so i went to the dentist today (i'm considering making this a blog just about my pearly whites) and i've decided that although i've been going to him since i was a little kid, i'm starting to doubt the man's legitimacy. i was always a fan of his laid-back attitude, demonstrated in his philosophy that most dentists are overeager to fill cavities to score extra cash. heck, i don't want to get my teeth drilled any more than he wants to drill them. but here are the three major warning signs i got today that maybe he's actually just a sucky dentist.
1) he has no hygenist. this was merely a "proceed with caution" sign for me. i don't know how important having a hygenist who does the cleaning before the real dentist comes in to do the dirty work is, maybe its just something upper west side dentists use to hype up them up, like an opener for the main act. i also think it has something to do with his more casual attitude about filling cavities. he's already cleaning your teeth, what more do you want? so on to the next.
2) he has really bad teeth. i gotta admit, this one almost made me want to bolt out of his office. i don't have super high expectations of my dentist's teeth or anything, i don't think he's gonna be like, uh, some celebrity with really nice teeth (you try to think of one, it's hard). but he had like, british people teeth, like the "what is orthodontia" type. and do i want someone who seems to have skipped over the basics of proper toothcare taking care of my treasures?
3) this last one is sneaky, but turned out to actually be the most worrisome. he has no receptionist. you may be thinking, "whatever, that has nothing to do with how good of a dentist he is." well first of all, it sort of does, when he has to keep leaving in the middle of my visit to answer his phone and schedule appointments. and second of all, when you put it together with the lack of a hygenist, you realize it's just him at his office, alone. this means that there's really no one to corroborate his legitimacy as a dentist. he's sort of just a guy with a dentist chair. and what if he decided to just go crazy on your teeth with his drill, Little Shop of Horrors style? there's nobody to hear your screams. eek.
therefore, i don't trust my dentist. i will continue to pay my yearly visit to him, making pleasant conversation and gagging on fluoride, but the trust is definitely gone.
1) he has no hygenist. this was merely a "proceed with caution" sign for me. i don't know how important having a hygenist who does the cleaning before the real dentist comes in to do the dirty work is, maybe its just something upper west side dentists use to hype up them up, like an opener for the main act. i also think it has something to do with his more casual attitude about filling cavities. he's already cleaning your teeth, what more do you want? so on to the next.
2) he has really bad teeth. i gotta admit, this one almost made me want to bolt out of his office. i don't have super high expectations of my dentist's teeth or anything, i don't think he's gonna be like, uh, some celebrity with really nice teeth (you try to think of one, it's hard). but he had like, british people teeth, like the "what is orthodontia" type. and do i want someone who seems to have skipped over the basics of proper toothcare taking care of my treasures?
3) this last one is sneaky, but turned out to actually be the most worrisome. he has no receptionist. you may be thinking, "whatever, that has nothing to do with how good of a dentist he is." well first of all, it sort of does, when he has to keep leaving in the middle of my visit to answer his phone and schedule appointments. and second of all, when you put it together with the lack of a hygenist, you realize it's just him at his office, alone. this means that there's really no one to corroborate his legitimacy as a dentist. he's sort of just a guy with a dentist chair. and what if he decided to just go crazy on your teeth with his drill, Little Shop of Horrors style? there's nobody to hear your screams. eek.
therefore, i don't trust my dentist. i will continue to pay my yearly visit to him, making pleasant conversation and gagging on fluoride, but the trust is definitely gone.
posted by Amanda at 6:25 PM
4 Comments:
Amanda - listen.
1)I am not stalking you, but your blog was on facebook, and I'm at work and there hasn't been a phone call in over an hour.
2)And this is way more important. GET A NEW DENTIST!! The dentist I went to until I was 18 worked out of his basement - no hygenist, no receptionist, just him in his little scary basement. (AND one time he had gay porn magazines in his bathroom). But the thing is, I always had toothaches.
Finally, like after I graduated Murrow, I called 1-800-Dentist to get myself a new dentist. When I went to this guy, he x-rayed my teeth.
I asked, "what are you doing?"
Naturally, he said, "taking an x-ray of your teeth."
"Why," I asked, "are you doing that?"
And he looked at me, very worried. "Has anyone ever x-rayed your teeth before?" he ventured.
"No," I said. "No."
After the x-rays, we discovered that I had 16 cavities and at least 4 root canals that needed to be done. When he went to start the first root canal, he came at me with a needle. "What are you doing??" I cried in horror.
"Giving you a Novacaine shot." He sounded like I was from another planet.
"A shot in my mouth??" A needle in my mouth? What kind of medieval torture chamber was this!
"Yes," he said. "You never had a shot before?"
"Not in my mouth!!!!!!" I was horrified.
"How did your dentist drill?" He asked, equally horrified.
"Drill?" I said. "Drill?"
Well, for the rest of college I had ongoing dental sessions to take care of all the crap. Sophomore year I had a standing appointment every Friday after my Spanish class. The dentist got a little overambitious and started trying to take care of many fillings at once. She stopped after I had a panic attack while she attempted to fill 3 gaping cavities in one sitting. A girl can only take so much.
My most recent root canal has just finished. The dentist put the permanent crown on it this June. Yes, that's right. Oh, and I don't know what the hype about Codeine is all about. It made me severely ill. Vicadin is much better. Should you end up like me, crying in agony over unbelievably painful impending root canals, waiting for your appointment so long that you end up taking 13 advil in the span of a few hours, then end up whimpering on your bed with stomach cramps, calling up your dentist begging him to prescribe you painkillers - should you ever end up in such a situation, take it from me and get Vicadin, not Codeine. Codeine makes some people very ill, vomiting and shaking. And no one wants to me vomiting and shaking AND whimpering on the bed with stomach cramps and shots of pain shooting all over half your face.
Anyway, I've been to a lot of dentists. I've seen a couple things. There was the one dentist who used the fire stick to work on my root canals. I'm told this is fairly routine, as they use the tip of firey stick to seal something or something like that. Regardless, that stick of fire going into my mouth always made me a little uneasy. If you need a root canal, I strongly suggest an endodontist, if you can afford it. I can recommend a really good office.
Wow. I wonder if you took codeine on an empty stomach because if you did that might of been what caused you to vomit/shake. But yeah, Vicodin is great.
Have I not been telling you this for years??? HE IS A BAD DENTIST!!! You're so proud of your perfectly straight teeth with no orthodontia (I'll spill the secret, miss former gap-tooth, you did get some kind of gum-snip thing to make your front teeth come together) but now imagine that you used to have perfectly straight teeth until Dr. Lazybones said you didn't need to have your wisdom teeth out, and now you look like you escaped from Appalachia. I think he sniffs the laughing gas when he doesn't have patients, and that's why he can't have anyone else in the office.
-your brit-toothed sister
Hmm…Just by looking at the things you listed, they’re not strictly warning signs of a bad dentist. My own dentist has neither hygienist nor regular receptionist, although her sister does come from time to time to do some work for her as well. Some dentists don’t need hygienists because they can do the cleaning themselves, since it’s a basic procedure. Receptionists would definitely be handy to have, especially if the dentist is so good that they are constantly getting calls for appointments. The bad teeth might be an indicator though. Dentists don’t usually do their own teeth, of course, it would be difficult, so there might be a question as to why your dentist hasn’t seemed to have seen one in a while. Have you changed dentists since then?
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