Arviso-Yazza 1

Sky Arviso-Yazza
Oberg
English 11
February 18th, 2015
The Dentist
I am currently at an internship with Stephen O Wrights DDS (Doctor of Dental Surgery),
by doing this, they have enabled me to become a dental assistant at the age of seventeen. From
working there, the skills I have learned include: how to take x-rays, polish teeth, do the
orthodontic check ups and assist during fillings and different types of oral surgeries. Thanks to
this experience, I know that I am wanting to pursue a career in dental hygiene. I want to make
both mine and my patients experience comfortable. By meeting patients and seeing their
reactions, I know that there are people who dont enjoy the idea of a dentist office or enjoy
making and/or attending dentist appointments. Watching these reactions, I question, why do
people hate the dentist so much? Since I love trips to the dentist, it is difficult for me to think of
reasons. I would like to know so that in the future I can make my patients appointments both
enjoyable and comfortable.
When I thought of this question, I was asked to think of what some of the answers could
be. When I was younger, the dentist terrified me. My fear was on an emotional reaction level
rather than a biochemical reaction level. The fear I had came from my grandfather. He had
horrible teeth, so at a young age they pulled them all out and gave him denchers. I was so afraid
because I thought that they pulled out teeth just for the fun of it, and you couldnt do anything
about it. Needless to say, I balled my eyes out at the age of seven in my dental offices lobby.
Some what ignorant, I believed that the only reasons were based off of fear and the idea of pain.

Arviso-Yazza 2
Throughout my research, I have found out more reasons on why people hate going to the dentist
so much.
When I was given this assignment, I had no idea where I could ask this question and get
answers. Then I got the idea, social media. For the first time ever, I turned to Facebook looking
for answers. I dont usually use Facebook, I mainly use it to keep in touch with my family. So
this was a different experience for me. I had to think of a way to write it so my family would take
me seriously, and not as some teenager looking for likes. After thirty minutes of typing and
editing it, I posted my question and a background reason for it. I explained my project and what
an I-Search paper was, I was sure it would catch their attention. .The first hour it was up, people
would just like the status instead of giving me an answer. Finally, after three hours, I began to get
comments. From reading the comments, I realised that fear wasnt the only thing keeping people
from the dentist.
Thanks to my family and closest friends, I got comments of them telling me how proud
they are of me, their answers, and some of their past experiences. When it came to their reasons,
there were all types. Comments like, Their jokes outright suck-Juwan Heng, The cost is the
worst!!-Kerri Hinkins and comments like The noise of the drilling!-Elaine Terry. I am really
glad I posted this, because I also got some pretty crazy stories too. One of the stories came from
my cousin, Noma Foster, One time, they pulled my wisdom tooth out and I was not numb
enough! I tried to tell them that I could [still] feel everything, but they told me I already had
enough shots! and another from my friend Lath Ala-budi, One time a dentist dropped a tooth
down my throat, I threw up, and lost the tooth.
Although the majority of the comments were bad, I did get a few good things. My cousin,
Ann Terry, told me she enjoyed an appointment because she got to watch them create her crown

Arviso-Yazza 3
with a 3D program on a computer. The next thing she knew, they brought the crown out to her
and snapped it into place. Another comment I enjoyed reading was from my boyfriend,
Jonathan, My dentist was really cool with everything, he made me feel comfortable with the
idea of him being in my mouth. He made me laugh, and he told me how to take care of my
mouth without sounding bossy. His friendliness kept me distracted from everything that was
going on. While reading these comments, I felt happy, I was happy because I loved realizing
that some people do enjoy trips to the office.
Comments from, Mouth pain is horrible!-Mercadeez Rae to I enjoyed getting extra
drugged up after my root canal.-Amber Chischilly. This paper showed me a lot of different
reason on why people hate the dentist. Its weird because I never thought that I would be able to
get information so useful off of Facebook. One thing I do wish that I got to do was talk to my
dentist, Dr. Wright, about it. I would like to hear what he believed the reasons were.
When I think about this paper, Im glad that I did it. This project had shown me many
things, like Facebook can be useful and that there are many reasons to hate the dentist. Over all,
I would say that this was an enjoyable experience for me.

Work Cited:
Facebook. Facebook, February 12, 2015. Web. March 11th, 2015.
Facebook. Facebook, February 24, 2015. Web. March 11th, 2015.