dental mental
I’m getting a tooth crowned. I had no idea how involved the process is. I’ve been to the dentist 3 times and she tells me it’s going to be 3 or 4 more visits before it’s done.
I think I first became aware of the tricks dentists use when I was 17 and having my wisdom teeth out. My dentist was a master at the art of gentle persuasive suggestion. “Now you may experience a slight pulling sensation” he’d say smoothly; ahead of a maneuver that felt like my teeth were fastened to a departing tugboat while he held my head firmly in place.
The introduction of the needle is the most basic dentist trick, like the magician pulling a rabbit from a hat, or a juggler eating an apple. You’ve just got to be able to do it, and you have to do it in every show as you warm up the audience. There’s the delayed low sweep of the arm bringing the needle. The needle hand hugs the terrain like a plane coming in under the radar. The needle, out of sight during the whole journey, is upon you before you know it. Ah, but you knew it was coming, didn’t you?
There’s little variety here, and not that much scope anyway. Perhaps a little distracting chatter, a more relaxed and slightly sideways approach (body concealing the delivery arm) as the dentist engages you, watching to see if your eyes are straining wildly to see it. You know the needle is coming, but you know you’d better not look at it, else the dentist will think you’re terrified and start with more tricks.
The tricks are designed for the masses, and so many are quite obvious if you’re thinking about things even a little. But dentists are smart people too, and they’ve been doing this for a long time. So they probably have tricks you don’t notice. I wonder how much of a 5-year course in dentistry is concerned with patient psychology and stress management. Apart from using well-practiced techniques, you have a situation in which one person is trying to pull the wool over another’s eyes, literally right under their nose, and that’s of course full of opportunity for improvised patient management. Add to this the patient probably wanting to believe and wanting to stay calm, and you’ve got very fertile ground.
It’s not easy to engage dentists on the subject because your mouth is typically numb and full of instruments. By the time the show is over, you’re being whisked out to pay and you don’t feel much like talking anyway. I have occasionally managed to get some sense out of dentists about all this. I told the guy that removed my wisdom teeth that he was a master. He just smiled. I had some time the other day before my current dentist started in on me. I told her how all the little techniques had always amused me, especially the introduction of the needle. She said that she can’t help the reassuring stream of comments, like telling me to relax, not to worry, that we’re nearly done, etc.
That’s what I think about at the dentist. It helps keep my mind off the needle.
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