With time on our hands and a willingness to save a buck or two, for the past few years my wife and I have been going to the the University of Texas Dental School in San Antonio to have dental work done. We have both been pleased with the quality of care we receive there and have enjoyed our relationships with members of the faculty and the dental students.
.
One such person is named Vina. She has worked as a Dental assistant at the school for many years and I have observed that she takes pride in not only assisting the students when required but also in training them.
.
This past week, I had the misfortune of having to have two teeth extracted. The standard procedure for extracting a tooth is to wrap a towel over your eyes. ( I think they really have the towel chained to the chair so you don’t chicken out and get up and run away.) My dental student, Steve Garlick, grabbed a 4 pound hammer, a steel chisel and a large pair of rusted pliers and began the procedure. My good friend Vina was close by to assist him and to encourage him to inflict as much pain as he could on me.
.
With the towel wrapped over your eyes it is impossible to see anything so the only thing you can do is visualize what they plan on doing next to torture you. Steve was doing a good job with controlling any discomfort I had. If I made one small moan, he would take out a one pound needle that was at least 12 inches long and immediately stick the needle at least 6 to 8 inches into my gums to try and “numb away” the pain.   About half way through the 2 hour procedure I was beginning to think I was going to survive when all of a sudden I felt what must have been a 10 pound anvil fall on the top of my head. I knew right away who the culprit was that dropped whatever it was on my head when I heard Vina say “Oh my gosh, in all my years of working here I have never done anything like that before”. According to her version of the traumatic event, she was passing something to Steve and a tool fell off and hit me in the head.  One fringe benefit of this happening was that it allowed my dental student, Steve, and my favorite dental professor, Dr. Vargas, to complete the extraction without any further injections.  When I woke up from the knock on the head — the teeth were gone.
.
Am I glad this happened? You bet…. because it gave me the opportunity to record this life-threatening event in the form of a cartoon. Do I still love Vina? You bet …. because I’m almost positive on my next visit to the dental school she will have a box of candy and a bouquet of flowers waiting for me at my dental chair.

Buisiness Cartoons - Dental

Buisiness Cartoons - Dental