The Rich, The Scared, and The English Speakers — One Dentist’s Journey

“Extractions are for poor people!”

In my dental clinic in India. Author’s photo.

I have been a dentist in Jamshedpur, India, for the last twenty-four years. I married my husband, a dentist, in 2000, and we set up a practice in his city, which we run to this day — rather successfully.

Last week, I worked with an eleven-year-old girl. She is a braces patient of mine, and I’ve pushed the boundaries of what she considers comfortable more than once.

During her initial photography and molds, I realized that she was scared and sensitive, and I would either have to treat her with kid gloves(that’s a figure of speech; I used nitrile gloves like everyone else) or not at all.

This little girl’s mom is a sweetheart.

Her mom was an ideal patient, that rare, sweet person who makes dentistry feel worthwhile and fulfilling.

The mom had a root canal. She came in on time for her appointments, opened her mouth wide enough for the treatments, paid promptly, thanked me for the treatments, and was just…classy.

Now, it was time to encourage the daughter to get the treatment her teeth were clamoring for.

A practice appointment to start with

First, I called the little girl in for a practice appointment to calm her down about the dentist.

Dental theatrics

I gave her a formal appointment, welcomed her into my chamber, put her on the dental chair, turned the light on, snapped on my gloves in front of her, and used the scaling machine on her, but it didn’t go anywhere near her gums. She had a ticklish sensation and even giggled on the chair.

I managed to banish her fear of the dentist.

For then.

After a few braces appointments and the recovery of her clashing front teeth that were threatening to wear each other out, I decided that it was high time I did her permanent molar filling.

To the decayed first molar!

Many parents and children assume that the permanent first molar is a baby tooth because it…