This morning I had an appointment to get a filling replaced and a cavity that was just starting to appear, filled. I had been getting headaches for a while, so I had been to my doctor and he had given me some pills to take if the pain got too bad. He had also suggested that I see the dentist, as he figured that my teeth might be the source of the pain. The pain would start at the side of my neck near the point where my jaws connected and spread until it ran up the side of my head to behind my eyes.
I live in a small town in the mountains, with a few larger towns about a half hours drive away and a small city an hour away. Years ago, a small business complex was built and a dentist moved in. Not long after, a dental lab moved in so that they could service the towns nearby rather than spend more money to set up in labs in all the towns around us. They had a good reputation among all the dentists and orthodontists around us for doing excellent work, and they were also fast, often able to do same day or next day orders for their business clients. Most of the dental and orthodontic businesses closed their own labs and just used the lab in our town.
Being a small town, the business complex had the doctor, the dentist, the dental lab and other medical professionals in it, including an orthodontist who came in a few days a week and shared the office with the dentist, since they used much of the same equipment.
Since they were all in the same building, it was easy for them to share information, especially since the receptionists did the appointment scheduling and file handling for all of them. I could book all of my appointments for the same day and I could go from one appointment to the next with hardly any wait time between appointments. There were times where they needed to consult with each other about a patients care.
The entrance to the offices is in the middle of the main floor, with the waiting room in the center of the building. The doctor is on the one side and the dentist and orthodontist on the other, which is convenient for all of them. The dental lab is on the floor above them. Since the lab doesn't get many visitors, it just uses the receptionists to handle the incoming and outgoing packages.
That is how I ended up here today. I had seen the dentist a couple of times and it was decided that I had a couple of teeth that needed the fillings replaced. They had already done the X-rays and taken impressions of both my upper and lower jaws. When the orthodontist had seen the records, she had suggested that the alignment of my jaws might be part of the problem as well.
When I woke up this morning, I had a bad headache, so I took one of the pills and skipped breakfast, laying in bed before heading to my dental appointment. I don't live far from the office, so I usually just walk there, which is what I did today. When I walked in today, the doctor was at the desk and asked how I was doing. I replied that, "I woke up with a headache and took a pill. I feel a little sleepy, but am feeling a bit better now."
Before I can even sit down, the receptionist says, "There are a couple of insurance forms to sign and then you can go right in. We had a cancellation and can get you in early. Make yourself comfortable and they will have you started in no time at all."
I had been told that it would be a long appointment and that they would take a couple of breaks partway through the appointment. The plan was to give me a mild sedative before they numbed my mouth. One of the forms was a medical consent form confirming that I was agreeing to the recommended treatment as determined by the Dentist. I signed all the forms and was escorted back to the chair by the cute dental assistant.
I was a bit surprised to see that it was the girl who works with the orthodontist, but she did help out the dentist too if she wasn't busy. She did give me a nice smile and I saw that she had just gotten braces. I had seen her around town from time to time and the last time I had talked to her, she had commented that she had been offered free treatment after she had worked for the orthodontist for a while.
After she got me settled in the chair, I asked her, "When did you get your braces? They look new."
"She just put them on last week. I was given the option of what type of braces I wanted. I looked at the different types of brackets and, after talking to quite a few patients, both present and former, decided on these." She gave me a big smile, letting me get a good look at them. "They aren't the fancy new brackets that have the little doors on them. I wanted the older kind that have the ligatures that hold the wire in. In my opinion, they just look better and the ligatures are easier to change. I can even change them myself if I want to. I ordered some brighter colours for myself." She gave me another smile, letting me take another look. "I can even put two colours on each bracket if I want or twist them so that they form an 'X' on the bracket."
She looked so happy with and about her new braces, a big smile on her face as she started setting things out for my appointment. "Are you ready for the sedative? They have you scheduled for quite a bit of work. I see that it might be a root canal on the one tooth because of the size of the filling already there. And I see that the dentist has asked my boss to take a better look at how your teeth are lining up."
"If they can figure out some way to stop these headaches, I will be so happy for them to fix it." She gave me the pill and I popped it into my mouth and swallowed it. I laid my head against the headrest and she reclined the chair, then got me to open my mouth while she checked my teeth. I was already feeling relaxed from the pill that I had taken earlier in the morning and her bright, metal-bracketed smile was helping to relax me even more. "What is your favourite ligature colour? I have always liked black and silver. Black just seems to make them stand out so much more and silver makes it look as if there is so much more metal in the mouth. I like how your brackets look." My speech began to slur as the sedative started to take effect.
I listened as she began to tell me, "I don't think that I have a favourite colour. I want to have bright colours, ones that show that I have braces and that I am not ashamed of them. I want people to...," and that is the last thing that I remembered for a while. I have vague recollections of someone shaking me gently and asking me to open my mouth. That was followed by something poking into my jaw and then a numb feeling settled in and something was placed between my jaws and my cheeks to keep my mouth open.
I partially woke up one time to hear a voice asking, "Do you have a band that will fit over this premolar? The adjustable one that I usually use is broken. I would rather use one of yours than have the tooth crack."
An older female voice replies, "The only bands that I have are the ones with brackets on them. Will that be okay?"