Up until last year, I hadn't been to a dentist in about 15 years. YES, that long. There has never been anything wrong with my teeth (never a cavity), but last year I thought I spotted a BROWN tooth way back there... Which freaked me out and led me to a dentist. (The tooth turned out to be not-brown, and everything was OK. Although I did have to get "planing" done---I didn't know what that was, but since I hadn't been to a dentist in 15 years, it seemed necessary; and job insurance paid for it.)
After I got all of my planing/scraping done last year, I signed up for check-ups every 6 months. Like in my childhood. Except today, you have to pay extra if you want the fluoride tray. And today, there's no basin to spit in. They stick two tubes into your mouth: One for water, one to suck out the water.
Also, in the "olden days," the dentist used to do the cleaning and everything else. Today: They have some rough tattooed chicks in to do the hard work of the actual teeth-cleaning. (Kind of like in hair salons, where they now have extras in to shampoo you.) My "rough chick" today actual STANK. I don't know what was on her gloves, if she hadn't changed them, but she SMELLED. And she was kind of mean: At one point, I apparently hadn't turned my head in the right way, and she got very agitated. I was at her mercy (or else I would have told her to fuck off), so I asked, "How do you want me to turn my head?" HER: "Don't turn your head any way! You're just not at the right angle." Oh, OK...
I really do remember in the "olden days" of dental care, when every dentist and assistant was pleasant and nice... What happened? How did these low-level tattooed chicks get allowed in to the Dental Care system (or any health-care system)? Come to think of it, how did they get to be teachers?
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