Sockie's Silly Little Blog!

You knew this day would come, it was inevitable and yet, it still took you by surprise when it actually came. Your dentist appointment. Just the thought of stepping foot in a dentist office filled you with immense dread.

You tried to ignore your underlying anxiety as you got yourself into a comfortable outfit. You grab your comfort item and place it in your pocket, feeling grounded by the weight in your pocket.

Before you leave you decide to quickly brush your teeth and rinse with mouthwash, quickly flossing despite the fact that you had done so a couple earlier. A little extra maintenance could never hurt right? And maybe if you did well enough, your usual one hour teeth cleaning could hopefully turn into a 40 minute appointment. (which is so like unrealistic btw💀)

You grab your keys and start to lock your apartment once you headed out. Struggling to do so due to the anxious tremoring of your hands. You eventually succeed in locking your apartment successfully and leave the building.

As you walk towards the dentist office, which was fairly close to your apartment, you take deep, calming breaths, attempting to ease your anxiety. You never had any success at the dentist. You found the sound of drilling to be extremely overstimulating, and always cringed at the sound and feeling, of your teeth being scraped at. As you got older and your parents started lacking involvement in your life, you gained more leniency in the dental department, only scheduling for the dentist when you absolutely had to.

As a kid and even as an adult, you found difficulty with brushing your teeth most days. When at the dentist, you would be met with judgemental remarks about how "hating the flavor of your toothpaste", "having difficulty flossing", ''lacking motivation", and "forgetting" were not valid excuses and you had to brush no matter what. You were also laughed at by one of your past dentists for crying when she had started scraping at your teeth in a way that caused you pain.

Too lost in your thoughts, you barely even notice the fact that you had already entered the office. You take a deep breath and approach the receptionist.

"Hi Im checking in?" You manage to awkwardly squeak out. The receptionist nods and asks for your name. You give them your name and get checked in.

Once that is taken care of, you take a seat, bouncing your leg nervously as you wait for your name to be called.

"Y/N?" a man calls out. You get up and approach him.

He smiles softly "Hi, I'm Joel, I'll be doing your cleaning today."

You slowly nod, not fully acknowledging him, despite his comforting aura. Ever since your previous dentist had moved away, you had be anxious to return since you had little luck with finding gentle and understanding dentists such as her.

Deapite your underlying hostility, he attempted to chat with you as he lead you towards his room. Once you arrive you take a seat on the dental chair.

"Alright, since you're a new patient of mine, I need to ask you a couple of questions, okay?" He asks with a comforting tone.

You nod. "That's it." He praises "This shouldn't take too long." He pauses "Okay, first question. You ready?" You nod. He smiles again "Good. First question is pretty simple. How often do you brush?"

You hesitate, debating whether or not you could tell him the truth. You eye him up and down. You decide that based kff of his demeanor, you could probably trust him.

"As often as I can." you answer meekly. He nods and types your answer down in his computer.

"Thats alright. It's better to brush at least once in a while than not at all. Do you mind sharing why?"

You shrug "It's hard, toothpaste is gross n the brush always hurts."

He looks at you with understanding "Understable , I'll write down a couple of flavoured toothpaste recommendations for you so you can try them if you'd like. As for your brush, try using one with soft bristles. I know there's a lot of debate between hard bristles and soft bristles and which one is better currently, but I think softer bristles could really help you out. Don't tell anyone I said this but you could also give miswak toothbrushes a try. But again, don't tell anyone that I said that, it'll be a secret between the two of us."

You giggle slightly at that, causing his smile to widen. "Moving on from that, what about floss? How are your flossing habits?

You shake your head "Bad. Really bad. I can never floss right and I struggle a lot with it."

He nods "I'll give you some handheld floss to try, some people find more success with it."

You let out a relieved sigh, watching as he types up a couple of things again. "Any pain or discomfort?" you shake your head "That's good. I see here that your last dentist made a note saying that you struggle with remembering to brush your teeth or finding the motivation to do so?" you nod "May I suggest something for that?" you nod, curious as to what he has to say. "Theres a couple apps that I could right down for you that can remind you to brush your teeth, and give you rewards such as points to do so. Is that something you'd be interested in?" you nod "Good. we're all done eith questioning. mind laying back for me?.''

You hesitate, "Um before I do can I ask something?"

"Yeah sure, go ahead." He permits you.

"Can I- can I please wear my headphones?" you hold up your noise cancelling bluetooth headphones.

"Oh of course! Do whatever you need to do to be comfortable!" you smile slightly at that. You connect your headphones to your phone to play your favorite music (or show) in the background and lay back.

He lowers your chair and turns the light in front of your face on (idk what its called tbh.) you squint at the bright light ''Sorry about that. Would you like to borrow some sunglasses?" You nod.

He hands you a cheap pair of sunglasses and you put them on, dimming the bright light. He fastens the disposable bib around you (idk if there's an official name for it but thats the only way i can describe it💀).

He gets his tools out, causing you to tense up. "Hey, it's okay, take a deep breath yeah? I'm going to tell you exactly what I'm doing with each tool okay? We'll get through this together. I'm going to check up on you every once in a while, let me know if you need me to stop so you can take a break at any point."

You feel more reassured and comforted by this. Your body eases up and relaxes a bit. "That's it, good." He praises.

He puts on gloves and picks up two tools "So this to will be used to count your teeth and scrape at any plaque. This other tool is a mirror that will allow me to take a look at the back of your teeth as well." He informs you.

"You ready?" He asks gently. You nod "Good, open up yeah? If you can't open wide that's okay, I'll figure something out.

You manage to get through the whole cleaning, only tearing up slightly once. The whole time Joel makes sure to reassure you and provide praise throughout the whole process, stopping when you need a break, and making sure to inform you of every single action he makes.

Once you're done he gives you a cup to rinse and gets together a goody bag for you, placing his list of suggestions in there. "You did good today. I'd like to see you in six months but if it happens to be later than that I'm perfectly fine with it." He smiles and hands you the bag.

"Thank you Joel." You shyly thank him.

He smiles and nods "Anytime sweetheart."

You smile and exit the room, feeling the weight of dread lifting off your chest. You pay your copay at the front, deciding to schedule your next appointment later.

Once you arrive at your apartment you settle down and curiously look in your bag. Inside is a soft toothbrush, some handheld floss, his list, and a separate note. You decide to read the note out of curiosity. "I'm proud of you, looking forward to seeing if my tips helped you out. -Joel." You smile at the note at hold it close to you, dozing off with the note against your chest.

A/N: IDK WHAT THIS IS BUT ITS DEFINITELY SOMETHING IM SRRY IF ITS RLLY BAD I JUST WANTED TO WRITE AGAIN

ALSO I GOT RLLY LAZY AT THE END IF U CANT TELL ALSO ITS LOWK SHORT IM SRRY PPL

real talk some of this is based off of shit that actually happened to me like its kinda crazy.

once i told my dentist that i had a rlly hard tome finding the motivation to brush my teeth and she legit said "find the motivation"😐 also recently they changed ny dentist w/o telling me bc mine doesnt work weekends anymore and i started crying bc i wasnt told and the lady was like hurting me a lot and she laughed at me😝