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Life Lessons from a Dental Hygienist
I don't know about you, but I have never been fond of going to the dentist. In fact, so not-fond, that I did not go for years...until I could no longer eat on one side of my mouth because of a sensitive tooth!
I bit the bullet- so to speak - and headed to a nice, new dental office in my new hometown. They quickly fit me in to see the dentist, who was very nice even though I was so nervous that I tears ran down my face the entire time I was there. After he diagnosed my issue, and set me up for cleaning (uggghhhh!!!) and deep scaling (!!@#@!$), I booked another appointment for the next day. I was pretty proud of myself.
So the next day, I headed in to meet with the dental hygenist - let's call her K. She was the sweetest, kindest person I have ever met. I apologized to her for my nervous state and of course the tears. K developed a plan to complete a quarter of my mouth at a time so that I would not have to endure the pain and stress for a long period of time. She was helpful, educational, talked me through each step and let me hold the suction tube so that I felt like I had some control over the procedure.
We got through 1/4 of my mouth after numbing and freezing...I had to book another appointment to do the next section. The office was placing bets to see if I would actually show up to do the next section. I did!!! And I was not tearful this time, just nervous. But we got through it together. K kept up a steady stream of one-sided conversation because it is tough to answer when her hand was in my mouth. K also made sure that if I needed freezing or a break, we would take it.
Needless to say, after 2 more visits, and the purchase of a Water-Pik, I am now in a better position both mentally and physically. If it weren't for the kindness of K, I never would have gone back.
Life Lessons:
•while there are scary things to do in life, we need to do them and will be better for them
•people come into your life to get you through things and teach you along the way
•be grateful for kindness and pay it forward
•there are special people in the world, sometimes you find them, sometimes they find you!
Thanks K :)
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