I've had to go several times to the dental hospital - which was also the Uni School of Dentistry - in Birmingham for different things.
Was treated like a Queen - by both consultants and students. Went with raging toothache one day - which my own dentist had entirely failed to notice was because a wisdom tooth had half disintegrated ! - but because they'd X-rayed my jaw as part of the process, they also identified summat that shouldn't have been there nearer the front of my mouth. And it wasn't only the students hat didn't know - it was everyone. So I had the remains of the tooth out (aaah, bliss) and then had to go back.
This led to a bone biopsy which was carried out by a roomful of students and a professor. The jawbone was so absolutely dense just there, no idea before or after why - it kept blunting their little diamond saw and they changed the head 4 or 5 times as they were trying to hack a bit off for analysis, midway through this process with a mouth full of hand and instruments, they were discussing this strange bone amongst themselves (I mean - they didn't know until they started hacking if it WAS actually bone, or what?) - and the student said 'Well sir - we do know now - it's definitely ivorine.'
And I thought immediately 'Well that explains it completely then, doesn't it? - clearly, I must be growing a tusk !' and burst out laughing - but of course I just choked instead, due to all the hand and hardware. I had a right old coughing and spluttering fit, and of course took ages to stop cos it made me giggle even more and I just hadn't the heart to explain, as they all looked so concerned about me!
Marvellous!
