One of my patients went to sleep while I was working today. No. He had not fainted. He was asleep and snoring peacefully. I consider someone going to sleep on the chair, a compliment. It is nice to witness someone who is comfortable in the chair and relaxing. The usual stock in the chair have apprehension writ on their faces, their body taut and toes curling. Even though the sleep was causing difficulties for my work- his mouth would get closed involuntarily- I managed to finish my work and woke him up. Fortunately the cavity was in the front tooth and visible. If it were at the back in some invisible area, and had I done a filling using a tooth coloured filling material, he might have refused to believe that I actually did some work while he was asleep.
Sleeping customers is not new to my profession. I believe one of my predecessors, the barber to the king Krishnadevaraya, arrived at the palace one morning and found the king fast asleep. It seems he performed his job with such great skill that the king was astonished to find himself already shaved on waking up. The story says that the barber was richly rewarded with gold, lands and what not! I wish the monarchy remained and I had a chance to do a filling for a king.
1 comment:
You sir should consider opening a finishing school for dentists... and share some of these rare skills... i would happily enroll!! and am sure so would quite a few of my colleagues....
I have seen patients sweat bullets while having mere diagnosis done... as if one could tap them to death with a mouth mirror!! :))
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