dental clinic: Browse The Strips

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Lynn's Comments: I don't think I had talked about Jean's private life. Whether she was married or not had never come up, and so this pregnancy was something readers just had to accept. I was still learning how to create a believable and consistent storyline.

Friday, November 8, 2013

Lynn's Comments: For a while, in Rod's clinic, both patient and assistant wore protective garb when x-rays were taken. It was soon evident that the on-off switch could be placed outside the operatory behind a permanent protective shield. This made things much easier.

Sunday, December 8, 2013

Lynn's Comments: When they first came out, answering machines were a new toy for everyone. Some folks were horrified by the thought of leaving a recorded message, while others became instant hosts of their own daily show. I loved the way folks said, "Hi, I'm not here right now." -- as if they had gone to that place on "the other side." It was hard to record it right the first time, so I found saying repeatedly that I wasn't there depressing. Kids enjoyed the anonymity and entertained themselves by irritating anyone who had this device, but eventually we all became accustomed to and dependent on the answering machine. Now we're adapting to much more sophisticated toys!

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Lynn's Comments: Having to do dentistry single-handed is really difficult, but it happens on occasion. Four-handed dentistry is now such a way of life that only the folks who practiced before this was taught, or have worked in third world countries, can manage comfortably.

Thursday, December 26, 2013

Lynn's Comments: Christmas has always been my favourite time of year. I start looking for the perfect gifts in January and continue on until December. Funny stuff is best, and when I find the perfect thing for the perfect person, I can hardly wait to wrap it and give it away. Maybe it's because we had so little when I was young that makes shopping such a treat. My brother and I were lucky to get one special toy. Anything else had to be useful--like clothes or school supplies. We learned to save and to spend judiciously. When birthdays or Christmas came the suspense was awful; knowing we might get something we had been longing for--if we could afford it. Even now I wonder what our parents did without so Alan and I could have something special for Christmas.

Our parents were adept at making ends meet. Even though we had little to live on, we had everything. In looking back, I can see that we had what mattered most: a solid, caring family, a comfortable home, good friends, and confidence in future. This is what I tried to portray in For Better or For Worse. No matter what happened, there was always something good to look forward to.

Thursday, August 7, 2014

Lynn's Comments: The name "Brittany" was chosen because my friends, Don and Beth, named their first daughter "Brittany." Their second daughter, they named "Elly!"

Friday, August 8, 2014

Lynn's Comments: My first husband used to come home from work, look around the house and say, "What did you DO all day?" The house was tidy, the laundry done, dinner was prepared and the baby was clean, fed and sleeping. I felt I had put in a full day's work--plus overtime!

Saturday, October 11, 2014

Lynn's Comments: Here's where the "soap opera" comes into FBorFW. There had to be some romantic conflict in the story, so when Connie moved away, I enjoyed exploring some of the "what-ifs." Would people like John and Ted meet and talk like this in real life? Maybe not. Still, it was a way to answer some of the questions a sympathetic fly on the wall might ask: What if Ted felt badly? What if he realized his mistake? Exploring questions like these gave me the incentive to produce and to stay on deadline.

Monday, November 10, 2014

Lynn's Comments: Every now and then I could work in a "public service announcement" thanks to our in-house dentist. Grinding your teeth at night is something many of us do without being aware of it. You can even crack a filling with the strength of your jaw. A "bite splint" will help to relax your jaws at night and keep you from having that awful head-achy feeling in the morning. Sadly, it can't help to solve the problems that make you grind your teeth in the first place!

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Lynn's Comments: I actually looked forward to working in the clinic. It wasn't the passing of instruments that appealed to me as much as it was dealing with the patients. I really enjoyed putting them at ease and explaining the procedures. This later influenced my decision to learn Spanish and travel with the Medical Missions to Peru. Explaining an otherwise worrisome situation to anxious patients and seeing them relax with a smile, made my task a joy. It was one of the most rewarding things I have ever done.

Friday, February 27, 2015

Lynn's Comments: Fortunately for Alan, he was never a patient. My mother, however, allowed me to practice on her. I remember her under the gas, which was a lot of fun. I had never seen her so relaxed and funny.

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Lynn's Comments: I learned that "anticipation" was essential to four-handed dentistry--as it is to anything complicated and delicate requiring more than one person's skills. As a dental assistant, I had to know a procedure well enough to be able to anticipate the instrument or materials required before they were needed and to have them ready at precisely the right time. I also had to know when to suction, how to cut and fit those rubber thingies they use to keep stuff from falling into your mouth and to be able to prepare the gelatinous goo used to make moulds.

Needless to say, as an untrained wife of the dentist, I made a number of annoying mistakes. Fortunately we didn't bark at each other over the head of a patient, whose trust we had to maintain. Nowadays, I don't think untrained assistants are allowed to help "chairside" unless the dentist is working with the Medical Missionaries in a third world country and there is no choice! I've done that, too.

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Lynn's Comments: This very situation brought my assisting career to an end. Dentistry is a fiddly business with many frustrating procedures. When my husband sharply asked for an instrument or for suction, I expected a polite "thanks" for my efforts, but he just carried on. His brusque manner wasn't personal--I just took it the wrong way!

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Lynn's Comments: When we moved to North Bay and set up a new clinic, we had two refrigerators--the one with the sandwiches was in the dining area.

Friday, March 6, 2015

Lynn's Comments: Here again is the old chestnut where someone working outside the home has no idea how much work it is to manage a home and family. Every Friday, I look after my grandchildren. Laura is 3, Ryan is 1. Not wanting them to sit in front of the television for long, I try to have things for them to do--and it's a real effort. It takes time to interest them in toys, give them meals and snacks, keep them safe and keep them clean. You can do nothing else and if you try, you only get annoyed and resentful. Parenting is definitely a full time job! After a full day of serious grannying, I am glad to see these beautiful children go home with mom and, I wonder how I managed to run a home and do a comic strip at the same time!

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Lynn's Comments: Like other twists in the story line, this revelation came as a surprise to me. I had no idea that Ted had been interested in his receptionist/secretary! The neat thing about Irene was that she took Ted away from Connie. Connie could move on. Irene had a "throw-away" part; her character didn't need to be rounded out. I invented a character I could play with for a while and then ignore--the kind of role in which an actor would hate to be cast!

Monday, April 20, 2015

Lynn's Comments: At the time when I was working in our dental clinic, recorded music for headphones and office ambience was hard to come by. A small cassette player was all we could offer our patients, and eventually they had heard all of the albums we owned. We were living in an area where radio reception was intermittent at best, and satellite stations hadn't been invented yet. What we had was an enormous reel-to-reel system and about 10 huge reels of tunes we had prepared ourselves. We thought this would be enough music to last forever considering the number of albums we had recorded (illegally, I now realize), but after a few months, as the reels played, were changed, and played again, we could all hum the next tune before it even started!

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Lynn's Comments: One thing we always had in our clinic was new reading material. Thinking of the patients, we subscribed to a variety of magazines, and children's books were replaced as soon as they looked soiled or dog-eared. People really appreciated this small waiting room diversion, and often said so. Whenever I go into an office or a clinic and I see that there are a variety of reasonably fresh and current magazines, I feel a little better about the folks who run that office. There, on the coffee table in front of me, is evidence that they care.

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Lynn's Comments: "Brittany" is the name of one of my friends' daughters. I knew her family would be pleasantly surprised when they saw it in the strip. Little things like this were a lot of fun. Later, the Scott family became five, as their other children, Bourton and Elly were born. I never put another Scott family name in the strip, but I suspect their daughter, Elly was named for Elly in the strip!

Saturday, May 2, 2015

Lynn's Comments: When I was first engaged (1967) and my name was Lynn Ridgway, women were all expected to change their last name to that of their husband's. Even though I didn't really like my new name after marriage, I dutifully signed my work "Lynn Franks." Later, when I married Rod Johnston, I thought my full name was too long to put on the bottom of the comic strip and resorted to signing just "Lynn." For me, it felt right. It was the one name which I would always have--no matter what!

Friday, May 8, 2015

Lynn's Comments: One of the best Mother's Day gifts I ever received was a small, round plaster "pancake" into which my son, Aaron, had pressed his hand. This was the brainchild of his kindergarten teacher. On the card that came with it was written, "This is the hand you held when I was five." It was a precious, wonderful keepsake, which was, sadly lost when we moved to North Bay from Lynn Lake. When my daughter's two children were babies, she pressed their hands and feet into similar pads of clay. I hope she keeps them in a safer spot than I did!

Monday, October 12, 2015

Lynn's Comments: Although I've never walked around with a sandwich board, I've done what I could to make folks aware that our local theatre had wonderful live performances.