For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for December 04, 2024

As I understand it, if the dental need is serious enough, but the child is uncooperative, then the dentist has to recommend putting the kid under to get the dental work done.

Given the way this is going, I predict the spoiled brat comes back in a few weeks in extreme pain and lets John Patterson do what he wants without complaint, while John takes a certain satisfaction in having taught the girl a lesson about cooperating with your dentist. I look forward to seeing the girl get her comeuppance.

There was an actor of the silent screen named Charles Ray who died in 1943 from an impacted wisdom tooth he wouldn’t allow to be extracted. Perhaps a similar fate will befall this brat.

Mom will be in pain when she has to pay for two appointments. Or is dental care free in Canada?

I was given gas for my first complicated dental procedure as a child. I was asked to count down from 100, I don’t think I made it to 90 before I was out cold.

i always remember, as a little boy, getting a filling. the dentist didn’t use enough novocaine and as he started to drill, i could feel it and it HURT. i screamed in pain and the dentist got really mad at me for causing a fuss. and that’s when i totally lost my trust in the dentist.

Wimp!

My mom would have spanked me, put me back in the chair and told the dentist to go ahead. You don’t worry so much about pain at one end when you have a counter balance pain on the other end.And the dentist was nothing compared to pain from the orthodontist in the 70’s. I had a mouth of fully banded teeth for 7 years, and to get the bands on the molars you had to bite down and basically dig the bands into your own gums yourself.They didn’t numb you up for that.

Time to gas her John!

Bethany needs to relax or be referred to for nitrous oxide sedation. I accept tooth shot of novacain especially when it has a flavor to help neutralize dental worries.

I don’t know whether this is true or not, but I remember reading that dentists, as a profession, have one of the highest rates of suicide and alcoholism.

Bad teeth is sometimes more than just eating sweets and not brushing. Sometimes it is genetic or malnutrition. My adopted neice had ongoing dental issues for years, so much pain she wouldn’t eat and has stunted growth. I hope her adult teeth will have no issues.

It’s not nice to give your dentist a headache, kid.

She’s just a little kid and scared of the dentist. I haven’t forgotten how that makes you feel.

This is why dental surgeons are so well paid.

Where’s the Nitrous oxide?

Sir Laurence Olivier just walked in

Cool stuff to read in the comments today!

Who in the world would want to tolerate a spoiled brat like her?

Good call Doc…..

When the tooth starts hurting bad enough, bring her back. Otherwise, let her suffer until she can behave.

I’ve had bad experiences with dentists…the 1st time as a little kid. Another time, in my 20’s, I went in to get a tooth pulled, asked to be put under which he did, put during the procedure, he hit a nerve that woke me up out of it, and I almost bolted for the door. He calmed me down, put me back under, and finished. My bottom lip was numb for a long time after that, and I would often find myself drooling because I couldn’t tell. To this day, I still have a numb spot on my lip, about the size of a pea.

Fortunately the only “bad” issue I had with a dentist was a frozen eye when I was in Jr High. Seems the optic nerves runs very close to some of the injection areas for upper molars. Was kind of comical, riding my bike home and trying to blink with a finger on my eyelid.

Ah, the adventures of a pediatric dentist ! ;-)

As a child, I was always more in pain from the dentist. Otherwise, my teeth didn’t hurt. Thank heavens, dentistry has changed.

John said he was a painless dentist, but that was a lie!

Really??

Yeah – he yelled when I bit him, just like any other dentist!

A little nitrous would take care of her.

Just another day in the life of a dentist.

As a military kid, I went to military dentists until I was about 13, or so. I never had novocaine for dental work until I went to a civilian dentist at about age 14. Don’t know if it was that particular AF Base’s policy for no novocaine or what, but I never had a fear of dentists.

If she comes back with extreme pain she’ll be WORSE because then it will actually hurt, while right now she’s just being difficult. Remember yesterday’s strip where she shut up when he told her her mother couldn’t hear her yelling because she’d done to the pharmacy?

He should be like the dentist in Little shop of horrors.