So what do you find the most scary? People? Ghost? Places? Animals? Trees? Terrorists? Mice? Flies? Caterpillars? Stock Market Crashes? Osama? Obama? LEHMANN BROTHERS?
Ever wished that you never get to have a date with your favorite creeps? Well I did too. The scariest thing I can vaguely remember having encountered are the packs of centipede you find in the jungles in monsoon. Given them a chance and they would crawl over everything. Your feet, your hands, face and when you think you’ve seen the worst, you'd find a big group partying on your back. Their crimson shade and a curly, curvy, glossy appearance ensure you want to faint the moment you see one on you. My feelings for a dentist hovers somewhere around there.
The phobia for dentists dates back to schooldays when I got my first real tooth pain. I remember the day when a shrill went down my spine as I chewed something with my decayed tooth. That was the worst pain I've ever had in my life.
The same week, I went to meet a dentist. I vaguely remember the day. She didn’t talk much; just asked me to sit on a reclining chair. I thought, why not? She inspected my mouth for a few seconds.
What happened next is something that is etched on my memory ever since. She switched ON a light and pulled it on my face. I'd only seen these in Mithunda movies when the bad-cop would question Mithunda, pour water on his face and do excruciating things to him.
So the spotlight was on me and I am no Mithunda. I am more of a terrified little wimp. The next thing I saw is the doctor trying out her drilling machine. Now I'd never seen a doctor with a drilling machine before. And I thought, if at all, it would be used on the very serious and complicated cases like mining for diamonds hidden underneath your medulla oblongata! I thought she'd devote some of her attention to me and cure me of this excruciating pain in my....teeth.
The next thing I remember, I saw the spot light, the drilling machine, the dentist...all closing in on me. But recline of the chair would take me lower and lower. I remember I was falling....weightless, clueless...the drills were badly trying to get me and they did. It hit a corner of my tooth and I could take it no longer: I simply fainted.
Normalcy was restored when I was given some water and the recline restored in such a manner that blood would run into my brain. I opened my eyes and saw the dentist giving me a condescending look.
I never visited a dentist again for the next few years till things turned out pretty bad. It was about 3-4 years later and the same tooth when mom took me to another dentist who promised a magic cure called RCT (Root Canal Treatment). They would remove all the damaged nerves of my teeth and replace it with synthetic ones. And with it would vanish the pain and the agony. I was ever so happy!
But this again was a painful exercise for me. I would be summoned every week and every time I'd go there hoping it’s the last. Since it never ceased, I decided that enough is enough and lived on with a hollow on my tooth. I avoided dentists ever since. I suspected I am odontophobic.
So 10 long years later, when I discovered a part of my teeth broken and coming off with a slice of sandwich, I was petrified about meeting Ms Frankenstein again. It was a different tooth and having past experience, I knew that RCT is the only way out. I made umpteen enquiries about good doctors around the park. Around the same time I started getting nightmares of the drilling machine.
On Isha's recommendation, I went to see her dentist. I was petrified to say the least. So I did all kinds of research online. I read a discussion on forum that if LA doesn't work the way it’s supposed to, the doctor would prick the nerve out and inject the anesthetic straight into it. This was supposedly the worst kind of pain mentioned and which everyone had invariably suffered once. I kicked myself for reading.
The day of appointment arrived and she said that I can start the process that very day and it would get over in a day or two. It was a catch-22 for me. Neither was I prepared for the game nor could I withstand the agony of the painful tooth. When she asked me whether I’ve had breakfast, I found a leeway and ran out of the clinic citing I am there with an empty stomach.
I took an appointment due 2 days hence and decided to call in Isha this time to give me some 'moral support' :P.
She was only interested in freaking me out even more. The doc gave me LA and asked me to wait for some time and then later, started drilling and cutting inroads. I felt a twinge and I screamed. I thought it would prompt her to go a bit slowly.
But it didn’t. I could see her reaching for the syringe again from the right corner of my eye. And then I thought of the forum discussion. I was scared. I dreaded that the most discussed process of injecting anesthetic into my nerve was about to begin. I waited with my fingers, hands, legs, shoulders; and everything crossed.
I screamed before she got the syringe into my mouth. She then asked me to be patient. And so I did; all patient, eyes shut - waiting for the needle to poke my nerve. When it did, I could feel a twinge. By Jove it was painful! My heart was racing. I could do nothing but persist and several agonizing seconds later, I sat there not feeling anything, heaving a sigh of relief.
I then lay there with my mouth wide open, needles of various kinds poking the teeth in contention. Broken pieces of teeth flying around like saw-dust. And an hour later, the ordeal was over. She said the RCT itself was over. Now I was scared again; how someone can wrap a month long process in a single sitting!
I asked her whether it’s going to pain anymore and she said that RCT is a surgical procedure and there would be traumatic pain. PAIN!!!! I suffered all this to get rid of my pain and here she was telling me that the pain has just started! I was furious and left for home feeling dejected, waiting for the pain to start all over again!
Thankfully, it didn’t ;)
She summoned me the next day; an appointment that I skipped just to test how my fractured tooth is keeping. It’s been a week since and I am yet to pay her a visit. The thought of going back to the drills still scares me and now I get that strange scary feeling again.
The next appointment is for the morrow. The drilling machine nightmares have made a comeback too. Wish me luck. Hope I make it ;)
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