I was a bit early so I'm going to have a wee seat at the edge of the plant display outside what used to be Goldbergs down Tollcross way. You can face onto the traffic junction there and there is some space around you, so you might try for a wee meditate before the tooth yanking begins. I'm closing my eyes for little bit and then opening them to see if anyone is getting close to me.
Due to recent developments, I'm straight into white light bliss when I close my eyes, and much more than before. I'm afraid this means nothing to you if you don't get bliss at all, but that's not my fault.
I'm also reminding myself of the meditating strategy I'm going to use when the yanking or drilling gets going. You pay attention to the visualisation you are trying or the mantra you're repeating. When it comes to the dentistry business going on, you focus on that as little as you can.
Also, since I practise the corpse pose and derivations of that, relaxing when the woman (I've got a woman dentist!) lays the chair flatter is dead easy.
So I was lying there with my eyes closed doing the bliss, focusing elsewhere and paying attention to my body, trying to locate anywhere that was tense. The time spent in the dentist's chair was actually quite nice.
I wasn't expecting much help from the meditations when the tooth yanking began, but the extraction was easier than any I remember from before. The dentist said she'd slit into the ligaments that hold the tooth to your mouth so the tooth came out easier. Why haven't they always done that?
The only fly in the ointment at the moment is the tobacco. Everything else is going brilliantly. Anyway, I haven't had anything to smoke today yet (it's 11 a.m.) and I'm away up to my allotment to collect my dinner.
Dentists now are nowhere near the sadists of our youth. My dentist's staff call me 'Miss Heather'- a delightful Southern US courtesy- and Dr. Irene pinches your cheek and asks you about your kids when she's injecting the numbing juice, and you don't even feel it till it's over! She's magic. Ion
ReplyDeleteIon, I can't believe how poor the dental treatment was when I was a kid compared to what goes on today. My daughter hasn't had a filling and she's in her later twenties!! My Auntie Kathy had all her teeth pulled out when she was thirty!
ReplyDeleteSay, that's a pretty smart strategy. Yes, why not put meditation into good use there? It should definitely be of help in times like that, where you're sitting on the chair and going through a painful and necessary dental operation. Besides, the pain will only last for a while. What matters is the results, and the least stressfully you get to that point, the better.
ReplyDeleteIsabel Phelps @ Buckhead Dentist
Meditating is a good idea for those times when you have to visit a dentist. I would have never thought of that, but I'll try it next time I go. Most times it's hard for me to concentrate on NOT thinking about other things, so it may be a challenge to meditate at the dentist but it's worth a shot!
ReplyDeleteFreddie Gray @ Ballantyne Dentistry
Like you, I often close my eyes and imagine I am somewhere else during my dental appointments. I think that advances in the dental industry have changed the pain we feel during extractions. I remember years ago the process being more painful and feeling the tooth yanked from my mouth. Today, it felt like it was glided out with butter, slipping right out with zero pain at all.
ReplyDeleteNice post! This is a very nice blog that I will definitively come back to more times this year! Thanks for informative post. οδοντικά εμφυτεύματα
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