Six Months

9.30am. I am at the dentist, 6 monthly clean, first time for a long time with the lady dentist. I work now, I can no longer go Wednesdays. Not so long ago, I could go to the dentist any day, I miss those days. I had to give the old man dentist up. I never knew his name.

The water pick is hideous, all those sensitive spots, she is headed right for them, on to them, over them. The zing only lasts milliseconds, though. The anticipation is worse than the actual. Relax. Try not to tense up, that makes it worse. My fingers twitch. You think you are going to go through the roof, but you don’t. None of it is pleasant, but you get through it, with only a crick neck and twitching toes, in the end.

“No holes, they look good, except for that one tooth.”

“Yes, I know.”

I've got one dodgy tooth, that the dentists have been saying for 10 years that it will need to come out one day.