"Tap on the right side, tap on the left for me...how does that feel ? No sharp edges, anything like that? Great...we're done then"

It is n't often I need a filling -years go by before that has to happen - still this afternoon I did. The corner of an old filling had sheared off whilst I was gorging on handfuls of nuts and seeds (see healthy eating can have a downside to it).

Probably this is his mantra; the train of words that pulls out the moment the drilling, the swabbing, and the setting of the new filling are done. Said solicitously, but in the tone of a professional who knows his stuff. Almost the way I might imagine a master craftsman would hold up a finished article, confident in it's integrity and substance. Nothing haughty or overweening, just pride in a job well done.

For the short time it took him to complete everything, it felt ,oddly, like something was actually being sculpted inside my mouth: he drilled, then scraped away the ruins of the old filling, then kneaded the new malleable filling into place, smoothed it's edges, stepped back to view then returned for a finishing touch or two, before asking how it all felt.

I don't intend as you can probably imagine my mouth to become a sculpture park; one filling is enough.