I always book my dentist appointments when I'm in Canada, for no other reason than routine. If there is one pain I enjoy, it's teeth cleaning. The entire trip satisfies me really, the sterile white office, the comfortable big chair, the soft tunes of the 90's, the free toothbrush and accessory bag in the end and of course my clean white teeth.
This year, however, we will not be in Canada and I took my first trip to the dentist here in Israel. Next time, I'll wait! Why am I still shocked to enter a medical office in a bomb shelter, why! Upon being called into the office, I had to twist and contort my body around the exceptionally awkward 'excavator' type chair just to sit down. The dental hygienist then placed a seemingly small tissue on my upper chest, attached the suction tool to my tongue and placed the water spritzer tool under that. She began cleaning, drilling, torturing and while my tongue was being suctioned off, my face was being drenched from the spraying water.
If that was not unfortunate enough, I brought in my two little boys. I didn't want to bother getting a babysitter for just one hour and didn't think it was an issue. The entire "cleaning" process took about 30 minutes and they didn't move, not even a flinch. My boys sat there in utter disbelief, with their mouths closed! The usual unanswerable questions popped up in Hebrew as well, "do you floss, how often do you brush, how is your life...." and of course with blood dripping, water spraying, suction moving, I was unable to answer even "huuu haaa" but she kept on asking! Finally, I was able to spit and when I looked over at my boys, I said, "see, that didn't hurt a bit!" The next day my eldest managed to remind me that he never wanted to be or see a dentist in his life! Oh dear.
