My experiences with dentists in my work in the north is often sharing the same building, such as the health center, when the dentist and his or her assistant are in the hamlet for a few days or a week or so. The dental clinic, often operated in evening and weekend hours, so if one, as a social worker, is "on call" and in after regular hours, there can be some interesting conversations and sharing of stories. Crying children and fearful parents I have always imagined as a major challenge for some visiting dentists....I know trying to conduct a family interview with a mother and 3 active preschoolers, who are either climbing over your desk or curious about the computer, I have appreciated the distraction of good toys and crayons and paper, but trying to do something as precise as drilling and filling, I am not sure how one would cope. One dentist said that a predecessor had a large blanket that he would wrap the child in like a sausage and then proceed...well I am not certain about the ethics of this and would probably not even be permitted in modern practise.

But I do know most of us have very distinct memories about early experiences with the dentist that get transferred when we as adults need to make a visit.

So what had triggered this discussion but a series of visits I have been making in past few weeks to my dentist and prothedontist. My earliest visits as a child and young teen were done to the family dentist on the fourth floor of the Birks building in downtown Edmonton. Dr. Mac, was very pleasant, an older man, but I know I was aged 14, when I had my first experience with freezing of novocaine before a filling done. Then when my children were small, we traveled an hour and a half from the city to a small town dentist, because he was very gentle and the only one that my ex could relax with, as all visits would usually start with hands tightly gripping the arms of the dental chair. Now as I pursue my own visits, and there are a fair number as I am a night grinder and inherited softer enamel, it is not the buzz of the drill that sends me reeling, but the realization of what the cost is going to be and my monthly payments.