...last you 'til Jesus.

So, I had my final visit at the dental factory this morning. As I waited in the chair I could clearly overhear the conversation from the room directly across the hall. (Do not ask me why the doors were open) Across the way an elderly woman of at least 85 years appeared confused. She was accompanied by her son, a very tall guy who was loosing his patience. The old gal had apparently been a stroke victim and was on a great deal of medication the son told the dental assistant. "She sometimes thinks she has pain in her mouth." "I do have pain," the woman shouted. The assistant tried to explain that she had a full set of dentures and therefore could not possibly have a horrible toothache as she explained. The old woman demanded that Xrays be taken. To appease her the son and the assistant agreed. A short time later as I still waited I could hear the conversation heating up. While my back was to them I imagine that the Xrays were presented to the old woman as it was explained that she had no teeth and therefore could not have the pain she described. She even had great bone loss so, there was no where for the pain to originate. The old gal was angry now. Don't tell her... she knows whether or not she is/was in pain.

The assistant decided to get the dentist. The doctor carefully explained what had already been presented. The dentist asked how old her dentures were. "Eight years," was the reply. "Well, why don't we make you a new pair?" The doctor suggested that maybe the dentures were not fitting properly. The old woman finally agreed and was told she would be fitted for new dentures. The problem now was getting her to understand that; 1, she had to wait a month for them to be finished and 2, that these new dentures would solve her phantom pain. "Momma, they will be good. They will last you forty years. They will last you until you see Jesus again," the son told her. There was an awkward silence and then the old woman paraphrased her son, "last me 'til Jesus?" The Jesus time-space-continuum was something she could understand. The woman now apologized and attributed her orneriness to her stroke. The son completely tapped emotionally at this point excused himself to go out and have a cigarette while the dental impressions were made.

My over-active branding brain thought, "what a great branding opportunity." When the dentist finally came in to attend to me, I suggested a branding experience based on the concept of "dentures being so well made that they would, last you 'til Jesus." While the doctor found this very humorous and reminded me to repeat it here, she did not believe that most of her customers would buy it, pun intended.