For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for April 07, 2021

fellow there needs psychiatric medical help

I can relate to this one. Dentistry requires a lot of patient cooperation. The process of holding your mouth open and resisting the temptation to touch things going on in your mouth with your tongue requires a lot of concentration. Not only that, but a lot of times the dental work is uncomfortable and down right painful. Things are going on that in many cases prevent you from being able to breathe for short periods of time so you have to restrain the urge to panic. When I am in the dentist’s chair I do have to work to try and be a good dental patient.

I can easily imagine the other way around with a patient who is unwilling or unable to do that. If this happened in real life to Dr. Rod Johnston, I would not be surprised that it made it into this comic strip.

A trick to help with the needle is to offer the needle-less option, then show the patient a hammer or dough-roller…

Just slap the mask on him and pump him full of the happy gas. He should be fine (unless you need to talk coherently to him).

My previous dentist, before he retired, was a wizard of pain control. He started by leaving the topical swab in place for a minute or so, then went in with a very fine needle and some short-acting novocaine, which does not sting nearly as much as the long-lasting type. When that had taken effect, if it was going to be more than a quick procedure he used the long-acting stuff in my already numbed area.

How can he help you with your toothache without some kind of anethetic?

I loved my dentist as a kid, Dr. Smith and a couple of years ago now I found one out here in CA where I live…they had 5 stars….I went there and I so wish this pandemic will end so I can go back again. I don’t miss my doctors as I like them but I don’t like going to doctors. Dentists don’t bother me and I had a lot of work done in my mouth as I hadn’t been to a dentist in a very long time. I found them and I could have gone every month. I didn’t have too but got all my work done and I was finished (boo hoo)….so as soon as this stupid virus goes away and it’s safe again I will be going back.

How times change. When this originally ran in 1992, John and Jean were sans masks.

Of all the Dentist’s needles I’ve had in my life, I can remember many in which the dentist started drilling well before the needles had taken full effect. I’d say, “just go for it, I’ll tough it out; if it gets real bad, I’ll let you know.” Only once did I have to say “stop” and get an extra needle.

For simple fillings, I have NO anesthetic. Can better deal with the minor, short-term pain than the extended aftereffects of the numbing agent. Learned early on that (back in the 50s and 60s) I was highly allergic to ether/gas and when Novocaine, etc. were introduced, the outcome wasn’t much better.

This is not the best comic to read the morning you have a dental appointment. I feel sorry for any of you readers who do. Guess this comes down to you have to be strong and chose the lesser of two evils.

This is what gas was invented for. Or the comedy large mallet…..

This is why I never went into medicine or dentistry…. I simply wouldn’t be able to deal with people like that.

I actually like going to the dentist. Just lie back & think about Egyptian plovers cleaning crocodile teeth. Definitely better than a pelvic exam.

you either let him do his job or suck it up and get out.

I had the worst dentist when I was a kid. No novicain (sp?) When drilling. Just a mean s.o.b. (at least in my eyes). I remember kicking him in the shin!

Patience is a virtue. Not very profitable though.

Lynn’s Comments:

Being married to a dentist gave me a lot of material to work with. Scenes in John Patterson’s clinic were quite realistic and other dentists often asked to purchase the original strips.

As a child my first dentist used no anesthetic at all—that started me on my phobia nice and early. Even after that one, throughout my childhood and young adulthood I had dentists who flat ignored me when i said that the local wasn’t working and I was in pain. As a result I avoided dental care until absolutely necessary. In my 40’s I finally found a dentist who was a total master at controlling pain—first he’d gas me into the stratosphere, then the local, being generous, then more gas. If I so much as made a peep while he was working, he was backing out and going in with another shot of local and full bore with the gas the entire time. It got to where getting all that backlogged work done was like a day at the spa!

Another Dilbutt…

As a child our family dentist didn’t believe in injecting novocaine for drilling. Only extractions. Not a good memory.

Sedate the little cretin.

Freezing?

I remember the time I needed Novocain just for a teeth cleaning.

Time to call in the Stooges. First, the anesthetic. Nyuck, nyuck, nyuck.

Dr. give him a laughing gas or relaxer, or tell him he is fighting treatment too much.

Years ago I was offered the $15 option or the $25 option while having a tooth pulled. I chose the $15 option. NEVER AGAIN!!!

Definitely a child of this era….

A couple of friends and I had the same orthodontist and to this day we remember how much pleasure he took in slicing our gums with the wires and then tightening them to cause maximum pain. Our moms didnt believe us. My horrible witch of a cousin even bit him one time when he hurt her, whereupon he slapped her face. She got a spanking afterward. They both got what they deserved.

Ya caint fix stupid and that patient is the poster child for stupid

The bigger they come, the harder they fall!!!

Probably just lookin for pain meds

Tranquilizer Dart

Too true to be funny!

A good dentist can deal with patients with phobias. I found a good dentist years ago, but he retired 2 years ago. I have not found another good dentist yet.

After some childhood traumas, I was a real dental coward. As a young adult, I found a dentist that used nitrous oxide (laughing gas) which made it easier for me to relax into the procedures. The gas helped me to overcome most of the anxiety I had about dental work. In later years, I found a dentist who used “sleep dentistry”. He did some major work for me – bordering on oral surgery but not quite – and I asked him to do it while I was asleep. The work took a couple of hours, and I found it easier to go to sleep and wake up to it finished than twiddling my thumbs while they had all the “fun”. They used an IV anesthetic and had a specialist on staff to handle it.

Give the coward laughing gas!

You figure it out kid…