HELLO DENT, GOODBYE

FIX THEIR TEETH OR FIX OUR RELATIONSHIP? (Chapter 4)

On the third day, Dr. Dan was finally happy that she got a reply from Liz.

Let's talk tonight there at tamper

6 PM

Don't be late

On the evening, they finally reconciled, and everything were fixed and settled between them again. Dr. Dan got his spark again.

After two months, after the patient had undergone most of the treatment, he was finally scheduled for braces today.

Dr. Zibonga finally came in the clinic at 10 AM in the morning. The patient really looked forward for the braces because he was excited to get his teeth aligned but was still eager to fix his missing teeth more with a prosthesis. Dr. Zibonga was fully aware that Sir Slater had some issues of misalignments and maloccluded dentition.

Dr. Zibonga then asked her dental assistant to prepare the armamentarium during lunch so when she sat at the chair, the mouth mirror, cotton plier were already arranged and well-placed, and the essential materials needed for the braces were complete and are well-placed.

Five days before, she did an oral examination about the condition of the patient's teeth with an X-ray and then took some pictures of his teeth to have evidence of what the teeth looked like before the orthodontic procedure. Then she also did an impression to the patient. Impression is the process in which a dentist will place an alginate on your dentition to copy your teeth and then eventually will become tooth models. As Dr. Zibonga wanted to use both ways of doing an impression, she also used the recent technique which is the digital impression. She placed a pen-liked device inside the mouth of the patient and run it throughout the entire teeth and mouth of the patient. The device had a camera and a light to scan and replicate the entire mouth. Whilst the dentist was doing the impression, the patient could see the visual of his teeth and oral cavity forming and slowly building up right there on the screen.

Today was now the official schedule of Sir Slater for putting braces on his teeth.

The first thing that Dr. Zibonga did was cleaned the teeth and flossed it to remove food debris and trapped food particles in between his teeth in order to prevent development of cavities.

An object was then placed on Slater's mouth, and he was so curious about it because he felt his cheeks and lips being stretched but in a comfortable level. But it was weird for him the fact that he could feel that his mouth was widely open.

"Deekkk," spoke Mr. Monterazas. "Wesh esh desh?"

Although quite unclear, Dr. Gregina knew what was his concern.

"Oh, don't worry," explained Dr. Zibonga. "It's called retractors. This is for your teeth to make your mouth open wide so that we can put your braces on without being interfered by your cheeks or your lips."

The dentist then placed some cotton rolls inside to dry his mouth and the tongue to prevent contamination of saliva. Then after that, she held the air-and water syringe (a device used to wet or dry your teeth to make it suitable for bonding.)

Dr. Zibonga then took a syringe-like item that released bluish gel-like substance in order to create some tiny or microscopic pores on the teeth. Next, she started putting the braces on the teeth using adhesives which is called a bonding agent in order to attach the braces on the teeth securely.

Then he took sight of a familiar device that emitted blue light. It was to harden to bonding agent. At last, Dr. Zibonga, with an arch wire, she ran it through the braces and held it in place using small circular bands that were color gray as it was the color that the patient chose.

After the treatment was done, Dr. Zibonga educate the patient to brush their teeth properly with few correct techniques and instructed him to double his oral hygiene habits as his teeth were now more prone to developing caries. The dentist gave him a free ortho kit. Finally, the patient said thank you and was dismissed.

At 10 in the evening, Dr. Dan randomly invited Liz to buy and eat some ice cream.

Then later they went into the convenience store.

"Just sit and wait here at the table and I'll buy the ice creams."

Several minutes lasted and then Dan finally was back at the table. He then gave the coffee-flavored ice cream to Liz.

"Why this one?"

"I just feel like buying it."

"You know that I don't like coffee, right?" said Liz with a disappointed tone.

"Oh yeah, I am sorry, I just remembered that---" said Dan.

"Really?" said Liz with a sharp note. "Do you even know what flavor of ice cream my favorite is?"

"Cookies and cream, right?"

The expression of Liz went downhill.

"After years of being in relationship and I kept mentioning you about my favorites and you don't even remember them," said Liz and his voice sounded as though dismay reigned on it. "IT'S VANILLA!!!" she exclaimed.

"I'm sorry," asked Dan. "Are you mad at me?"

"You know what DENT," opened-up Liz. "I don't even know if this relationship will bring us somewhere. You keep missing small details about me and is always busy with your work and fixing people's teeth. I have work too but I never forget about you. In fact, I always look forward seeing you because although I give time for my work, I sacrifice things just to be with you."

"You're upset right now," said Dan gently trying to pamper her. "Please, calm down and breath."

"I'm no longer in the mood eating---" said Liz. "The truth is even though I was not in the mood for ice cream, and I didn't want to go out---but for you I did. Because you're important to me and spending time with you is a comfort for me. But guess what, I think you don't feel the same."

"You're---- crying," Dan said as he looked at the tears falling and running on the cheeks of Liz.

"I wanna go home,"

They then went inside the car and drive off. Throughout the entire drive, they were very silent and not a single word came out from their mouths.

They finally arrived in front of Liz's apartment and parked the car. Before Liz stepped out of the car, she said "Either you will focus fixing their teeth or fix our relationship."