dental woes (or whoa's, whatever)

so i've been gone for a while, but not for lack of goings-on. in a span of a week my dad, sisters, mom, and her dog were in and out of our house at various points in time. my dad came with two of the tetrad of sisters (it's impossible to get them all to come at once) and my grandmother to celebrate canadian thanksgiving, which i successfully hosted at our new digs. we had so many people we dined in the basement (fully finished, of course) on a HUGE table that canuck and FIL built for that purpose. the turkey was perfect, wine and conversation flowed, and a good time was had by all. they left that monday, only to be succeeded by my mom who recently moved to michigan to be closer to us, on thursday night (my parents are divorced, if you haven't figured it out already). she brought zelda, the coolest dog in the universe, with her, and we hung out, shopped, and did all that great stuff. i love having my family come and visit, but i'm always so sad to see them go :'-(

work has had it's ups and downs. i love my downtown office and i went through a period where i was super busy, but i've completed treatment on all the new patients that have come in and there just haven't been any more new ones these past few weeks. the hygienist and the other doctor also have huge gaps in their schedules, so i guess it's that time of the year when insurance runs out and people don't want to have treatment anymore because there's no more money. the saving grace is that i have three or four HUGE implant cases that are almost ready to restore, and i'm very excited to get those rolling. the periodontist we work with came by the office today (with a bottle of wine for both myself and the other doc!) and so did our rep from nobel biocare. we chatted, went over some cases and some info. in two weeks i'm delivering an immediate CD/RPD for a guy who is having all his teeth extracted under IV sedation and is getting bone grafting for implants. we're going straight to teeth, no extractions of the posteriors first, nothing, the surgeon needs to graft everything immediately. so i got good impressions, took as accurate a bite reg as possible, sent the case off and am currently keeping my fingers crossed but not holding my breath. we all know that this is a temporary denture, but i would still like the thing to fit relatively well for the time being. it's going to be very interesting - the patient has ankylosing spondylitis, takes a ton of meds, and has an alcohol problem. he should be a real peach to sedate!

the office up north is driving me crazy! i've had over a dozen crowns taken away from me, patients that i've treatment planned, sold the procedures to and haven't even gotten paid for the new patient exams despite all the effort on my part, and they've just disappeared from my view. it's like every crown that gets done, i've practically gift wrapped it for the chief dentist to take away from me. i have patients that want to see me and i start out with them, but then they get transfered over to the other associate because they have to fill her schedule too (one little girl actually started crying when i told her i wasn't doing her fillings that day). if something i do fails (i had a streak of bad luck with the 3M onestep and two of my restos fell out of some pedo teeth i restored) i should be the one to fix it. nope, got moved to someone else and the production got deducted from mine, and i never saw the patient again. people get flopped around and i feel like there is no continuity of care - if i treatment plan something or if something that i do goes wrong, that patient should be seen and/or fixed by me and only me. and that's speaking only from the dentist's point of view, but think about it from the patient's perspective. wouldn't you only want to see the same doctor you're comfortable with or who initially saw you? it also makes me look bad, because i can't speak for myself or my mistake when i'm not there. argh, and crazy boss lady gets on my nerves - she makes comments about my weight (pats my tummy and repeatedly asks if i'm pregnant, and i'm not overweight by any means) my skin (oh, you have a pimple, what's wrong with you?) and even said that cookie is "chubby" ("what are you feeding that kid?") so i'm currently looking for another office that might be a wee bit more of my cup of tea. i'll hang out there for the time being and just do my thing, smiling and nodding the whole time - i do like the staff and i've grown attached to the patients there and i don't want to leave on bad terms. but long term is definitely not an option for me at this place. i had an interview last thursday and it seemed to go well but i think they want more saturdays than i can commit too, so i'm just keeping my fingers crossed.

so, it's been an eventful couple of weeks, to say the least. hopefully things will fall into place, i just have to be patient and everything will eventually work out for the best. it's just the waiting that's the hardest part (wait, isn't that a tom petty song???)