I just want to say this.. not to be rude...

[chazzaroux]

Everyone who comes here has some sort of dental anxiety issues.. be them large or small.. I have been lurking as well as posting, and something disturbs me to no end..And no it is not only that it happens to me but I see it all over this board.. What am I talking about? No answers to questions posted on this board.. I understand that people are busy I understand that the dentists on this site are busy.. But, when you make a board with the intentions of helping those you know have major dental anxiety, you take on a service that you volunteered for. And one that you have to honor. I see people with 40, 50, 90 views and not 1 answer at all.. sure some of these questions may have been asked a lot, and you may feel, specially if you've been around here for a while.... that you are answering the same questions over and over again.. But you guys are getting new members every day, and their questions, no matter how common, are important to them...

I understand that we all have family lives, and we get busy. I understand that these Dentists that run the group have practices of their own, as well as many patients that rely on them, and that you can't get answers done on a daily basis.. but, in my honest opinion. going days and days with no response is rude, and unnecessary..

Remember, when this was started, it was started for a reason, to help people to feel better about going to their dentists, and to ask questions on dental procedures and odd aches and pains, in our teeth..

That is all

 

[Tink]

Hi -

I understand your frustration.

It may be helpful to clear up a little bit about what this site & forum is, and what it isn't.



The primary purpose of this site when it was created, as far as I'm aware, was not to provide a question answering service - it was created to provide an information resource (all the articles etc you'll find on the main site), and a source of mutual support for phobic patients (the forum), including some support from dentists who are giving their time when they can. The "Dentistry Questions Answered" thing is kind of a bonus.

The site isn't run by dentists, it was founded and is run by a mixed group of volunteers: many are anxious patients themselves, and some are dentists. The core group of volunteers and regular posters naturally evolves over time.

This forum dates back to at least 2005. Regarding the point you raise about volunteering and making a commitment: voluntary work of any sort is never a lifetime commitment, people's circumstances change over time, even with a real paid job you are allowed to choose to leave and move on as your life changes! The active membership of a forum such as this will naturally change over time, and that's perfectly acceptable. I'd be pretty upset if I volunteered to do a couple of hours' work a week in a charity shop at a stage in life where I had the time available, and then the best part of a decade later they told me "no, you can't leave, you made a commitment and you must honour it!"


I know dental stuff can be frightening and upsetting (that's why we're all here after all!) and you want answers as soon as possible, but please try to be patient. There are several dentists who are on here regularly and semi-regularly answering questions, give them time and they will come along and answer - off the top of my head, at the moment there's comfortdentist, Dr Daniel, gentledental and DrHirst who have all been active recently.

I will give you that the "Dentists on this board" thread could do with updating as the 'resident' dentists do come and go over time, and it's somewhat out of date now.


Re view counts - to be honest it's not a particularly useful metric on this sort of forum, the time a post has been online is probably a better measure. View counts look artificially high, due to the high volume of traffic on the internet and the way it works. As I type there are 8 registered members and 365 "guests" online - forums like this always have a much, much larger number of people lurking and reading than there are posting, and quite a large portion of those 365 "guests" will not even be people, just computer programs - there are lots of spam bots, and things like Google's indexing bots, that crawl online forums automatically, constantly inflating view counts. 90 views won't mean 90 actual people have read a post, and of those who are people, the vast majority will not be dentists who are qualified to answer your question.




If you need an urgent answer to a dentistry question, I'm afraid the most reliable thing is always to contact your dentist. People on here will - and do - help when they can. As with everything in life, it is tempered by the reality of limited time and limited resources.

Sorry it's not a perfect answer but it's reality.

 

[takingflight]

I really don't have much to add as Tink's response is spot on. Far too often we get members who aren't truly fearful and are just asking questions that should be directed to a general dentistry forum or to their own dentists. Many of our most phobic members are here for support from others who are going through the same thing, not ask dental questions. As Tink mentioned our moderators and dental staff are volunteers and don't always have the time to respond to everyone. As it is, I would love to have enough time to clean up the dental question board and delete the members who are not phobic/fearful and taking advantage of our dentists time with basic questions. The question board is more for those who haven't been to see a dentist due to their fears. Sadly, the spammers are so numerous that my efforts are usually focused on banning and moderating their threads posts.

I notice that you've posted several questions the last few months and are visiting your dentist on a regular basis. Perhaps, as Tink mentioned, you'd be better served posting your question to your dentist.

 

[carole]

Hi I would also like to come in on this one. This forum is here for everyone to help each other it does state that this isn't a forum for treatment. It is more a place people can come to to gain support in finding the courage to go and see a dentist.

I found it helps to be able to get information about procedures from other people that have experience in attending dental appointments.

This forum is more for like minded people to be able to get together and encourage each other while hopefully putting each others minds at rest about worries we may have.

No one is under any obligation to answer posts or make them. I myself do try and at least welcome new members when I can.

You could help as well if you are concerned, and just say hi to a new member and let them know that their post has been seen.

I gained so much from this site since I joined, it has en-powered me with knowledge and I have also educated myself about teeth something I never thought I could handle.

This site was started by Letsconnect and has been a god send to a lot of people. The dentists that do come on here are under no obligation to answer any questions, but choose to do so when they can. They are all working dentists and have patients to see. As far as I know gentledentist isn't a listed dentist on this site so this forum cannot vouch for them. If I am wrong I am sure someone will correct me.

If you or anyone else hasn't had a post answered they are free to pm me anytime and I will get back to them straight away as soon as I come on the site.

Sorry that you have felt upset about this but I think when you have been around a bit longer you will see that the site does work and helps a lot of people. Thank you for raising this as it has given us an opportunity to explain how this site works for people that were wondering.

All the best to you

 

[gentledental]

I'm sorry to hear that your posts are not getting many responses but you might be asking questions that can only be answered by the profession. Most of us have got extremely busy lives and quite frankly once I finish my 9-5 Mon-Fri I am quite content to put my feet up and refuse to work anymore.

As discussed by previous posters your best point of contact would be your own dentist.