(no subject)
Aug. 19th, 2004 01:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
novapsycheI don't even really want to tell people what happened at the dentist's office yesterday.
I wend my way through construction and get to the office, only to find that they're in the middle of someone else's procedure (a temporary bridge). I wait patiently. After finishing up with her, they (the dentist and his assistant) start cleaning up. I wait some more.
While I'm there, I overhear the dentist tell his assistant that no, no, no, we won't be doing a full-mouth X-ray, no, no. Now, that was the main thing I came in for--yes, I needed my tooth filled, but I wanted to know what areas need attention in the near future. I feel myself getting steeled for a small confrontation.
They get me into the chair, and I ask about the X-ray. The dentist tells me that ordinarily he would go ahead, but they'd just finished with a charity function where much of his film was used and he wanted to save his remaining film in case any emergencies came up. Okay. (Then why did you keep saying last week that we'd do a full-mouth X-ray?) I lie back, put on the goggles the assistant gives me and get ready for the novacaine.
He tells me the history of novacaine, how in the early days of dentistry the standard used to be cocaine. "But then it got to be 'A little bit for you, a little bit for me,'" he says. He laughs and wonders aloud whether he should be sharing these stories. He gives me the novacaine, and after a while asks me how things feel. I rap on my teeth with my finger and I can tell that the tooth next to the one that needs work is numb, but I don't think the right tooth is. I tell him this, and he says, "Oh, you're probably feeling a little tingle, right? That's how it feels when the anaesthetic is just taking effect." No, it didn't tingle. When he sprays water onto the tooth (and why does the water tool sound like a drill?) I definitely feel it, so he numbs more of my mouth.
Finally we get to work. I've been in the office for an hour by now. He gets the old filling out (which I save from going down my throat by deft movement by my tongue), then has to give very basic, step-by-step instructions to his assistant to get things ready for the new filling, which is a composite filling instead of the old amalgam. I strike up a limited conversation with his assistant and find out that she is a fresh hire, an anthropology student; she doesn't really know anything about dentistry. Okay.
He has to wrap a metal band around my tooth, so that the filling stays in one general place. This band has to go all the way around the tooth, then held in place by a clamp. The tooth that is the problem is the first molar--the next tooth is very, very close to it. The dentist has an obvious problem fitting the band around the tooth. He keeps pressing and pressing it into my gum, trying to get it around. "Some people have a problem with that," he says. "It's a good thing we've got you so numbed up." This goes on for about 15 minutes, after which he asks his assistant to simply hold the clamp in the front, as it won't hold on its own.
He starts to put in the new filling--first the bonding agent, then the filling material, which is mushy. This material is dried by a special UV light, which has to be pushed into the cavity and sounds off when the surrounding parts are dry. He does this for awhile, as I'm sitting there wondering how he knows if all of the material is truly dry. Right when he thinks, and says, we're in the home stretch, the filling falls out. It just falls out. He says that it must have gotten wet, and that will cause that to happen. He says the salivary gland near the tooth must have caused moisture to get in there. He stuffs gauze in my cheek, then starts the entire procedure over.
He puts in the bonding agent, and almost instinctively the tip of my tongue goes over there. The taste is very bitter and sticks to the tip of my tongue. Shit, I thought, I just got it wet again. But the bond takes this time. He uses the light a lot more often.
By this time, my mouth is bone dry, and the left side of my mouth feels really sore. But he isn't done: he uses the drill again and again, explaining that to ensure that the filling doesn't come out, he's filing down the point of the crown. "Usually, a molar has four points, but we don't want to risk you losing the filling by biting down on something." This takes quite a while.
Finally everything seems done, and he shows me the tooth on this tiny videocamera he has. He's visibly excited to have this camera equipment and tells me how much he likes having it. He takes a picture of the tooth, and it does look weird without that point.
I pay for the work; he knocks 10% off since I waited so nicely before we got started. Since I'm paying out-of-pocket, that's another 5%. So, all in all, for the time he put into everything, I feel I'm getting my money's worth. They schedule me for another appointment, to look at the nearly nonexistent tooth on the right side (the one I wanted an X-ray of), next week.
It takes me a while (that is, until this morning) to realize that the soreness on the side of my mouth was actually due to a gouge. How any of those instruments could have caused the gouge, I don't know. But it looks vaguely like I'm drooling something pink out of the corner of my mouth.
So this leads me to think I don't have the best dentist in the world. I think I may find someone else.
I wend my way through construction and get to the office, only to find that they're in the middle of someone else's procedure (a temporary bridge). I wait patiently. After finishing up with her, they (the dentist and his assistant) start cleaning up. I wait some more.
While I'm there, I overhear the dentist tell his assistant that no, no, no, we won't be doing a full-mouth X-ray, no, no. Now, that was the main thing I came in for--yes, I needed my tooth filled, but I wanted to know what areas need attention in the near future. I feel myself getting steeled for a small confrontation.
They get me into the chair, and I ask about the X-ray. The dentist tells me that ordinarily he would go ahead, but they'd just finished with a charity function where much of his film was used and he wanted to save his remaining film in case any emergencies came up. Okay. (Then why did you keep saying last week that we'd do a full-mouth X-ray?) I lie back, put on the goggles the assistant gives me and get ready for the novacaine.
He tells me the history of novacaine, how in the early days of dentistry the standard used to be cocaine. "But then it got to be 'A little bit for you, a little bit for me,'" he says. He laughs and wonders aloud whether he should be sharing these stories. He gives me the novacaine, and after a while asks me how things feel. I rap on my teeth with my finger and I can tell that the tooth next to the one that needs work is numb, but I don't think the right tooth is. I tell him this, and he says, "Oh, you're probably feeling a little tingle, right? That's how it feels when the anaesthetic is just taking effect." No, it didn't tingle. When he sprays water onto the tooth (and why does the water tool sound like a drill?) I definitely feel it, so he numbs more of my mouth.
Finally we get to work. I've been in the office for an hour by now. He gets the old filling out (which I save from going down my throat by deft movement by my tongue), then has to give very basic, step-by-step instructions to his assistant to get things ready for the new filling, which is a composite filling instead of the old amalgam. I strike up a limited conversation with his assistant and find out that she is a fresh hire, an anthropology student; she doesn't really know anything about dentistry. Okay.
He has to wrap a metal band around my tooth, so that the filling stays in one general place. This band has to go all the way around the tooth, then held in place by a clamp. The tooth that is the problem is the first molar--the next tooth is very, very close to it. The dentist has an obvious problem fitting the band around the tooth. He keeps pressing and pressing it into my gum, trying to get it around. "Some people have a problem with that," he says. "It's a good thing we've got you so numbed up." This goes on for about 15 minutes, after which he asks his assistant to simply hold the clamp in the front, as it won't hold on its own.
He starts to put in the new filling--first the bonding agent, then the filling material, which is mushy. This material is dried by a special UV light, which has to be pushed into the cavity and sounds off when the surrounding parts are dry. He does this for awhile, as I'm sitting there wondering how he knows if all of the material is truly dry. Right when he thinks, and says, we're in the home stretch, the filling falls out. It just falls out. He says that it must have gotten wet, and that will cause that to happen. He says the salivary gland near the tooth must have caused moisture to get in there. He stuffs gauze in my cheek, then starts the entire procedure over.
He puts in the bonding agent, and almost instinctively the tip of my tongue goes over there. The taste is very bitter and sticks to the tip of my tongue. Shit, I thought, I just got it wet again. But the bond takes this time. He uses the light a lot more often.
By this time, my mouth is bone dry, and the left side of my mouth feels really sore. But he isn't done: he uses the drill again and again, explaining that to ensure that the filling doesn't come out, he's filing down the point of the crown. "Usually, a molar has four points, but we don't want to risk you losing the filling by biting down on something." This takes quite a while.
Finally everything seems done, and he shows me the tooth on this tiny videocamera he has. He's visibly excited to have this camera equipment and tells me how much he likes having it. He takes a picture of the tooth, and it does look weird without that point.
I pay for the work; he knocks 10% off since I waited so nicely before we got started. Since I'm paying out-of-pocket, that's another 5%. So, all in all, for the time he put into everything, I feel I'm getting my money's worth. They schedule me for another appointment, to look at the nearly nonexistent tooth on the right side (the one I wanted an X-ray of), next week.
It takes me a while (that is, until this morning) to realize that the soreness on the side of my mouth was actually due to a gouge. How any of those instruments could have caused the gouge, I don't know. But it looks vaguely like I'm drooling something pink out of the corner of my mouth.
So this leads me to think I don't have the best dentist in the world. I think I may find someone else.
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(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-19 01:33 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-19 02:37 pm (UTC)as for the other things, sadly, a lot of that is SOP. I've had those metal bands shoved on and cut into my gums more often then i care to say (um, HOW is that good for my gums??) and while ive only had the UV filling on 1 tooth (the one i had done a year ago, which now needs a root canal) i had it fall out twice before the dentist got it right. while they are better, they seem to be harder to get right.
as for the x rays, i would have said flat out that you wanted the x rays, it wasnt your fault that he didnt consider his film needs vs his client needs. they are your teeth and you came in for x rays and really dont want to wait for yet another appointment to find out how much they want from you this time.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-19 04:04 pm (UTC)