D-day chronicles: 2 – I screamed and screamed

Most of friends went to the dentist for the first time to get rid of the their milk tooth and blah, however I owe my first visit to the dentist to a minor cavity.
It happened as follows :_ (

I came back after a regular day at school, which involved missing my school van in the morning, not finishing my lunch at school and dirtying my clothes by the end of the day. I finished my daily studies, watched the 7 o’ clock news on TV, (on good ol’ DD remember?) had regular dinner which comprised of usual roti, sabji, etc, and decided to sleep. It was then that they decided to attack. By ‘they’ I mean the ‘kitanu’ who don’t have anything better to do in life other than to ‘attack’ calcium deposits in my mouth.

I screamed in pain, rolled in bed and then ran to my mother (what else can a kid do, sigh!). She gave me salt water so I could gargle and a painkiller. Well that did work to some extent, the pain however, never left entirely. I managed to cry myself to sleep that night and then came the D-day (D for dentist?).

I didn’t have to go to school, I have tooth ache na… She took me to the dentist first thing in the morning. Dentists those days were not the sophisticated beings you see today. I reached at 10:30 in the morning and there was already a huge line in front of the clinic. I mean seriously; shouldn’t these people be at work, I am sure they were all govt employees!

Anyway I waited and after an hour, the receptionist told me to go in. My mother had to almost drag the-now-intimidated-me into dentist’s chamber. Then I was made to sit on that chair which should have been next to a pool – I could have slept there if not for the smell. The dentist scanned my mouth saw the cavity, tapped it three four times and asked if it hurt or not.

What I wanted to say – Of course woman, that’s a cavity you are knocking on and you have a metal thingy in you hand. Or is that some kind of a trick question, it’s a rhetorical question you know! If it didn’t hurt I wouldn’t be here, you see.

What I said – Ya a little. sob.. =(

She then told my mother to get an X-ray done for my teeth so that she could know the extent of damage. “They want me to undergo an X-ray!” I freaked out. Inside me I panicked, externally I shivered and sweated – yes yes, total freak out. My mother had to drag me into an auto, which took us to the nearest hospital, and I was taken to X ray room. And there I stood screaming and shouting – not out of pain, but out of fear. Why? For god sake, I was going to be X-ray-ed! Was I going to be dissected? Was

it going to hurt? I didn’t know. All I knew was that, it’s going to be torturous. (or so I thought)

My mother and two assistants struggled to get me to lie down, so they could X-ray me while the doctor who handled the X-ray machine stared at me in amazement. Did I give a damn? No. I continued to create a racket and some how, they managed to hold down my little legs, hands and put my head in place.

The machine now started moving down slowly towards my face. My eyes had turned red because of crying and tension, but my mother didn’t care, nor did the assistants or the doctor in charge. The machine continued it’s descend and grinded to a halt five inches away from my face. After a moment of silence, when I wondered what was going to happen next, the machine let a blinding flash. I closed my eyes prepared for the worst; I didn’t even dare scream. Then my mother whispered in my ears. “Balu, you can open your eyes now. It’s over.”


10 responses to “D-day chronicles: 2 – I screamed and screamed”
  1. Mojo Jojo Avatar

    You don’t seem to mind X-boxes or X-rated movies. Wonder what’s there in the humble X-ray that scared the shit out of you?

  2. | Balu | Avatar

    Xbox I do mind what I don’t mind is Xbox 360
    But hey I was a kid who was scared of stairs.. whoops I will keep that story for later! =D

  3. Xylene Avatar

    haha. Man !
    My visit to dentist goes like this
    D “There is cavity there, there , here, there, this one that one”
    ME “Could you tell me how many are good?”
    D “We will fill a few, leave the rest for later”
    Me thinking ‘Why? do you want to enjoy it for supper?’

  4. Nova Avatar

    Hope u get well soon buddy 🙂

  5. Reema Avatar

    Ahhhh! It reminded me of all the painful visits to dentists 🙁 I fear dentists next to exams!

  6. katya Avatar

    Balu,
    It doesn’t pain these days. modernity eh 🙂
    But the consciousness of something tapping at your teeth, and the swishing sounds of the air pressure add to the climax. Until the happy ending of course.
    6000 is lots. (As you replied in your last post). Must have been a good private doctor.

  7. Smita Avatar

    Ewww!!! I hate dentists for no reason per se hehehe….

    But I am sure you would agree that sometimes our fears are uncalled for.

    When I was a kiddo I was scared of injections & I used to get a chocolate if I had to get injected for some reasons or the other. Later I wasn’t scared but I carried on the ritual of taking chocolates 😉

  8. ish Avatar

    Oh Lord, you’re bringing back old memories. I used to have loads of cavities too and I hating getting them filled. The filling used to taste funny and the entire process was rather scary.

    And tooth-Xrays. Haha. I never had such an interesting one. When I had my first xray, I was old enough to understand that this was gonna be the most harmless part of the entire thing. :/

  9. Nikhil Narayanan Avatar

    Balu,
    Every visit to a dentist is night-marish however posh the place is.
    At the end of the day, the drill you down to death!

    Just done with an RCT , went for the ceramic cap.Aesthetics it seems!

    -Nikhil

  10. | Balu | Avatar

    @Xylene
    I think they like to keep it so that it gets worse, so that you visit them again and they make money out of it! 😀

    @Nova
    I have.. almost

    @Reema
    Is that so? Well it’s not that bad for me now, but yeah it used to be once upon a time!

    @Katya
    Sure the doctor was good, it was worth the money

    @Smitha
    Oh yes, the needle is still kinda scary, but I never fainted at its sight unlike a few of my friends 😀

    @Ish
    Damn my mother tried to explain but was I listening? Sheesh

    @Nikhil
    Ah I dodged the ceramic cap sales this time.. went for a full steel one. The last cap I got was half-ceramic half-steel like you said u said for aesthetics sake 😀

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