"PAINLESS(?)!"

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 164, 13 July 1929, Page 3 (Supplement)

"PAINLESS(?)!"

(By Joyce Prenter, Ngongotaha, age 15.) "Ramona, I need you, my o-o-wn " "Oh," gasped Bob, coming to the kitchen door. "For goodness' sake, what's up? I thought you were dying." "Did you? How kind of you to inquire. I am singing." "Singing!" he roared. "Oh, my hat! .Trying to, you mean." "Of course, I forgot you didn't appreciate good singing when you heard it," I retorted. • The only answer I received was the slam of the door, and the tramp of retreating footsteps Well, I was happy; ever so happy. I was going to get rid of my aching molar at last. Yesterday I actually went and made an appointment' with the dentist. I was to go at two o'clock. Now, wasn't I brave? "Not "arf," as our milk-boy would term it. That was yesterday, but now . I had only 2} hours before I faced the dentist and his utensils. My heart gave a slight quiver. • "Hmp!" I thought. "Nothing to fear; just sit in the chair, injection, tooth pulled, and it's over." So I felt assured —for artime. At half-pkst one I was ready, and set' out with a gay heart' (?) and jaunty step. As I drew near, my footsteps began to lag, and all my fears came bounding hack. "Rats!" I muttered. "S'alright, nothing to fear." I entered the waiting room and sat down. I glanced round the room, of which I was the only occupant. Seeing some books, I picked''one up, but one glance showed me it dealt with teeth. Ugh! Really, dentists are stupid. Fancy putting that book there. It would frighten anybody away. . "Do wish he'd hurry," I thought'. "I'm growing nervy." Just then a Scream rent the air. "Oh!" I gasped. Five minutes later a moaning figure, with hands clamped to his jaws, passed through the room. I followed him with

distracted eyes. My turn next! Feverishly I tried to think of an escape. No, it had to be done, or Bob would tease the life out of me, and—alas—the molar would still ache.

Just then the dentist, with a huge grin on his face, emerged from his room. "Ah, yes! You're the young lady who made the appointment' yesterday?" "Yes," I murmured meekly, while I thought what 'a stupid ass he was. Of course I was the person who called yesterday, as if he didn't know that. "Well, come this way," he went on. "Sit in this chair. All, that's right'. Now, um, show me this tooth." Plucking up my fast-fading courage, I opened my mouth to its widest extent and showed him. "Ha ha," he said. "We'll soon have him out, without the slightest difficulty." He then produced an evillooking needle from his cabinet and approached to where I was sitting. Thump! thump! went my heart, and my legs began to tremble. "Open ydur mouth, my dear." I obeyed, and grasped the arms of the chair in a tight grasp. In a few minutes the injection was over, and my tooth was ready to be pulled. The pair of forceps in the dentist's hands looked very sinister. Instinctively I drew back. "There, there, don't be frightened. The worst is over," said the dentist, but I only hs-d- his word . for that. He placed the- forcep'S in my -• mouth and pulled. No result. He pulled my jaw this way, then' that. Then he grasped my face and pulled. No result. I was beginning to see stars when 10, out came my tooth, causing the dentist to almost topple backwards. Oh, what a .relief —for the moment. 1 p-iid my fee and -walked unsteadily out, with hands clasped to my face as the previous patient had. Who said dentists were gentle? Who said the void left by the tooth didn't ache after a painless extraction? Oh, who said a lot of things? I was feeling sick with the world, and longing to see someone else suffering. Would my tooth—l mean the voidt—ever stop aching? It mightsome day—so I thought then.