Random Dental Stories

William

"Hey Will. What're you up to?" I hear my brother Charlie shout from his room.

"Playing on the XBOX, why? What's up?" I swear, if he tells me to go and do the dishes or take out the bins, I'm going to kill him. I mean, it's 10 am on a Saturday, I am not missing out on my weekend to do chores.

"Can you get dressed? You have an appointment with me in half an hour." Shit! Why today?! See, my brother is a dentist. Why? I couldn't tell you. And it's great and all, except that I hate the dentist with every fibre of my being.

"Umm, uh, do I have to?" No, he doesn't know that his profession is my biggest fear, and no, he will not find out if I have anything to do with it.

"Yes, you do. Come on, we're going to be late otherwise." Great, now my weekend is ruined. Chores would have been so much better than this. I should probably start getting ready since a mad Charlie is a very bad idea. I push myself off my bed trudge over to my wardrobe and pull it open, taking a quick look inside before deciding on a hoodie and tracksuit bottoms. Comfort always wins. 

I trudge over to the bathroom and brush my teeth, trying to pay extra attention to the details since every part of my mouth will be scrutinized in a short while. I then floss my teeth before checking the time. 10:16 am. Great, we're going to be late on top of all that. That means I'll have to deal with an annoyed Charlie. After collecting all my things, I head downstairs to meet what I assume will be my pissed off brother. 

"Hey bud, are you ready to go?" He asks me right as I sit on the sofa. I swear that he has some sort of spidey senses. God, he does my head in. 

"Of course I am, or I wouldn't be down here would I?" Was there a need to be snarky? No. Did I enjoy it anyway? Yeah! 

"Ok, there's so need to be like that, but point taken. Alright, let's go then before we're late and I get into shit with the boss." He ends with a slight, obnoxious laugh.

"Ughhh, fine. I don't want to do this though." I know I'm giving him a hard time, but if he knew why, I'm sure he'd understand. Well, I hope so. In his profession, kids being scared to see him seems like a daily feat, so he is probably used to it. However, with any luck, I will be able to get through this without being too scared and he will never find out. That's the goal. I slowly push myself off the sofa and zombie-walk over to the shoe rack and slip on my vans. After shrugging on a coat, seeing as it is November, Charlie and I head over to his car and begin the drive to his office. 

To be fair to him, Charlie plays some decent music in the car, ranging from Elton John to Queen to David Bowie. I think he senses that I'm in a mood with him, so he's trying everything in his power to cheer me up. He even tries singing, and Charlie is an awful singer. On any other day, that would kill me with laughter, but today is not one of those days. 

It's a real shame that Charlie decided to become a dentist. In everyday life, he's the best brother anyone could hope for.  My dad left not long after I was born, leaving my mum with me and Charlie all on her own. Having to take care of a newborn and an eight-year-old is no easy job. She ended up turning to alcohol, so when Charlie was eighteen, he decided that it would be better for everyone for me and him to move out of that house and get our own flat. 

Since then, it's just been us. The dream team. So you see, it was quite difficult for me when my brother, the only person who I had left in my life, told me that he was going to become my biggest fear. Luckily, I had a legit reason to get out of my last and only appointment with him, since he only finished dental school a year ago. This will be the first time my brother has ever seen inside my mouth and I'm really dreading it. 

"Here we are," Charlie says in his sing-song voice, trying to lead me to believe that everything will be fine, but I know better. I drag my feet on the floor as I follow behind him begrudgingly. I really don't want to do this. The scent of disinfectant and latex knocks me sick the second I walk through the door. He waves hello to all his colleagues in the waiting room and leads me down a stark white hallway and into a similarly white room. I feel nauseous just seeing the chair.  "Go ahead and take a seat bud, I'm just going to get some stuff ready."

I inch my way to the chair, giving Charlie a fake smile to say 'I'm doing completely fine' whenever he looks over at me. I ease myself into the chair and take a deep breath to try and convince myself that everything is ok. I feel the chair lay down beneath me, taking me by surprise at first but I then relax into it. I close my eyes to try and block everything out, and it works to some extent.

"You ready, buddy?" I hear him say. I open my eyes and he's gloved and masked up, the light is on and a tray of tools is rolled above my chest. If I'm not careful, I will burst into tears and that would do nobody any good.

"Oh- umm, yeah, I guess." I stumble over all my words, but I can't help it. I'm shitting myself right now.

"Alright bud, open wide." Holy shit, I can't do this. Try as I might, my mouth just will not open. I shake my head lightly before I feel a tear trickle down my cheek. I squeeze my eyes shut but hear the squeaking of Charlie taking off his gloves and mask and I feel him pick me up. "Hey hey hey. What's wrong bud?" He asks while cradling me and holding me as I break down in his arms. 

"I-I just can't do it. I'm t-terrified, Charlie." Suddenly, all my feeling pour out. About how scared I am and how I can't go through with this. 

"Hey, look at me." I follow his request, slowly moving my head to look at him. He wipes the tears from my eyes and kisses the top of my head. "I love you, Will. I would never do anything to hurt you, you know that. How about we go at your pace? If at any point you need a break, all you need to do is raise your hand straight away and I promise I will stop. I don't want to scare you, that's the last thing I want. Is that ok with you?" The compromise sounds ok. Not ideal, but not too bad, so I gently nod my head, still sniffling every now and again. "Excellent. All I'm going to do is check, nothing scary about that, right?" Again, I don't trust my words, so I nod my head. "Let's get all set up then."

I lean back in the chair, taking deep breaths slowly as the chair is reclining. Charlie gets kitted out again in his mask and gloves, and then I realise something. "Charlie?"

"What's up bud?" Charlie asks me in a soothing voice.

"Could you, perhaps, not wear the mask? I think I would feel more comfortable without it." I know I'm pushing it a little, but I think Charlie will understand.

"Of course buddy. I get why not being able to see my face can be intimidating." He pulls off his face mask and throws it in the bin, getting a clean pair of gloves. On goes the light. Here it comes. "Are you feeling alright?" I give a little nod, signalling that I'm ready to begin. "Ok, whenever you're ready, open wide for me." I have a little less trouble with it this time, but it still feels unnatural. "Well done Will, I'm really proud of you." 

He slips a pointy thing and a little mirror on a stick into my mouth, gently prying my mouth open a bit more. I, once again, squint my eyes together. I feel Charlie pulling back my cheeks and lips, trying to get a better look at everything, while he whispers reassuring comments to me. "Well done bud, you're doing really well. It's almost over." In all honesty, it does help me a little bit, especially knowing that it's almost over, whether he's just saying that to make me feel better or if it is actually true. "Aaaand... you're all done. I'm really proud of you, Will. I know how hard facing your fears can be, so I really appreciate you doing this. I would give you a cleaning, but I think that might be a bit much for you. I'll just tidy up and we can go home. I'll ask Lindsey to cover my patients if she's free and we can go home and have a bit of a movie marathon day." 

And so that's what we did. All in all, not too bad of a day. At least now I know that I can do it. Maybe it'll be better next time. Who knows?

~~~

Right, oh my days. I'm so sorry I haven't updated this in a million years. I just did my mocks a little while ago and I've got D of E (any British people, pray for me haha) coming up. No excuse, I know, but that's mine. Hopefully, this is sufficient. I've already got an idea of what I want to do with the next part, so I'm going to get going on that. Thanks for reading, have a lovely rest of your day :)

Grace xx