Excerpt from Martina

By Martina Navratilova

with George Veesey 

Another thing I didn't like about school was the visit by the dentist.  My teeth looked nice and white, but they were soft and I always had cavities.  The dentist came right to school and called you out, class by class, name by name.  Because my name was Subertova for the first ten years, I would always be near the end, and of course, I'd be trembling by the time my turn came.  They didn't use any painkiller or x-rays.  The dentist would tap your teeth with a pointed metal tool and when he figured he found something wrong, he'd mark you down, and a few weeks later he'd call you in and start drilling.  One time he was drilling on me and I bit him right on the hand.  He threw me out but two days later he came back and called my name again.