crappy day

just when you think that mondays couldn't get any worse. my first patient was 25 minutes late and completely threw my whole day off. her tooth broke and it needed a crown. okay, fine. now, i always welcome questions from my patients and want to make sure they have a full understanding of what i'm about to do before i begin, and i also understand that some people have a lower dental IQ that others. that's okay! but she wasn't a low dental IQ patient, she was just irritating. first she grilled me for over half and hour about the metal in the crowns - wasn't enough that i knew what they were, she wanted percentages and ratios. i told her i could find these things out at the lab. then she wanted to know if she got a permanent crown and then decided she wanted a bridge to fill in the missing tooth that was next to it, could i just throw one in and attach it to the crown? or just cut it off and include the price of the crown in the cost of the bridge. um...no! i tried telling her over and over again that these are two separate procedures, that she has to make a decision before either restoration is cemented permanently. i also added that if she wanted, i could prep the broken tooth and she could wear a temp for a few weeks so she could think about it a while before she made that decision. she then wanted to know exactly how long she could wear the temp, and when i told her no longer than a month or two she was like, only that little, how about a year? argh! and i said, unfortunately, a temp is a temporary restoration and the materials they are made from are not designed to be worn long term. then she wanted to know what it was made of, why are they so weak, and blah blah blah. argh again! oh, and when i finally got her numb and was prepping the tooth, she kept making all these weird faces and i kept stopping and asking her, "are you in pain? are you alright? do you need more anesthesia?". "no, it doesn't hurt, it smells". apparently, while you're cutting a tooth for a crown, sometimes there's this funky kinda burnt smell because the handpiece gets hot and there's a lot of water and you are cutting organic material. it's noticable, but i've never heard anyone complain about it. she then went on and on about the smell, the smell, the smell! then she even complained about the smell of the temp cement! the point of all this is that i spent over 45 minutes with this unappreciative, demanding, nit-picky individual who wasn't going to be happy with anything i told her, and the whole procedure took me only about 15 minutes. needless to day, i was greatful to get her out of my chair and on her way. and i hope she never comes back to finish.

that was just the icing on the cake! need i forget to mention the fractured root canal-treated tooth that was so brittle it crumbled like a cookie in my forceps and broke below the bone as i tried to extract it, and that after a half an hour of trying to fish this thing out, i had to send my poor patient to an emergency oral surgeon. we had to call five offices to find someone to tkae her. and how i was so backed up as a result that i had to reschedule a super-busy college student who was kept waiting to over an hour. i felt so horrid that i went out and bought her $10 worth of gift certificates from tim hortons so that she could have coffee and donuts for her exams. then i lost the template for the temp i was trying to make for another crown that i prepped later that day and i had to make one from scratch from a block of acrylic, not an easy thing to do successfully. as a result, i again ran behind so the hygienist wasn't able to see him for his scheduled appointment with her. then enter another completely unappreciative and annoying walk-in emergency who wanted me to just prescribe antibiotics without even looking at her or diagnosing her. "i know it's my wisdom tooth, why can't you just give me the antibiotics?" and i still reduced my fee for her so she paid nothing for the exam and half-price for the x-ray. not even so much as a thank you- all she could do was complain that she had to take the antibiotic with food because she was trying to lose weight. i'm telling you, i couldn't wait for the day to end!

but not all of it was bad. the patient who was kept waiting was very happy with the coffee certificates and rescheduled for friday morning, first patient of the day. the extraction patient was seen promptly at the oral surgeon and is now doing well (my pride is still wounded, but hopefully should recover soon). the temp crown came out decently, and the patient wasn't bothered by the schedule change, plus the hygienist got to leave early that day, so she was happy. and my last patient was super sweet and didn't mind waiting because she saw how crazy everything was.

some days being a dentist really is a mixed bag. and then people wonder why we're so "pricy." well, all that angst and grief really starts to take its toll on the human psyche! at this point i hope to retire next year!