Scaring a 16 year old

A patient calls her dentist to refer her sixteen-year-old son to him for a new patient examination. She reports that since he began playing high school baseball, he now has a habit of chewing tobacco. She asked the dentist if he would do what he could to encourage her son to quit. When the young man presented for his examination, he was quite apprehensive. The dentist looked in his mouth and on examining the site where the boy held the tobacco, he exclaimed, "Oh my god, what's this?"

He then went on to over dramatize his concern about a minor change in tissue appearance that he believed would revert to normal as soon as the irritation was withdrawn. The dentist went on to say, "that looks like a pre-cancerous lesion and we are going to cut out a piece of your lip and have it tested." When the dentist called the oral surgeon to request a biopsy, he instructed the specialist to leave one suture long to annoy the young man so he will remember the ordeal. As a result of the experience, the youngster quit using chewing tobacco.