Dentist vs. Shopping

Two appointments, back-to back-days, four plus hours in the dentist chair. Since it was the same procedure both days, it was a bit like Ground Hog Day only better. 

As a teenager, dentist appointments were torture. No Novocaine. And I was uncomfortable when the dentist wiped his fingers on the paper bib over my barely budding breasts. 

Flash forward to my wonderful dentist today, despite his discovering the two huge cavities consuming two teeth under fillings put in by Dr. Horrible Dentist over 60 years before.

My dentist has the name of a city near our place in Southern France. He's Swiss as I am now. 

He explains what he's doing in his perfect English. He shows me X-rays.

Once in the chair, I know if I feel even a quiver of pain, he'll stop and give my mouth another shot.

Above the chair is a television screen. The nature film the first day was all about penguins. I adore penguins. The second day it was African animals. I was tempted to ask him to move his head as he bent over me blocking 10% of the screen.

There was music in the background, including the late Daniel Levy singing from the musical Dix Commandments, a favorite song.

Although he speaks English with me, I understood what he was saying in French to his assistant, a dental student. In the corner, a young woman in a white coat took notes. She was studying to be an assistant. His dentistry lecture was fascinating.

Instead of waiting days for a crown, I loved that he showed me a computer screen, where he designed the crown which was ready in less than 20 minutes. 

People question my sanity when I say I preferred that to going to a shopping mall.

I hate malls. They are basically the same, same stores, almost the same merchandise, stuff I neither need nor want. If I have to go to a mall, I want to go only to the store, find what I want within minutes. If I can't find it and no clerk is there to help, I try and figure out how to do without it and leave. I try not to feel sad at the precious minutes of my life that were wasted or the 30 things I would rather have been doing.

Often at a mall, my husband goes in. I read in the car, or have a tea in a cafe with a lovely pastry. I'll do a bit of people watching.

I know I sound like a COW, a Crabby Old Woman. One of the advantages of COWdom is doing what I want without needing approval of others.