Brittany, Natalie's sister, is in dental hygiene at Chattanooga State. As part of the program she is in clinic twice a week. This means that she is performing cleanings on real patients. Its a win win really. The clinic is open to the public and provides cleanings and x-rays for a really deep discount and she gets to practice with the supervision of her instructors. The clinic is so popular that they are booked through the rest of the semester.
A couple of weeks ago Brittany announced that the clinic was having a day for family. You get to come and have your teeth cleaned, x-rays and whitening trays made for your teeth. This sounded great, so I took last Monday off from work and Natalie, Keegan and I went to Chattanooga for the day.
Now let me start by saying that this is an educational facility. This is made very clear by a sign in the waiting area stating "This is an education facility and it may take more than (1) three hour session to complete your cleaning." As if that statement doesn't say it all Brittany told me shortly after I went back for my cleaning that she was also going to be giving me eight shots of anesthesia for "practice." Ok, I knew well before I went that she wanted to give me shots. It just didn't "stick" until I got there.
While I was getting the cleaning and x-rays Natalie and Keegan went to the Creative Discovery Museum. One of his adventures while there was playing in a huge sandbox that contained dinosaur bones. You can see him here with a shovel in one hand and couple of brushes in the other. Can you imagine the fun you would have digging up dinosaur bones?
After lunch Brittany gave me the eight shots of anesthesia. First were three shots in the gums on the top right side of my mouth. Then it was followed by two shots in the roof of my mouth. The difference between shots in the gums and shots in the roof of your mouth is that in the gums you get topical anesthesia first. For the roof of the mouth she first painfully held a cotton swab where she was going to stick me and then I never felt the shot. Cotton swabs can be painful though. This was followed by three more shots on the lower gums on the right side of my mouth. I looked like a stroke victim.
Well, after I was all numbed up it was my turn to watch Keegan while Brittany took x-rays on Natalie. The boy and I wandered the halls and played in the elevators. We even chatted with some students who were taking a break from their Radiation Biology class. I use the term "chatted" loosely. Keegan was more capable of chatting than me. I mean half my face was completely unknown to me, but we managed.
After Natalie's x-rays Brittany joined us for dinner at Sticky Fingers. Then we headed home. It was a long day, but we had lots of fun, helped Brittany towards graduation and I got my teeth cleaned for cheap. I would do it again. Even the shots! Thanks Brittany!
~Philip
P.S.: There are more pictures in the 19 Months gallery.
