From the dentist's chair

I don't suppose many of us like going to the dentist but I have spent a couple of hours this week having a problem tooth sorted (I was dosing myself with painkillers before, during and after the SNP Conference) and this seemed an appropriate record of the  moment this afternoon when Dr Saquib Yousaf  finally finished the root canal treatment in his high tech surgery (complete with X-Rays and pictures on a screen above my head) , and I have to say did it almost painlessly and with a thorough approach that was , none the less,  very engaging. 

Though both he and his dental nurse Kirsty seemed surprised that I wanted a picture at the end. 

I have just started to go "Argyll Smile," on the sea front in Kirn .  For over 20 years  I went to Ewan Thomson in Rothesay and he did a great job too until he retired from the practice.    

Further back I can't  even recall all the dentists I have seen in the various places we have lived but I do remember the first - Mr Kelly in Troon who we went to as a family  because  he and my father had both grown up in the town. 

I hated going so much that his wife had to virtually kidnap me from school and that anticipation of something unpleasant  and to be avoided  has stayed with me despite the very modern , and very different, practitioners like the one who looked after me so well today.  

But I know he will understand me when I say,  after a number of appointments over the summer to sort out some problems , and this week's emergency, I hope that it is a while before I see him again .