The Unseen Value Of The Saliva-Sucker

I went to the dentist recently and was impressed with the way the dental assistant and dentist worked together to get me fixed up and out of there as quickly as possible.

I’ve been going to the dentist for a long time (as long as I’ve had teeth, really) and until this particular visit I had never given much credit to the literal saliva-sucking that the dental assist has to do. I had a very numb face and very little control over the volume of saliva being produced while the dentist battled with the awkward shape of the mouth and position that teeth find themselves in.

Since I had nowhere else to go for the 45 minutes of numb-faceness, I started to imagine what it would be like if the dental assistat wasn’t there sucking the saliva for the dentist. Let me tell you, it would have been an absolute shambles. My mouth would fill up with saliva, it would drip down the side of my face (which is actually a pretty thick beard which means I’d have a damp face for a while) and onto my shirt. It would make the job of fixing my broken tooth a very difficult task for the dentist who would have to stop every few seconds to hold the saliva-sucking device up to my mouth and clear things out.

Now, this may seem pretty obvious to most people but for me it highlighted a very important thing: You can’t build things alone.

Most of the time the journey is better and easier if you have people you trust working with you on a shared vision. Everyone needs a saliva-sucker to be by their side making the path that little bit easier and a tiny bit clearer.