The Dentist

I have the good fortune of having a cousin that's a dentist... but as long as I've been alive, his practice has been two hours away from home... so I've always traveled two hours to go to the dentist. That being said, going to the dentist for me holds happier family memories than what most people associate with the dentist.

When I was young, going to the dentist meant going to visit Aunt Flo afterwards. Except for maybe the last year of her life or so she was a spry old lady who had a Snuggle bear (like the mascot of the fabric softener), a jar full of shells that I thought was fascinating, more footstools than anyone else I knew (she maybe had three or four) and a candy dish on the coffee table with those little strawberry hard candies. And she called everyone "love".

When I was 10, I had braces put on by one of the other dentists in the practice and had to go up every month for a year and a half. We couldn't have done it closer because the orthodontist that everyone went to in our area refused to take patients younger than 12. I remember being mildly embarrassed by the fact that I was weird... getting braces before I was 12.

I can't remember when, but going to the Maine Diner became a tradition of going to the dentist. To the point where on the rare occasion I actually go to the dentist alone, I still stop at the Maine Diner to get something to eat on the way home.

When we make appointments for cleanings, my mother tries to make sure that two of us have an appointment at the same time so no one has to go up alone. Even when you're the only one who has an appointment, if she can, she'll take the day off and drive you up there. Going to the dentist usually ends up being a family outing.

Sometimes it turns into a shopping trip... Yesterday we ended up going to a yarn store, a Mac store, a store that sold jams, jellies, and bread mixes, and a goat milk product store.

Things have changed as the years have gone by... I remember when I was younger, we never had to check in at the counter because people knew who we were. Now we have to. I find myself having to explain who I am to the new folks that have been hired... but there are still people there that I've known since I was little.

It makes me sad knowing that one of these days I'll probably have to find a dentist in my own neighborhood and join the ranks of people who don't like going to the dentist.