Toothy progress.....

I suspect only a dentist will identify the picture but it is a close up of the imaging that my dentist did today as he made the final measurements for an implant , which is to replace a tooth I lost last year.

I was very struck , as I always am, by both the quality of care and the kindly  support that exists in the practice I attend which is Argyll Smile in Dunoon.   Saq, who is one of the two partners and as much as techie as I am is always good to talk to and explains everything (and more).  He is also keen to ensure that any pain is kept to a minimum, which I appreciate given that I still have a bit of a childhood dread of the whole process.  

Saw showed me this as he finished the task of scanning my jaw this morning, and I told him in return about my first  unfortunate experiences of the dentist as a very young child in Ayrshire. .

We went to a dentist who had been at school in Troon with my father.  His practice was in his house, and he always gave my father a large whisky before he started working on him. 

I am not saying that influenced the decision, but the whole family went to him , and I hated it.   He once ran the drill  (it was an old treadle one at first I think) over my tongue (I am sure by accident) and so great was my phobia that his wife had to come and virtually kidnap me from school when they decided it was time for me to be seen.  I was never told in advance of course !

I have had several really good dentists since then (Ewan Thomson in Rothesay was great) but what is  amazing is not just the better training and vastly improved customer care but also  the astonishing  and transformed environment in which they now work, where everything is on screen and so much more high tech.   

It must be about 65 years since I started going to that dentist in Troon and the profession is unrecognisable now.   But the outcomes are clear - I think both my parents had lost  all their teeth by the time they were 60.  I still have virtually  all of mine and I am 71. 

There are of course difficulties like the patchy nature of NHS provision for dentistry in parts of Scotland,  (including Argyll) but the positives are also there and I experienced them again today and was grateful for them.