Mental Knitting

Or, "Learning to Remember Regular Dental Check-Ups"

I've come back from a long appointment with my dentist this afternoon, having complete the second stage of Root Canal Treatment on one of my molars (plus an extra little filling). Now, don't get me wrong, I am totally and completely aware of the fact that my presence at the dentist's this afternoon is my fault. Completely my fault. The sad truth is that I just haven't been going to the dentist for regular check-ups since I finished orthodontic treatment. And that was quite some time ago.

I have always been quite proud of myself having never had, in my twenty-eight-and-a-bit years on this planet, a single filling in my teeth. In the last year or so, when I had been feeling the odd twinge here and there, each time thinking 'I must make an appointment with the dentist'.

Correct, but waaaaaaay too late.

But I digress. I'm actually not blogging to discuss how the appointment went, how noisy the drills and other instruments were, or even how many local anaesthetic jabs I required (that'd be four, though). It occurred to me as I lay there, that I was thinking a range of rather interesting and somewhat oddly disconnected thoughts. I do enjoy the concept of metacognition ("knowing about knowing", or "Thinking about thinking"). These disjointed cogitations led to me pondering the possibility of gathering said thoughts to create a new blog post.

I think strange things. Things link inexplicably to other things, and I wend away on these fabulously meandering thoughts until I stop and look back at where I've come from, and realise that quite frankly, I think up some weird stuff.

I listened to the music on the radio (ABC Radio National); classical music which is mostly quite soothing to have on in a dental surgery. I heard them play first the Peer Gynt Suite, then followed by... The William Tell Overture. Hmmm, an interesting contrast there. But, it did keep my mind occupied as the dentist got on with it.

I did some mental knitting. Literally. I had completed a few rows of my Noro Striped Scarf as I was waiting to go in, and so I did a few mental rows in my mind, watching the yarn and needles as they went in, round, through and off. A good mantra.

I practiced my Calmbreathing (thankyou, Peter Jackson!), especially while anaesthetic was being administered - very effective, and this led me to reminiscing about WonderBoy and Lola-Frogs' births. Good times.

I heard the radio click over to the news at four o'clock and heard an announcement about the Reserve Bank declaring that Australia had already gone into recession, never mind what the Prime Minister has been saying. Also, that the Prime Minister was planning another economic stimulus package. At this point I gave an interested grunting-type noise, intended to say, 'Oh how interesting. I do hope he slings us another cool grand. I shall use it to pay this dental bill'. Not sure if the dentist picked up on this in the grunting.

I looked around a lot. I noticed that the dental nurse was wearing a Pandora charm bracelet and thought about how I'd like one, too. I thought about which sorts of charms I'd like to get. A ladybeetle for WonderBoy, and a little froggie for Lola-Frog, to start with. Maybe initials as well? Hmmm.

I looked at my dentist's eyes and saw that they are almost the same shade of blue as my husband's. I wondered what had made him decide to be a dentist, and thought about a character on one of my favourite British sitcoms, "As Time Goes By", a dentist who comments, 'Odd things to peer about in, mouths'. I wondered just how gross my dry scaly tongue must be looking by now, and thought somewhat reassuringly, 'at least I remembered to brush my teeth before I came in today'.

I do have to give my dentist a big plug, though. He's very gentle and explains everything he's going to do throughout the whole procedure, often apologising for noises and other possible uncomfortable situations as he goes. If you've gotta have someone drilling into your head, Dr Fisher is the guy to do it.