"Getting my mouth/face looked after"

I was punched in the face by some so-called muggers (they weren't particularly good at the actual mugging bit) at a party in Sunny Brixton, South London. It happened in the early hours of a Tuesday morning a few weeks ago. I attended KCH Camberwell A&E the on Tuesday evening and was seen and dispatched efficiently and reasonably quickly. No A&E in a big city is ever going to be a particularly cheerful, exciting place to be, but as a fairly regular user of A&Es around the country this particular experience was fine. The Maxfax SHO could have examined me far more thoroughly should he have wanted to . . .

Anyway, the reason I'm blathering on here is to share my experiences of the dental hospital attached to Kings. The Wednesday after the attack a bit of one of my molars came loose and caused me quite a lot of pain, so I went along to the trauma clinic on the Friday morning. I was examined by two delightful and more importantly honest Staff Grades/Consultants, the loose bit of tooth was removed, a temporary filling was added, a x-ray taken and an appointment was booked for 5 days after to have the offending molar removed. All this took just 2 hours, which considering I hadn't pre-booked I though was pretty fantastic.

The removal itself was also, as far a tooth removals go, a satisfactory experience. Again, the staff were extremely friendly, listened to everything I had to say and ripped the bugger out in no time at all with only a little discomfort. And they let me keep it so I can show all my friends. All this happened in super quick time, which made things even sweeter - I turned up half an hour early, was seen 5 minutes after my arrival and left before my actual appointment time had come up.

My fourth and final visit to King's for this particular incident was today, and took the form of a checkup with a dental student and a Maxfax surgeon. Again I turned up early and was seen very swiftly, the clinical staff were friendly, professional and in the case of the surgeon actually quite pleasant and with decent communication skills. I was sent on my way with no outstanding questions or queries about my situation and with a very very positive view of the dental hospital as a whole - all the staff there, from receptionists up, were friendly, efficient and highly professional. Maybe I should get smacked in the mouth again soon . . .