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“Yes Madam, your appointment is confirmed for 5 pm today.”
Having met her thrice this month, I could instantly attach a face to the voice on the other side of the phone. I find receptionists to be mysterious. Their practiced pleasantries never allow me to look into their genuineness. Hopefully, that’s the last I would be hearing from her. At least for now. My root canal was done, impression taken and today I was going to get a crown. For a person like me who hates visiting a dentist, the entire procedure could have felt worse if it wasn’t for Dr. Sabeena Devadiga. She is a gem of a person. Unlike the receptionist, Dr. Sabeena was genuinely welcoming. With a smile that would melt anyone’s heart, she would make me feel comfortable before she got to the dental procedure.
I drove to the clinic ten minutes early and sat in a corner of the waiting room. The over-read Femina magazines on the coffee table begged to be replaced. With nothing else to do, I pulled out my phone and started scrolling through WhatsApp messages. Just the usual, cliché couple jokes, a news article of a family who met with an accident, precautionary measures from Coronavirus. I finally got to a message that I was interested in- my cousin’s wedding plans. This was an event we were all looking forward to. To add to that, I’d even have my crown fixed just in time for it. I let out a slight smile at the thought and delicately felt my root canal treated tooth with the tip of my tongue. My mind wandered to when I had come for the last appointment.
It was back when I had come to get my impression taken. Dr. Sabeena greeted me with the warm smile that I was looking forward to. She asked me how I was doing, directed me to the dental chair and got to work. She mixed a liquid mold, poured it on a dental tray, softly put it inside my mouth and asked me to bite. All this, while keeping up her smile. She waited for the mold to set, took it out and asked the nurse to help me clean my mouth. When she was showing me tooth colours to choose from, she held up a mirror and selected one for me- woman to woman. The tooth that was getting all the attention was an upper front premolar that was a little set in as compared to all my other teeth. The gap in front of it almost looked like there was a tooth missing when I smiled. The doctor told me that she could elongate the crown to fill the gap. “Your smile can be fixed”, she had said. She also made a joke that I’d have to take before and after pictures to clearly observe the difference. I’ve been waiting ever since to see what my new smile would look like.
My thread of thoughts broke when the receptionist called my name and asked me to go in. I opened the door and with a wide smile, wished Dr. Sabeena a good evening. She was sitting behind her desk. She looked at me, returned my greeting with a faint smile, directed me to the dental chair and then looked back at her phone. I was surprised. I had never seen such a half-hearted expression on her face. Maybe today had been a very busy day for her. She fixed my crown and made adjustments to my bite with the same somber expression. As soon as she was done, still on her revolving chair, she pushed herself back to be behind her desk. I was now beginning to think that she was being rude. I guessed she must’ve been fed up of looking at me so many times in the same month. I looked at the mirror. The gap was filled and my new smile looked good. I looked at her still straight face and I decided it was her smile that needed fixing first. I thanked her indifferently and started towards the door. She stood up and walked around the desk just as I was leaving the room. I noticed crutches near the door. The next patient opened the door to get in and that’s when I turned back and noticed that Dr. Sabeena had a cast on her leg. I went back to my car and opened the news article on my phone that I had skimmed through a while back. ‘A truck took a wrong turn and rammed against a car at the Mangalore-Udupi Highway yesterday morning. The family of three riding in the car- Dr. Sandeep Devadiga, Dr. Sabeena Devadiga and their 12-year-old son, Santhosh, suffered from minor injuries. Not wearing their seatbelt could’ve caused the accident to be fatal….’ The frown on my face turned into a gloom. I really thought that I was getting my smile fixed today.
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