Part 1
Holly wriggled nervously. She looked around the quiet room at the few other occupants; a man maybe 10 years older than her was intently staring at his phone; a woman quite a bit older flicked quickly through a magazine. In the car park outside, a girl in her mid-teens stepped out of a car with someone that was presumably her mother, being careful not to bash the car doors next to their own. Holly wondered what each person was waiting for, but guessed she’d never find out, as the waiting room was shared by several offices in this small building at one edge of the hospital complex.
Despite being in this exact spot – on this exact sofa – so many times over the past few years, today Holly felt somehow different. Nervous was perhaps an obvious way to express it, but she also had a nagging sense of guilt that had been building more recently. For quite a while she had been having on-and-off pain in the back of her gums, and a visit to her dentist last month confirmed that her wisdom teeth were definitely coming in. Hearing that, Holly’s reaction was just to sigh – she’d thought she was beyond the stage of having to worry about wisdom teeth; it was typical that they started to appear now just when it seemed like it would never happen. Surely this kind of thing usually happens earlier in life, not at my old age of 23?! She caught that thought and silently called herself ‘stupid’… 23 isn’t really all that old of course. Definitely overthinking this one.
It sometimes felt to Holly that dental work was a never-ending saga, although in reality it had only been about 6 years. She had always been a ‘late bloomer’ with her final adult teeth arriving at age 13 and a final 2-inch growth spurt at age 16. That extra 2 inches was very important to a netball-lover who ended up at 5 foot 5! Because of her late growth, her dentist had often noted that her teeth were still rearranging themselves before finally referring her for orthodontic work shortly before her 17th birthday. In fact her treatment had been very straightforward and had been completed in a little under 18 months, leaving her with a perfect smile that she loved.
Although straightforward, her treatment had actually been a little unusual. The local hospital had been advertising for treatment benefits to anyone who would be willing to be seen by a combination of student and ‘fully-qualified’ orthodontists. She’d ended up with the same number of appointments and identical technical treatment as if she’d seen any other specialist, but there was a slight catch. In return for vastly reduced costs, she’d agreed to continue her appointments every 6-8 weeks for 5 years after her treatment ended. These 5 extra years would be completely free, and were to allow the research team to follow her retention phase slightly more closely than would be normal. No extra treatment, but just slightly extended check-ups, examinations and conversations. It was all a bit of a drag but Holly tried to be mature about it – at least it was free and would guarantee her dream smile wouldn’t fade.
…or at least, so she had thought. With the recent enthusiasm of her wisdom teeth, she had become nervous – almost paranoid – that the doctors would claim she had not complied with the parameters of the study by wearing her retainers as advised and would cancel all of her benefits, demanding full payment for the treatment she had received. It was a silly thought of course – it could clearly be proven that any lapse had been caused by her wisdom teeth. But the worry had been slowly been creeping in as Holly knew she couldn’t afford to pay for the full treatment – the ‘New Car’ fund was her real priority!
So here she sat in the waiting room, nice and early. Her retainer hadn’t fit properly for over 2 weeks now so she wasn’t even wearing it. It sat in a box in her handbag like a guilty secret desperate to break loose and expose her with a tell-tale attitude. She’d been to the loo already and was just left to wait and fidget. Scenarios played in her mind. Would the staff be disappointed in her? Would she be required to find full payment? Would this be the end of her orthodontic process or could they re-shape her retainer to complete the remaining time in the study?
As she scanned the room she noticed a nurse approaching down the corridor. By now she could distinguish the nurses from the orthodontists by the fact that the nurses often seemed better-presented – strangely the orthodontists often wore what she would consider ‘office wear’, but the nurses always wore white lab coats. She didn’t recognize the nurse today, but one thing did strike her – this nurse was male. How modern!
The receptionist looked over, beaming with white teeth, to catch Holly’s eye.
“Holly Louise?”
“Um, actually Louise is my middle name…”. Stupid thing to correct Holly, why bother?
“Oh yes – ok well they’re ready for you now”
The nurse smiled politely. “Do you want to come with me?” Not really – I’ll have to pay for my un-retained teeth!!
This was it.
