When people ask me what I do for a living and I tell them I'm a dental hygienist, I get many different reactions. The most common reaction is surprise because generally people are totally grossed out at the thought of cleaning someone's teeth and the dentist office is usually the least sought out destination for obvious reasons.
However, I love what I do because I love my patients. I've had the opportunity to work on people from all walks of life, famous celebrities to the homeless. This one patient I was working on in particular, had been coming to me for his regular cleanings for a couple of years. He was a very educated man with extremely tight, curly hair. I got up that morning and knew I was coming down with something but thought I would be okay going to work. As the day wore on, my nose became runnier and runnier and it was becoming very difficult to work in a mask full of liquid snot.
While working on this gentleman, I had my head tilted down and just moved my mask a HAIR to adjust it so I could breathe. However, I didn't make the adjustment quick enough and a glob of liquid snot fell out of my nose onto the patient's head! Thank God for his curly hair! Now I know this is totally gross but I just froze because I wasn't sure if he felt that he just got slimed. I hesitated for a few seconds and he seemed none the wiser to my mucus situation so I excused myself for a moment and jammed tissues up both nostrils before heading back in. Thankfully I escaped that mortifying situation without any embarrassment to myself but sure felt awful for slimming him in the process!