A visit to the dentist

 I pushed open the glass door, and stepped inside. The waiting area was lined with metal benches, and a few of them were occupied. I walked a few steps, and sat on a bench. The white walls were lined with posters regarding tooth care, sponsored by different tooth brush, and toothpaste companies. The atmosphere was stuffed with the smell of toothpaste. 

A girl around 11, stepped out of the surgery room, along with her mother, who was holding her as she weeped on her arm. "Mama's princess", I thought.

The assistant poked his head out of the surgery room, and called "Number 13". A few people shuffled in their seats to check their number receipts, but everyone looked up at the assistant blankly, from their blank looks, the assistant figured out that the patient wasn't there, "Number 13 is not here, okay then, number 14", he said.

I got up from my seat, and walked towards the surgery room. It looked like a thousand miles walk to me, and my legs suddenly felt as if they were of lead. 

I stepped in through the door, and a sharp smell of lidocaine met my nostrils. After inhaling all the smell of tooth paste back in the waiting area, it made me wanna throw up, but I somehow forced it back.

The assistant gestured me towards a bed like seat, I sat on it. the room was pretty dim, there was just a lamp shining right above my head. But the light was enough to perform a tooth surgery. The metal instruments placed neatly on a small table beside, glinted under the lamp.

The dentist appeared from a door behind me. He was dressed in casual outfit. Unlike other doctors, he didn't wore a lab coat, just a mask, gloves, and a pair of horn rimmed round spectacles, that looked a bit funny on him.

He ordered me to lay back, and I obediently fulfilled the order. The lamp shone directly over my face, I looked sideways, the dentist was filling an injection with transparent liquid, probably lidocaine.

He came up to me, and I automatically opened my mouth. He inserted the injection, and to my surprise, it didn't hurt at all.

I closed my eyes, and the surgery went in till five minutes. The dentist plucked out my tooth, and swept the hollow gum. I sat on my seat, "Now have some ice cream, but don't eat anything else till at leat an hour", said the dentist writing medicines in the description page in his fast, scribbly hand writing. I was shuffling in my purse for the payment, when my hands stopped, ''What did you said?'', I asked, totally puzzled. "Well, I said have some ice cream, and don't have anything else for an hour'', he repeated, smiling.

"But, aren't ice creams harmful for our teeth", I objected. "Not always ma'am", he replied, tearing away the prescription letter off the pad. "But why should I have ice cream?", I asked, even more puzzled. The dentist sighed, ''actually ma'am, I inserted lidocaine in your gum to numb your mouth, to erase the effects of it soon, we have to take something cool, and soft. To fill that need, we take ice cream" he explained. "But why only ice cream, can' t I have an ice cube?" I asked, "I said," soft", and cool, ice cube isn't soft", "But ice cream isn't good for our teeth", I insisted. 

The dentist, prursed up his lips, took off his glasses, and said "look ma'am, I don't want to land in an argument right now, I'm the doctor, and I know when, and what, you should have, so please follow what I say, to stay out of trouble". He handed me the prescription letter, "Uh, okay", I said reluctantly, paid the fees, and stormed outside, the prescription letter in my hand. 

As I stepped out on the main road, I saw an ice-cream cart parked in front of the pharmacy, just beside the clinic. I entered the pharmacy, purchased the medicines, and then, stepped out on the main road again, to buy myself some ice cream.