Dental machismo

My previous dentist was ethnically East-Asian. He was highly-competent, but visits to his surgery were marred by his addiction to an ambient "Lady in Red". Anyway, he has now moved on, taking his Chris De Burgh fixation in tow.

The proximate cause of this afternoon's trip was the sucking-out of a filling (top left) by a post-dinner piece of Xylitol chewing gum: that stuff which is supposedly so good for your teeth. Tellingly, the effect on fillings has been less mentioned.

My new dentist was a plump, middle-aged woman who by accent was from Poland. She inspected the damage and said, "It's repairable."

Show no pain!

I have to say that up to this point, it had never occurred to me that it would not.

"Unfortunately," she continued, "I'm going to have to do some drilling. No problem; no need for anaesthetic. You OK with that? Let me know if you feel pain."

In front of a woman used to tough, leather-jacketed Polish males, what could I do? I smiled with what I hoped was the right degree of languid indifference and replied casually, "Sure. If it hurts, you'll know."

The drill whined and ground into my enamel. She was right. Didn't feel a thing.

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Adrian has more extensive dental work scheduled for later this afternoon. I'm thinking of sending him a WhatsApp progress report summing up my afternoon's experience:

"Easy in, easy out."

Do you think he will find that encouraging?