My first UK dental care experience.

I was just stuffing myself with delicious traditional English pastry thingies covered in custard and realized that I haven't told you about my first time with an English dentist. A couple of weeks ago I woke up in agony, my tooth was killing me and due to financial reasons I had only been able to see a dentist once whilst my 1 year and 8 month stay in New Zealand. And only for a consultation, not a treatment. I got up anyway, forced myself to man the fuck up and went to work after skipping breakfast and taking 3 codeine enforced painkillers. By the looks on the faces of fellow travelers in the tube I could tell this was not a good idea. I arrived at work and tried to act as if everything was OK, 30 minutes later I gave up and got kicked out by colleagues who forced me to visit a clinic. My GP directed me to the Kings Cross Emergency Clinic. So that's were I went and after having waited 40 minutes, 2 more painkillers and a semi-conscious conversation with a grumpy 70-year old Indian guy named Khan who apparently had been waiting in the overcrowded waiting room for an hour, I got called in by a nurse. Their treatment area consists out of approximately 6 half open cubicles with hardly any curtains, no privacy, and people everywhere. Fuzzy as fuck, I lay down and studied the stained brown ceiling. A fresh but remarkably young looking African dentist greeted me and during our chat I sort of gained consciousness and then fully realized where I was and what was going to happen. I was about to receive a rootcanal treatment by dental/med student with other students present for observation. A petite blond girl with a strong Slavic accent, who looked no older than 22, leaned over me and explained to me what was going to happen. She was nervous and kept stressing the fact that it was of utmost importance that 'I shouldn't be feeling anything after receiving local anesthetics because the treatment was going to be horrible.' Very subtle. I've been through the joys of rootcanal treatments before and they're nothing to be upset about, really. This time I was upset though. First of, she kept stabbing me with that needle because she couldn't find the spot which resulted in me having to walk around with a sore jaw for 1,5 weeks. Second, after a while the stabbing got annoying and painfull and I started moaning. Every time I made a sound she nearly burst into tears which unabled her to find the spot. It was a vicious circle. It took her about 30 minutes to get the infected nerve out and another 15 minutes to find a senior intern to check if the procedure was performed right. He was out, having lunch. Yeah it took me about half a day to get that tooth fixed but at least I didn't have to pay for it, nor was I charged for the antibiotics and the next appointment. Jah bless the NHS, proper healthcare is relative. The people in this country that complain about healthcare really need to cut the shit and get their teeth fixed.