My tooth hurt through the night. I had to take a painkiller to lessen the pain. Worst of all I did not get a wink of sleep the whole night through.

The next morning I told my mother about my toothache. It was obvious I could not go to school. So instead she took me to the dentist. I was horrified, but I had no choice.

At nine o’clock we waited outside the dentist’s office. The nurse came and opened the door. I was the first patient. She wrote down my particulars and told me to wait a moment. The dentist had not arrived yet. Meanwhile the tooth still ached like mad.

The dentist arrived and I was ushered to the dentist’s chair. Normally I would run away from the frightening surgery with all its horrible drills and pliers, but I did not. I had to get the offending tooth out.

So I sat down on the reclining chair while the dentist kept saying some reassuring words. I relaxed somewhat. He asked me to open my mouth. I did so. He said that the tooth had to come out. I nodded dumbly in reply.

I felt a slight prick of pain when he gave me an injection, but that was nothing compared to the toothache. Soon, miraculously, all pain disappeared. The anaesthetic definitely worked very quickly. Then before I knew it, the dentist told me that I could go. I looked at him and he told me he had already pull the tooth out. What wonder, I did not even feel it.

The dentist put a wad of cotton over the wound and he told me to keep my mouth shut for a while. I nodded, smiled and went out into the waiting room where my mother was waiting for me. The visit to the dentist was not too bad after all.