"He's here," the young brunette whispered to her blonde friend at the counter. "Just act dumb," she said without blinking. Both were wearing purple hospital scubs, indicating they were in a program for dental hygienist training.
"We have the special concoction brewing, and we'll bring it out later."
"OK," the blonde said, as she walked away.
"Hi, Mr. Smith. How are you today?" she gave a big toothy smile as she walked to greet a middle aged man holding a rolled up newspaper and a coffee cup.
"I'm doing well. Thank-you Alice, " he replied, as he walked behind her toward the back office.
"We'll be finishing your clinic today. I have to check everything out before we start, and get the instructor to sign us off. But, it shouldn't take that long," she smiled as she put on her cotton apron. She sat down at the counter as Mr. Smith sat in the dentist's chair. "I need to do some paperwork first, then we'll take care of that left side."
"Well, I'm in no hurry, as you can see," he said as he slowly crossed his legs to relax in the chair.
"I'll see if the instructor is ready for us yet," she said, standing up and walking to the booth next door. The instructor is a middle-aged brunette with a nice smile standing talking to another student. She looks up, walks back with the blonde. The blonde hands her a file with xrays in it.
"Everything looks ok?" the instructor asked the young blonde dental hygienist student.
"Yes. I asked him if he'd had any changes to his medical conditions since the last visit."
"Ok. I am going to be pretty busy with the other two students tonight, so go on without me checking it off. It looks like you just have a little scraping and a polish to do, so it shouldn't take you too long to get done."
"All right. Is the Doctor on the floor yet?"
"No. Yes, we need to wait until the doc is on the floor. You may start as soon as you see him on the floor."
"OK." She pauses, looks over the separating dividers, waiting for the doctor to walk onto the floor.
A doctor apparently arrives on the floor after about 5 minutes. "I guess we can go ahead and get started," she said to her patient.
Leaning over her patient, she patiently begins to scrape the calculus off the teeth. It seems he brushes regularly, and occasionally flosses. Finally, she sees her patient beginning to gag. She puts a hose of water in his mouth and shoots a jet of cold water. "Rinse, " she says, like she has done this thousands times before. "I'll let you swallow it."
"OK," he sort of mumbles with the water in the back of his mouth.
"We are almost done here. I need to go get the mint polish compound, so if you will, wait here and I'll be right back."
She disappears around the corner, going to the lab at the end of the hall. The lady that mixes the compounds up is watching her as she approaches. She smiles, recognizing the student. "How is our patient doing?" she asks her.
"He doesn't suspect a thing," she whispers.
"It's in there," she smiles as she hands her a small round paper cup with the polish compound. "Be sure to apply a healthy dose."
"OK. Tell her I'll take good care of him," she says.