Hey everyone! Welcome back Jenny Bundock!
By “Miss J” herself!
Today, I have a dentist appointment.
Every time this happens, I think about how weird the rituals surrounding going to the dentist are. For instance, I am about to go pay a person with a PhD to look inside my mouth. That itself is not all that weird, but the preparation for him or her to do that is. How many of you brush your teeth before you go to the dentist? The answer: everyone. I have brushed my teeth more in the last 24 hours than in any other 24-hour period this year. Not on my anniversary, not on my graduation, but when a stranger is going to take a look around in there.
The clincher — I’m getting my teeth CLEANED today, by a professional. I should have stopped brushing on Monday to really get my $60 worth of cleaning. I should have eaten Oreos and broccoli, several cups of grape juice, and a few blue popsicles in the last 24 hours — but instead I’ve brushed and flossed every time I’ve thought to, lest the dentist think I am a slob.
I don’t do this with anything else. I don’t wash my car in the driveway before I take it to the car wash. I don’t wash my shirts before I take them to the dry cleaners. I don’t wash the dishes before I put them in the dishwasher. How is it that the dentist has put this fear of judgment into all of us?
I believe it was having those Polaroids taken when we were kids. Think about it, was there any better “attaboy” than getting your picture on that wall? Sitting in that chair, noticing that no one else from your grade three class but that goodie-goodie with the thick glasses was on the wall. The wall personified the desperate desire to be a pillar in the grade-school dental hygiene community (that none of us knew we wanted to be until the minute we saw we weren’t). I think it was all a brilliant plan to get us to do their job for them, for the rest of our lives, before we get to the chair. Those brilliant slackers!
Bravo dental professionals.
Bravo.
my dentist was missing a middle finger. it was traumatic and awful and years after we stopped going to him, he was sued for malpractice.
one area of overlap with hyper-cleaning for me is the hairdresser…i always wash my hair the night before a hair appointment, lest they think me dirty.
-god
I don’t know if I’d be comfortable with a dentist who had hands like a ninja turtle… and clearly you made a good judgement call not going there!
I used to wash my hair for the hairdresser, but then I got a really cool hairdresser, and the secret about my ditch-piggery is out for her… so I haven’t in years… but I might be too comfortable with how dirty my hair can be at times… so I’m probably a bad bench mark…