Dentists: blue-masked purveyors of horror
I have never had much of a problem with my dentists, even going through the now-obligatory phase of having train track braces put in, the worst thing I have experienced was getting 4 teeth done under local anesthesia, and given that I had about 20 'pain-go-away-make-feel-nice' injections, it wasn't that bad, considering.

My brother, on the other hand, has been less fortunate. One year, when we were both about 12/13, he had a wobbly tooth. Not your average wobbly tooth, this bad-boy had been wobbly for nigh-on 6 months and my bro was getting mightily fed up with it, so at our annual check-up, he asks about this tooth.

"It's just a loose tooth." Says the dentist, confused.
"But... it's been loose for about 6 months, and isn't coming out."
"Nonsense, here, I'll just pull it out for you." Says the dentist, leaning forward clutching something metallic and shiny.
"er..."

At this point, the dentist leans in with one of his 'instruments', and yanks on the tooth. My brother utters a strangled yell, but the tooth doesn't budge. The dentist, being a no-nonsense sort of chap, decides that the best course of action is to simply yank a bit harder on this actually-pretty-sturdy tooth. The tooth, not being a fan of this sort of treatment, decides to cause my brother quite a lot of pain, but not exit his mouth.

Finally, with what I am told was a sickening combination of sucking and crunching noises, the tooth shattered slightly, and was removed, leaving behind a few broken shards, and a lot of blood. My brother, understandably, screams rather hugely at this point. As hugely as you can imagine, for somebody who is having rather brutal medieval-standard dentistry, with no pain-relief.

The dentist then proceeds to remove the remaining 2 or 3 shards of tooth, with my brother still wailing whenever his mouth wasn't full of pliers, and spitting blood around the room with reckless abandon.

When they exited the procedure room a few minutes later, it was a magnificent sight. My brother still rather bloodstained, all down his face, chin, and school-shirt, looking teary-eyed and confused, and the dentist, his own shirt looking more Sweeney-Todd than he may have liked. This into a waiting room of people, all of whom had overheard the screams and yelps from the next room, and were nervously reading magazines, desperately trying not to think about their own upcoming appointments. I think one lady took one look at him and immediately left the building.

I have only good things to say about the NHS in general, but this incident does stick in my mind as rather a low point.

Length: a few millimeters per shard.
(Serotonicity was a naughty boy on..., Mon 15 Mar 2010, 18:26, 1 reply)

OMG
Dental horror story's are one of the few things that really make me shudder and make me want to stop reading. Sounds truly horrific and I'd of probably been walking out too if I saw that.
(libman, Tue 16 Mar 2010, 15:14, closed)