.

Now, I am not saying it was a pleasant experience. I defy anybody to enjoy two hours on their back under the lights with a dental dam crammed into their mouth, not being able to swallow and the grinding and drilling associated with this procedure.

It was not painful in any way whatsoever, but it was about as unpleasant an experience as I have ever had. Another 10 minutes and I would have divulged the nuclear codes.

There was a moment of levity, however, when I actually starting laughing out loud. It wasn’t the laughing gas, they don’t use that anymore.

With the bright overhead light and the way the doctor and assistant were looming over me like disembodied heads with their caps and masks and the doctor’s odd-looking magnifying glasses with the little little headlamp going on and off and the prodding and grinding in my mouth, I all of a sudden felt like I was the subject of an alien abduction.

I wondered when the probe was coming.

In any event, it could have been much worse except everybody there, from the front desk to the doctors are the epitome of graciousness, attentiveness and professionalism.

It’s a class operation.

And like I said, I feel great. It’s not just that my teeth are no longer sensitive, I feel around better. I guess it was taking a greater toll on my than I realized.


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