Butterflies

Routine Exam

Shawn opened his mouth, revealing his perfect looking teeth. I grabbed my mirror and some other tools and began the examination. From just looking, I could tell he had good oral hygiene. His teeth were all very white and straight and were the nicest that I'd seen in the past few days. While going through the typical routine procedure, I noticed something.

"Shawn, did you ever have your wisdom teeth removed?" I said, taking my tools out of his mouth. 

"No, nobody has ever told me I need to. Is there a problem?"

"Oh not at all, I was just wondering. We will take some x-rays in a few minutes to see if they are causing any problems, otherwise, it shouldn't be an issue. From what I can see, your jaw is big enough to keep them there and none of your back teeth have really shifted, which is good."

He laid his head back down while I continued to check his teeth. I could tell he was looking at me which somewhat made me blush. I tried my best to not make eye contact with him because I knew if I did, I would lose focus and wouldn't be able to do the examination to my full abilities. After a few minutes of just looking around and checking for spots of decay, I moved on and started polishing his teeth. His body was perfectly still and he did everything I asked without hesitation. I flossed and polished his teeth, making them nice and clean. 

"Dr. Stevens will come through in a few minutes." I said as I was raising the chair to its upright position. "In the meantime, I am going to take some x-rays to get a better look at those wisdom teeth."

I got everything ready and set the protection apron around his neck, which covered the upper half of his body.

"Shawn can you lift your chin for me?" I said as I guided his head into the correct position. "I am just going to set this near the back of your mouth for a few seconds. It might be uncomfortable but you just need to stay still so I can get the x-rays. Raise your hand if you need anything."

He nodded his head and opened his mouth. I slid in the mouthpiece and placed it near his back molars, asking him to bite down. I then positioned the small machine right next to his cheek and ran out of the room, taking the x-ray as quickly as possible. After doing that four times, one for each wisdom tooth, the x-rays were finished. Right as I sat down, Dr. Stevens came into the room.