My Brother, The Dentist

Chapter 62-

"As long as Sam is okay with it of course, would you like to have a go at cleaning Sam's teeth? You know, get a bit of revenge, if you like, for all the times you've been stuck in the chair? It might help distract you from the pain of your braces too."

Sam chuckled. "I think it sounds fair" he said looking up at both of us from in the chair. "You've got to supervise extremely carefully though, okay Adam?"

"Yep, okay" Adam said. "So, what do you think Billy?"

I think it sounded like a bit of fun. It would be Sam stuck in the chair this time rather than me, and he was the receiver rather than me. I liked this role reversal.

"Okay, sure" I smiled, accidentally showing off my braces again.

"Cool bud" Adam smiled back, showing off his pearly whites. He stood up from his stool and rolled a second stool over for me to sit on. Then, he opened up a cupboard and retrieved a pair of gloves and a mask and told me to put them on.

I'd worn gloves before when Sam let me have a look at his teeth with a mirror, but I'd never worn a mask before. I snapped on the gloves then attached the strings of the mask onto my ears and pulled the mask over my mouth and nose like I'd seen Sam and Adam do. To start with I wondered how they were even able to breathe, but eventually I almost forgot it was there!

Adam pulled on a fresh pair of gloves and pulled his mask back up from below his chin.

"Okay Billy, so I've already cleaned the bottom teeth, so it's just the top teeth left to do. Now watch what I do closely, okay?"

I nodded my head.

"With the toothbrush, take a tiny little scoop of toothpaste from the pot, just like this." He demonstrated what he meant.

"Okay Sam, open up please" Adam said.

Sam did as he was told.

"Then, hold the button on the toothbrush", he showed me where it was, "and brush in tiny little circles, on the front, back and every edge of each tooth." Adam started brushing one of Adam's front teeth. I observed closely to see how he did it. Once he'd done that one tooth, he handed the toothbrush to me. "Have a go on the other front tooth" Adam said.

I dipped the toothbrush into the toothpaste, took a little scoop of it, and very slowly and carefully brushed tiny little circles on Sam's tooth.
It made me realise why dentists often get very close to your face. It's hard to see what you're doing! I noticed Adam rolling his stool around to see what I was doing from different angles.

"Just apply a tiny bit more pressure Billy" Adam said, raising his voice over the whirring of the toothbrush. I did as I was told, and the toothbrush whirred just a little bit louder. It was difficult to see if I was even making any progress considering Sam's teeth were already sparkling white, but it felt like I was doing a decent enough job.

Once I'd cleaned the front, back and edges of the tooth, I let go of the button on the toothbrush and removed it from Sam's mouth.

"That was really good Billy" Adam said. "Do you think you can do the rest of the top teeth?"

I nodded my head.

"Sweet. Just do exactly what you've just done, but on each of the teeth. Use your own judgement to guess when you need to put more toothpaste on the brush" Adam said supportively.

I dipped the toothbrush into the toothpaste and repeated the process again on all the other teeth. I made sure I was very careful not to cause Sam any discomfort at all. Adam helped me by using the face of a mirror to retract Sam's cheek so I could reach the back of his teeth on either side. Adam also used his other hand to help me pull back Sam's lips so they weren't in the way. Once I'd finished cleaning the left side, Adam rolled his stool around me and helped me with the right side. Sam had his eyes closed so it was difficult to tell how he was feeling, but having two sets of hands working in your mouth never felt great. I took a guess that Sam didn't enjoy having his teeth played around with by someone who was majorly inexperienced in dentistry, but he just decided to put up with it, in order not to upset me.