When I moved from Oxford to Birmingham just over a year ago, I managed to sort out most of the administrative changes (like signing up with a new GP and informing people about the change of address) pretty quickly. However, for some reason, I never got around to registering with a new dentist. A few weeks ago, I realised with a shock that it must have been about 18 months since I had last seen a dentist, and signed up with one.

My old dental practice in Oxford was in quite a posh area, and despite the fact that they charged more or less the same as any other dentist, it was very nicely decorated, with polished wood floors, tasteful prints and classical music playing in the background. My new dental practice—which I visited for the first time today—looks somewhat more run down. The dentists and dental nurses are very nice and perfectly competent, but the decor looks like a typical NHS GP practice—slightly tatty.

As I sat in the chair, having my teeth prodded and scraped, I noticed a couple of posters stuck to the ceiling, obviously placed there deliberately to give the victim patient something to look at. One was a nice black and white photograph of the Empire State Building—a little bit mid-80s Athena, but quite nice. The other one made me look twice—“World’s Greatest Modern Fighting Aircraft”, depicting about 18 jet fighters. Now, I admire the MiG 19 as much as the next person, but it still seems a bit of an odd choice of decoration. I would have thought that most dentists would opt for a peaceful seascape or a wild flower meadow or something. It had the desired effect though. I spent the whole consultation puzzling over their choice of posters, and so hardly noticed what they were doing.