Going Private

All my life I've had NHS dentists. My experiences have been variable - from very good to terrible. I've found you get used to a good one then arrive for a check up only to discover they have 'moved on' and 'Today you'll be seen by Mr S Todd. He's from Fleet Street, y'know.' This invariably becomes the dentist who sends you rocketing to the ceiling with their slap dash probing and anaesthetic ways, which makes you reluctant to return - 'I'm phoning to cancel my check-up. Yes, I've just put a heavy duty fruit cake in the oven. It'll be days until it's done. Yes, I'll make another appointment. Byeeeeee!!' until you experience a dental issue by which time you've moved house and need to re-register elsewhere.

I am pretty certain I've been held hostage by unscrupulous types to have work done that wasn't necessary until I was old enough and brave enough to say, 'No thanks. I am confident the filling will stay put and the tooth does not require extensive root canal and crown work,' and have been proven correct when, 10 years later and several check ups by other dentists have shown the aforesaid tooth and filling all hunky dory no probs. As a child I had four teeth removed pre-extensive brace work for two years. I remember the gaps closing up almost immediately. My dentist then declared I suffered overcrowding due to big teeth in a small mouth. I had a top wisdom tooth removed as part of free treatment following the birth of Christopher in 1986. I had another back tooth removed as a result of an abscess caused by a terrible filling by a terrible NHS dentist who seemed to follow Dark Age techniques but you can't do much when you are upside down, head clamped and telling yourself to 'trust her - she's a professional. She knows what she's doing.' She didn't. Anyway, apart from that, my teeth are serving me well.

So, a month ago I was enjoying a piece of pumpernickel bread. It had pumpkin seeds scattered atop and at one point I thought, 'Hello, that's not a pumpkin seed,' and it wasn't, it was a small piece of a back tooth attached to a piece of very old filling. I sighed. Partly because I associate bits of tooth falling off as a sign of turning into a toothless old hag with grey hair and wrinkles (!) and partly because I knew I now needed to find a new dentist. I asked the advice of a colleague who lives local to Market Drayton and he immediately pointed me in the direction of Marianne. 'She's excellent,' said he. 'She's private, though.'

I've never gone private for anything medical. But I thought, what the heck. It needs sorting. I phoned, expecting to have to wait ages for an appointment. But no. 'Next Wednesday all right for you?' said the receptionist.

Well, I have to say that going private has been a revelation. I arrived at the appointed time and under went the most extensive and thorough check up EVER in my life. All the while, Marianne was talking me through what she was doing and why she was doing it. And all with the gentleness of a butterfly touch. I had x-rays, camera probes, some very thorough poking and prodding. At the end it was declared I had lost a bit of surface filling on another tooth, of which I was totally unaware but no anaesthetic required to re-do that, that the broken bit was unaffected by decay so just needed 'building back up' and that the biggest problem was my other top wisdom tooth. 'That's my priority,' said Super Dentist, and so another appointment was made.

Monday I returned. The news was not good. Despite me having no symptoms whatsoever beyond having to use a mile of floss around that wisdom tooth every day because it was a food trap of grand proportions with its neighbour, the xray showed there was a pretty hefty hole there. Two options, then: 1) drill out the old filling, see what was occuring, refill. Or 2) because the tooth wasn't actually useful i.e it wasn't meeting any tooth below, just wafting around on its own like a floss hungry free loader, remove it. 'It'll save you a lot of hassle in the future,' said Marianne. 'And unnecessary expense.'

She decided to see if the tooth was saveable but in my head I was already doing visualisation techniques to have it removed with ease and without fuss, ado or bother.

Anaesthetic delivered - didn't feel a thing. Extensive drilling. Didn't feel a thing. The decay had reached the tip of the nerve in the tooth. I was on the verge of a big infection. Tooth out? Yes, tooth out. More anaesthetic in my palette. Didn't feel a thing. Another xray to check how close root was to sinus. A warning I might have to be referred to hospital for removal, it being a big back tooth and all. I thought, I'm not having that and declared it would all be fine and easy, and carried on with the visualisation to that effect.

And one minute later, after some gentle easing and a bit of tugging, Marianne said, 'Oh! It's out,' in a manner that suggested she didn't think it was going to be that easy, amd there was relief all round. Another wisdom tooth bites the dust, pardon the pun.

I was given an aftercare pack and I was on my way. And yesterday the dentist phoned to check all was okay. How good is that? I said I was fine. No pain killers required, swilling salt solution three times a day as per the aftercare instructions. And thankful I have found the best dentist ever, for whose service I am more than happy to pay.