Harriet’s World

By HARRIET BISHOP

I had an adventure at the dentists the other day. Instead of me going to his office, he came to me. Can you believe it? Well, it’s true. It seems there is this Dentist House Call Program for home-bound patients who qualify. I did. Thus my dentist donated his time and came to my home.
This program has been on going in Salt Lake City and now has a van and driver that comes out of Vernal for us rural people. It took forever to get it set up because I came in it at the very beginning and they had a lot of logistics and organization to work out. They finally got it together and thus my visit.
The van is equipped with everything that a dentist’s office has including an x-ray machine. They come to your home and bring the chair and everything and set it up right in your home. It’s pretty cool. I was able fortunately, to sit in my own recliner chair instead of those wonderfully, comfortable chairs they have at the dentist’s office,(tongue in cheek). I never sat in a dentist’s chair in my life that was comfortable to me. How about you?
You know why they have you put up your feet in a dentist chair? It is supposed to make you feel relaxed. Let’s face it. How can you relax when you have a 40 inch needle coming at you?
There is a unit that they wheel in that looks sort of like one for those big tool box chests. It has a place for all the drills and a place for the water and air and a work area. They plug it in and you’re ready. The light is really easy to set up and the dentist positions it and you’re good to go.
I had quite a lot of work to be done and we did it all in that one visit. Wheeeeewww.
Now we have all been to the dentist and I am quite sure that the majority of you will say that it is not the most enjoyable experience when it is your turn. I am fortunate to have a very loving, caring and gentle staff and dentist. However, let’s face it. Pain is involved somewhere no matter what! This visit was no exception. I had three teeth pulled, three teeth filled, my front teeth filed down and two full impressions taken. One of the top of my mouth and the bottom.
This was all done in one hour and forty five minutes. Needless to say my mouth felt like a pin cushion. I have to tell you that I kept giggling during all of this process because I couldn’t get out of my mind a picture. A cartoon actually. It was of a dentist bent over his patient with water flying everywhere and stuff flying out of the mouth with a big old pair of pliers in his hand and a grin on his face that would shatter glass. His assistant holding a huge needle in the air was grinning from ear to ear as she prepares to hand the doctor his next torture tool. Me saying to myself,”Well, here’s another fine mess you’ve gotten yourself into.” It was this humorous picture that kept me giggling and got me through the hard parts. Needless to say after all this was over I felt a bit whipped. However I have bounced back and the hard part is over and in a couple of weeks I will have a tooth in place of the hole in the front of my mouth and some grinders to chew with. Hooray!
In defense of my wonderful dentist. My kind, loving, gentle and generous dentist, Dr. Mark Olson and his caring assistant, Linda Dimick who let me hold her hand and squeeze it hard a couple of times. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. There are no words to express my gratitude. I want to say how grateful I feel to live in such a loving and caring community. How fortunate we are to live in a place where people care about each other. A big thanks to all you people and neighbors and friends involved in helping me to get this work done and the program to recognize this area.
Well, that’s my world. Until next time remember, “We must be able to laugh at ourselves once in awhile. It is what keeps us sane.”