Had another risk-taking breakthrough today: I went to the dentist. Throughout the lockdown I’ve become very compliant with flossing and avoided biting on very hard food that might accidentally cause tooth damage, out of fear that I would need to leave my house and go to a dentist. However, plaque still accumulated in some corners and I had no choice but to frantically contact my good friend Tim Drake who holds a dental clinic in Biñan.

I was one of Dr. Tim’s first patients back when he started practice over a decade ago. One of my first constructive criticisms back then was that he was not aware that my shirt was already soaking wet from all the drippings from my mouth, in his excitement to make chika while doing the procedure. He has since become very mindful of these things.

My first thought as I opened my mouth wide open was that I was getting bukakke-d by COVID floating in the air. As a new standard precaution Tim Drake placed some kind of air vacuum tubing just above my mouth, like those exhaust tubes in samgyupsal, with my mouth as the grill. He then positioned a home-made shield between us, and proceeded to drill out the plaques from behind the shield.

“Alam mo inunfollow ko na si Mrs. Z. Puro muka nya eh. Sa isang scroll ko dalawang selfie agad!” he started. Of course I was raring to respond with my own rants about my social media pet peeves, but all the dental implements in my mouth made it impossible. He went on to tell me that he had to let his assistant go, due to the recession. He could only see very few patients in a day due to safety restrictions and people being afraid to come to the clinic. “Samedt, sizt,” I said, which came out as “Arrararaztkz”.

Cleaning only took a few minutes this time, and he was astonished at how well I was taking good care of my teeth, considering that it’s been over a year since my last dental prophylaxis.

Floss, everyone!

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