Junior Soccer School Tryouts
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Dental Phobia
I was on my way to Alexendra Hospital on Monday and was feeling extremely nervous. My palms were sweaty andy legs were a little shaky. I was cursing myself for not taking care of my teeth and munching on all the chocolates and sweet stuff. I should have listened to Mum and Dad...and the dentist..
I was going for tooth extraction surgery @ AH..... Several images flashed across my mind as I rode in the bus to AH... A dentist laughing at me hysterically while bring the big drill towards my face...and in another a rather unapproachable looking dentist scolding me for not opening my mouth wide enough for him to force a drill, a plier and his hand inside to pull out my poor tooth. Ahhh...Stop! Stop! ..
I tried to divert myself from those thoughts by plugging in my iPod, watching people rushing to work and fiddling with the contents of my bag..didn help..SO I started wondering why I was fearing visits to the dentist (why the fuss over pulling out a tooth).. My mind raced to the time when I was in Primary 1. Everytime, someone knocks on the classroom door holding a B5 sized white card, all of us in the class would start praying hoping that his/her name was not on the card. For it was the dentist who would have sent her last victim to call for the next one.. and yes, I have been quite "lucky" to be the chosen one on several occasions.
On such lucky moments, I would drag myself slowly and nervously down to the dental room...I hated the dentist. She hardly smiled at least not to me. In fact, she had this perpetual displeased look on her face. While updating some records manually, the dentist would command me to lie down on the chair that seemed like the electric chair (even now...). She would then swing the chair around, pick up her weapons from the shiny tray and starts to knock and poke my gums and teeth. Throughout the what seems like a really long ordeal, the dentist would be reprimanding me in a muffled tone (thanks to her mask) for not keeping the teeth clean.. I must tell you that I do keep my teeth clean but probably not up to her ISO 18000 standard.. Once the corrective maintenance is completed, she pulls out a big plastic-ky jaw set and asks me to demonstrate how I would brush my teeth and starts lecturing a second time on how I should brush my teeth. Finally, the session is over and she hands you the next victim's card.
With the discomfort and the taste of blood tingling in my mouth, I would take the card, unwillingly thank her and walk out. The moment I leave the room I would feel so relieved that I do not have to face her for the next 6 months unless she accidentally pulls out my card earlier(which also happened..).
Now I understood why I feared dentists even after all these years. My childhood experiences influenced my thoughts all these years and created an irreversible negative fearful image of dentists. This time, I braved myself thinking of people who had to undergo major surgeries and diverted my attention to beautiful memories as the dentist extracted my tooth. I would be lying if I said I wasn afraid at all but it was not that bad... I am so proud of myself to have survived the terrifying 30 mins and I reported to work the very next day despite given 3 days MC :)
2 more wisdom teeth to go... hopefully never or at least a few years later..
I was going for tooth extraction surgery @ AH..... Several images flashed across my mind as I rode in the bus to AH... A dentist laughing at me hysterically while bring the big drill towards my face...and in another a rather unapproachable looking dentist scolding me for not opening my mouth wide enough for him to force a drill, a plier and his hand inside to pull out my poor tooth. Ahhh...Stop! Stop! ..
I tried to divert myself from those thoughts by plugging in my iPod, watching people rushing to work and fiddling with the contents of my bag..didn help..SO I started wondering why I was fearing visits to the dentist (why the fuss over pulling out a tooth).. My mind raced to the time when I was in Primary 1. Everytime, someone knocks on the classroom door holding a B5 sized white card, all of us in the class would start praying hoping that his/her name was not on the card. For it was the dentist who would have sent her last victim to call for the next one.. and yes, I have been quite "lucky" to be the chosen one on several occasions.
On such lucky moments, I would drag myself slowly and nervously down to the dental room...I hated the dentist. She hardly smiled at least not to me. In fact, she had this perpetual displeased look on her face. While updating some records manually, the dentist would command me to lie down on the chair that seemed like the electric chair (even now...). She would then swing the chair around, pick up her weapons from the shiny tray and starts to knock and poke my gums and teeth. Throughout the what seems like a really long ordeal, the dentist would be reprimanding me in a muffled tone (thanks to her mask) for not keeping the teeth clean.. I must tell you that I do keep my teeth clean but probably not up to her ISO 18000 standard.. Once the corrective maintenance is completed, she pulls out a big plastic-ky jaw set and asks me to demonstrate how I would brush my teeth and starts lecturing a second time on how I should brush my teeth. Finally, the session is over and she hands you the next victim's card.
With the discomfort and the taste of blood tingling in my mouth, I would take the card, unwillingly thank her and walk out. The moment I leave the room I would feel so relieved that I do not have to face her for the next 6 months unless she accidentally pulls out my card earlier(which also happened..).
Now I understood why I feared dentists even after all these years. My childhood experiences influenced my thoughts all these years and created an irreversible negative fearful image of dentists. This time, I braved myself thinking of people who had to undergo major surgeries and diverted my attention to beautiful memories as the dentist extracted my tooth. I would be lying if I said I wasn afraid at all but it was not that bad... I am so proud of myself to have survived the terrifying 30 mins and I reported to work the very next day despite given 3 days MC :)
2 more wisdom teeth to go... hopefully never or at least a few years later..
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