As I walked into the dentist office, the strong, nose piercing aroma entered my system, making my stomach churn and turn to mush. My thoughts of how much pain I was going to encounter were quickly faint now as I heard only the sound of children crying fearful of this place. Reading an old ripped up magazine I found on the chair of the first victim who had gone for their turn made me feel at ease, until I saw the nurse with the overly high pitched voice come to tell me, with a sorry face on, that it was my turn.

The room where I was placed had me claustrophobic in no time. The window right in front of me, showing the flowing tree branches in the wind and cheery yellow birds singing, didn’t help my longing to be anywhere but in that room. Even the dainty pictures of flowers that show on the walls didn’t make me feel at home. The familiar nurse, with shiny brown half up hair and red lipstick, who belonged to this also familiar room, was by my side waiting for the dentist to assign her move into my mouth with the long pin-point metal stick she dug into my teeth. She picked up the tool used to shoot numbing Novocain and shoved it into the side of my cheek. I thought it wasn’t so bad until the 2nd 3rd and 4th shots were implanted with pinching feelings each time getting more painful with every dosage.

The seven dagger-like teeth lay on the bloody and saliva stained sheet of crunchy paper, dripping of vicious red blood. My mouth, numb from the over dosage of shots of bitter Novocain needed for my wimpy nerves, scorched with the pain of the knowledge that I still needed one cavity filled today.

The drill sounded with an electrifying scream, much like the scream filling every corner of my mind. Hitting my tooth caused the drill to run a new sound of higher pitch stabbing through the air and for an unfamiliar feeling on my tooth of raw eased pain. Wet droplets fell onto my face with the feeling of tiny cold needles as the white plastic straw skirted out water to clean my tooth. New tastes replaced the bitter Novocain, filling my taste buds with a sour cherry tingling feeling. Cherry was the last thing I needed at that moment, being my least favorite taste of all the dentist’s mysterious flavors. It clung to the sides of my mouth and tongue until the tingly feeling took all the attention in it. My hands were slippery and sweat soaked from the obvious nervousness.

It all went so fast, or so I thought, when all of the sudden I saw my car in the parking lot next to the tree I once saw as my escape outside of the window. I was free. As I drove off the birds sang in jubilant praise that my dentist visit went well.