First Dental Visit
I will never forget the first time I went to the dentist. People around the world believe that going to the dentist is a torture. It will be the worst experience of your life they said to me. Photos of someone opening your mouth and putting something inside my mouth gave me jumps of anxiety. All that tools around the dental office, the shiny knives, the immaculate white room and the image of the doctor’s perfect teeth, all that made my heart rate increased and I felt like I was on a roller coaster. Because my first time in a dental office was not as everyone- and including myself expected to be.
It was a winter day and my mother and I got up at 5:00 a. m. to arrive early at the Dental office. When I arrived to the office a wave of emotions and the unpleasant smell of medicine leaped over me, and there were already people formed and waited for the doctor. The waiting room was white and on each wall there were plastered dramatic photos of a healthy and dirty mouth, of healthy teeth and teeth with decays, or Before/After photos. While my mother sat in an empty chair, I felt the increment in my blood pressure as I waited to hear from the receptionist each patient’s name.
Clusters of magazines were lying on the brown shiny table, each one screaming out images of the human mouth. I looked at every corner of the room. About one hour after I arrived, a man of robust complexion, piercing eyes, a forged smile, and with a white robe entered and greeted us. The first thing I saw was his robe, and as a lightning pierces a cloud, my first thought was He is the dentist. After the doctor entered his office, I turned around to see the faces of each parent with their nervous child who were trying to avoid an eye contact.
The door leading to the dental office made a noise that was extremely horrendous to my ears. I could not take my eyes off the photos that showed grotesque yellow teeth. It must be my imagination, but I was already feeling the cool metal colliding with my teeth and the pain caused by it. One by one, the receptionist called each patient’s name and when a child entered the office occasionally it is heard a yell from inside the office where the child had disappeared. The parents’ faces were of impatience.
I saw how all the children were staring at their parents with fear in their eyes. About two hours after of my inner petrifaction a sudden tapping of heeled shoes awoken me, a woman in white uniform came from the corridor with something like a book. I looked up to see better the person that was calling my name. A sudden shock of emotion was present in the air, my pulse raced, and my hands sweat. I was walking down a corridor full of more frightening photos. A breath escaped from my lips and straight away I swallow the lump that has accumulated in my throat.
When I visualized a white door, I stopped and I could see a paper with the name of the dentist. As I entered I could see everything that was kept in there. A big blue chair protruded among all the other things inside the room covered with cold hard metal machines gleaming like saying ‘Welcome’. I saw a plastic cup in one of the handles of the chair and next to it there was something like knives of different sizes. At the left side of that big chair there was the person that would cause pain in my teeth. As I sat in the chair, an instant rush of adrenaline traveled through my body.
With a small mirror the doctor began to check my teeth. Then there was an assault of stomach-turning as the doctor took an instrument from the table. The sterile smell of the office caused me a stomach-ache. My blood pumped into my head. Meanwhile some cold metal was traveling into my mouth, I realized that I was unable to move but not because the machines were working but because I was in shock when I noticed the sudden tickling inside my stomach. My eyes shined with emotions. The first dental consult was not that hard as people described it.
