"That's good," Brian said earnestly. "It's never too late to get into good oral hygiene habits. Now, open wide please?" When Xavier replied, Brian got to work. "Now let me know if I'm hurting you, okay? I'll be checking for decay."
With a sharp explorer in one hand and a mirror in the other, he carefully examined every tooth. Starting with the back molar, he began to crawl towards the front of Xavier's mouth. He remained fairly quiet, not one to engage his patients in chit-chat during an exam. After all, they had such a hard time replying.
"You've got some plaque build-up," he murmured from behind his mask, shifting slightly to work his way into the other side of Xavier's mouth. "I'll take care of that when I've finished this." As he reached the other molars, his brow wrinkled slightly. "I think I've found some decay," he said. "Tell me, is this tender?" He started to gently prod at the area surrounding the suspect tooth.