Say 'aaahhhh'....

I'm not particularly fond of dentists. Anyone who's job in life is to stick their fingers in other people's mouths all day has always struck me as somewhat suspicious. But someone has to do it, and in the grand scheme of things, we all want to have nice teeth, so I see the need for them. But really, why would anyone choose to be a dentist?

Little P had her first check up recently, and apparently she was a real trooper (I wasn't there, I made M take her, cause, you know, I had to go to work....) and she 'did a good job' (one of Little P's favorite sayings at the moment). M was totally impressed with the dentist - he's friendly, knows what he's doing and isn't pushy. Which I guess, is what we all want in someone who is looking down at you and sticking things that look like medieval torture devices in you mouth for the better part of an hour.

I mentioned, purely in passing, to another Mommy who I ran into at a park later that week, that Little P had been to the dentist, and I was regaled with a tirade of how horrible her little one's first trip to the dentist had been. Normally this wouldn't have bothered me, but let me point out a couple of things.

Firstly, I'm not 'super friendly' with this Momma (she's a friend of a friend) so I didn't need to spend the better part of half an hour listening to her go on and on about this. And secondly, if anyone needs to spend some time in a dentist's chair, it's her, cause (to quote Donkey) she 'definitely needs some Tic Tac's or something because her breath STINKS!' I had a hard time concentrating on what she was saying and interjecting with the appropriate responses while trying not to faint from what was coming out of her mouth every time she opened it.

Tell me, how do people NOT know they have smelly breath? Do the people around them choose not to say something because they don't want to offend, worried that it might actually be a genetic thing that they can't really control? Or is it like when you plug in a new air freshener and you can smell it for like the first couple of days, but then you get used to it so you don't smell it anymore? Or do people simply just not care?

If I knew her better (as in knowing her last name, being a friend on FB or even actually just being able to remember her kids name) I would have worked out a polite way to point out that every time she opened her mouth I was getting hit with a very strong odor of really old, stinky cheese, and that maybe, for the sake of her own health (not to mention the safety of others) she should get that looked at. But I don't, so I didn't and I continued to suffer in silence. 

Thankfully, just as I was thinking of ways to cover my nose and mouth without it potentially offending her, Little P came over and told me she was hungry, so we left to get something to eat, and I was able to start breathing through my nose again without feeling like I was going to throw up every time I took a breath.

So, yeah, that was my afternoon. How was yours?

K