The Dental-ry
"The days are just packed,” has become my byword since retirement several years ago. Instead of a regular schedule of 9 to 5, my days could begin at 5 AM and go until 3 PM. Another day might be a short one of 10 AM to 1 PM. The rhythm and predictability are gone; five days of 8 hours’ work are a thing of the past. The time that I so carefully spent working for someone else is now divided between sporadic teaching jobs, daily exercise, and writing assignments.
Recently, my
day was spent at the dentist. Perhaps
you can feel the excitement. The need
for dental care began the week before with pains in my jaw. As any Senior citizen would do, I took pain
medication hoping that my jaw aches would go away. No such luck was in my corner and the pain
continued, in fact, it grew worse and worse leading me to call our family
dentist. An appointment was granted and
I entered the domain of…The dentist.
Entering this
domain is much akin to stepping into a First Grade room. The office is brightly colored with posters
on the wall and happy music playing over hidden speakers. A genuinely cheerful helper behind a desk
greeted me upon my entrance into the dental domain. In the same manner as a teacher’s aide meets
young children, the office assistant smiled, welcomed me, retrieved information
from her computer and directed me to the waiting area.
My waiting was
rather limited due to another cheerful person inviting me into the play area in
another room…the inner sanctum of dental-ry.
At this point, I should say that the cheerful people of dental-ry were
extremely young. I roughly guessed their
ages at around 18 or perhaps younger. I
was directed to a play-chair with lots of toys around it. A very young man entered the room and began
using the toys to check out my mouth.
In a more
serious vein, I should say that my dentist and his staff are kind and very
professional. However, they are very
young! In fact, they treated me like the
office Grandfather. My pain was their
concern. After a thorough checkup, a
time was arranged for another visit, and yes, I needed that dreaded procedure…a
root canal. And to top that off, another
tooth was cracked so a crown was needed.
This day kept
getting better and better!
The actual day
of my dental procedures was almost a let-down in terms of excitement and
dread. After almost 5 hours of peering
into my mouth and seeing just how many dental instruments would fit between my
epiglottis and lips, the dentist pronounced me almost cured. The root canal was a success; however the crown
was temporary. My next appointment is…yes
I have to return…in three weeks.
How do I
feel? Tired! My jaw is sore! And…I have a date to return and play with
those cheerful people at the dental-ry.
Ken Colson
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