A Scream Is Waiting | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: A Scream Is Waiting | Previous Challenge Entry
By sue moreland
08/30/07
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Today I am home from work, having just returned from the dreaded dentist office. It was as always a traumatic event.

First, I confess to being a bad person. I should take better care of my teeth. I should go to the dentist regularly. I should not wait until things become emergent. I know all of this and I am a reasonably intelligent person. But, I have an unreasonable fear of dentists. There are no logical explanations., I have no horror stories to tell that would justify my feelings. For me to go to the dentist the pain has to exceed the fear
Last Tuesday I wasn’t feeling any pain, but the left side of my face seemed to be a little puffy.
I had to look close to see it, but I could tell by how my glasses set on my cheek that my jaw was swollen.

It’s a good thing I had an appointment today because when I woke up my face was numb and looked like a deformed balloon. The whole left side of my face had blown up overnight.

I arrived at the dentist office right on time hoping to get in right away and get things over with. But that never happens. I sat flipping through several magazines as my anxiety grew with each page I turned. A hysterical scream was waiting in my throat.

Finally, someone came and escorted me to the x-ray room for the proof that there really was a hurting tooth. And then of all things she took my blood pressure. Of course it was high. What did she expect?
Then I was escorted to the room with “The Chair”. As I sat in “The Chair” waiting for the dentist I looked around at all the equipment, wondering which of those awful gadgets would be in my mouth. The scream sat with me.

After what seemed like hours, but was probably only minutes, the dentist came in. He was not happy. He told me it had been two years since I had been to his office and even then I did not continue to come back until my work was complete. And now here I was with an abscess. He let me know that I could have avoided all of this if only........ I already knew all of what he had to say, but I let him keep talking. I really had no argument , he was right.

After the lecture came the tapping against my teeth, to make sure we both thought it was the same tooth, or maybe the only tooth that needed pulling. Then the shots of novocaine. I sat there feeling the needle go in wishing it was more than novocaine and it would knock me out so I would not be awake for the rest of the visit.

His assistant gave me some dark glasses to wear to shut out some of the bright lights in the room. I wore them, but my eyes were shut so tight no light would bother me . My hands dug deep into the arms of the chair even before he started pulling. The scream in my throat was still sitting there, trying to edge it’s way out.

I tried to close my mind off to somewhere else. I tried to imagine being any where but in “The Chair”, but was brought back to reality with commands,“Don’t swallow.” Open wider” and the sounds of the dentist tools, the suction hose and the taste of blood in my throat. My scream seemed to drown in my throat as I silently let him have my mouth and take my tooth.

“Well it’s out”, the dentist said. “and now I’m just putting in a few sutures”. I felt completely spent. Not an ounce of energy with which to scream was left.

After he finished and gave me instructions on how to care for my sore mouth he sent me to the front desk to make some follow up appointments.. The computers were down so they could not make any appointments. I would need to call in and get them.

My face will stay swollen for a couple of more days and then my mouth will heal. And I will feel so much better than I did when I had that sick tooth in my mouth. So why am I having a hard time calling to make those appointments I need to have. There is that scream still waiting.

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