Living with my greatest fear.

~Chapter 31~

Ellie's POV:

When Grant left my room, I made sure to put an alarm on my phone for 4:45pm so I'm not late to Grant's office. It's not because I want to go, it's just because I don't want Grant to get angry at me if I am late. Plus, it means that I can kind of forget about it for now and do some other things like homework.

Grant's POV:

I got to the office 7 minutes before my first patient, so I walked to the staffroom to set my bags down and say a quick hello to anyone that was in there - just James as it happens.

"Hi, Grant. How was school?"

"Hiya, James. Yeah, it was okay. Not too bad, only a few more people to see from Ellie's year and then I'm done with that year. How's it been here?"

"Good, good. It's been quite quiet today actually. I have a patient at 4:15pm - just a quick checkup, and then I don't have another one until 5:30pm. You kept many patients for this afternoon?"

"I've got a patient at 4, a couple after them and then Ellie at 5:15pm."

"Not too many then. If you need any help with anything just give me a shout," He said getting up from the couch he was sitting on.

"Thanks, man. I should probably start setting up, they'll be here soon," I say, parting ways with James to go to my exam room.

Once I've set the room up, I load up my patient's records. As it turns out, it's Ellie's friend, Becky's mum. All of the appointments I have today are just basic check ups so there's nothing too taxing about it. I quickly have a read over Amanda's records before going out into the waiting room to call her name.

"Amanda Dixon..?"

I see Amanda get up from her chair and walk over to me as I greet her. We walk into my exam room and I ask her to take a seat whilst patting the dental chair. She goes to put her bag and coat down on the chair in the corner and then seats herself on the dental chair.

"Just going to ask you a few questions, alright?" I say, sitting behind Amanda, looking at her record.

"Okay," she says, fairly confidently.

"Anything feel any different or abnormal in your mouth recently?"

"No, I don't think so. Although, I have recently got an ulcer on my cheek which is quite irritating."

"Okey dokey, I can have a look at that for you and give you some advice for it. Other than that everything is okay, yes?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"Cool, so just the check up to do then! I'm just going to lean the chair back now, okay?"

Amanda nods. Whilst the chair is reclining, I wash my hands, grab myself a pair of gloves, put my loupes on and put my mask over my mouth and nose.

"When you're ready, open your mouth nice and wide for me, please," I say, hovering my mirror over Amanda's mouth.

*END OF AMANDA'S APPOINTMENT*

I put the chair back up to its original position, took my gloves, loupes and mask off, and moved my stool round to the side of the dental chair.

"Everything looks normal and healthy, which is good. For your ulcer, do you find yourself biting the inside of your cheek? Or have you been feeling tired, stressed or anxious recently?"

"I suppose sometimes I bite the inside of my cheek, normally down to anxiousness or tiredness."

"I would imagine your ulcer could be from biting the inside of your cheek, especially as parts of your cheek did look quite red. It should go away within 3 weeks but if it doesn't or repeatedly keeps coming back, grows bigger than usual or starts to bleed then just ring reception to make an appointment with me and we can go from there, okay?"