People ask me if I'm nervous treating my kids in the dental chair. Nah, you're kidding, right?
People ask me if I'm nervous treating my Dad in the dental chair. Never. It's just Dad!
I've never had someone in my dental chair that made me nervous until last week.
My little niece came in for her first dental visit a few weeks ago. (cue drum roll!)
This Little Patient
Made Me The Most Nervous
“Choose a job
that you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life” This quote
is from Confucius. I have heard of this
quote but never realize who it was from.
I looked it up on the internet and all the searches included a picture
of Confucius looking like an old Chinese man.
Somehow, if a quote comes from an old man with a beard, it’s automatically
a wise saying.
That quote is
so true of how I feel about being a dentist. I really enjoy waking up in the morning and
coming to work. Seeing the list of
patients on my computer makes me happy because I know I’ll be helping people
and they will leave smiling. Most of these patients have been coming to the
office for a long time so I get to know them very well. It’s like catching up
with friends.
The other
week, there was a patient that made me very nervous when I saw her name on my
schedule. It was a new patient that I’ve never seen in my office before but
just seeing her name made me very anxious. The sweet little 4 year old angel
coming into see me was my little niece. This was her first dental visit
ever. She is a wonderful child, well
mannered, polite and loves me. That’s
the problem… the last part. She loves me.
She loves me as her auntie and I want to keep it that way. I don’t want her to be scared of me being her
dentist. What if she didn’t want me to even look in her mouth? What if she refused to sit in the big chair? What
if she started to cry? People who are
nervous at the dentist as adults usually had a scary dental visit when they
were a child. I wasn’t sure how she
would react that day but I was determined to make it a fun visit for her. While I checked her parents’ mouths, she sat
in the assistant’s chair. She had on
goggles, a mask and gloves and she “helped” me while I checked Mommy and Daddy’s
teeth. After they were done, she asked, “Is it my turn now? I want Auntie to
check my teeth too!” (Her parents were
such good examples of well-behaved patients! )
Great! This
is going to be a fabulous visit! I
explained everything I was going to do and showed her all my dental “toys”. She sat in the chair while I checked her
teeth, we counted how many teeth she had, I cleaned her teeth and gave her a
fluoride treatment. What a perfect visit!
We took a picture to remember that moment. I know she wasn’t a bit nervous but I admit,
I took a deep breath of relief after smiling for the photo when I really had
nothing to worry about after all. I’m
looking forward to seeing her in my dental chair again in 6 months. Nothing to worry about at all!
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