What the dentist is really thinking

[mango]

From: guardian.co.uk, Friday 17th August 2012:

As another patient walks in, my heart sinks. I know they've been dreading seeing me, and that's not a nice feeling to engender in someone. It's a rare person who enjoys a trip here. Sometimes what I do is painful, and I'm not a sadist. I don't like hurting people, seeing their fists clench and toes curl.
Patients are on edge the entire time and practically run out of the door, they're so glad to go. I'd like to run out with them. When I was training, I saw myself as a technician, purely taking care of teeth, but the emotional side began to wear me down.
It breaks my heart to see tooth decay in toddlers. I call fizzy drinks "liquid chainsaws" – the acid and sugar are vicious on teeth.
Sometimes the work can be unpredictable: one patient I saw was so hungover, he threw up when I began to examine his mouth. I have to be careful, too – I once suctioned up a woman's false eyelash.
One thing that amuses me is when patients' tongues chase instruments round their mouth. You can't help it; I do it when I have my teeth checked.
It's amazing the difference between what comes out of patients' mouths and what's in their mouths. "I floss every day," they say. One look at their teeth tells a different story. People spend hundreds on their hair and skin, and neglect their teeth, as if they weren't so important. If your hands kept bleeding, you'd rush to the doctor, but if your gums bleed, you just shrug and rinse. Maybe I should have been a hairdresser.

 

[coolin]

When I was training, I saw myself as a technician, purely taking care of teeth, but the emotional side began to wear me down.

Well - I have to wonder at this person - I don't think they are cut out to be a dentist - I mean you are dealing with all sorts of people all day. If s/he wanted to be a technician s/he should have done computer repair or something...

Sometimes the work can be unpredictable: one patient I saw was so hungover, he threw up when I began to examine his mouth

To be honest that is something I am really careful about ie what I have eaten or drunk before I go to the dentist. I hate the thought that the dentist is wearing the mask to protect him/her from your breath........So no garlic, spicy food, alcohol or coffee before dental visits.

People spend hundreds on their hair and skin, and neglect their teeth, as if they weren't so important.

I think this attitude is slowly changing for the better. It's a British thing I think. It doesn't help that the NHS only funds basic treatment so that anything else is considered cosmetic. We all know what difference a good looking set of teeth can do to our confidence

 

[brit]

It's a rare person who enjoys a trip here. Sometimes what I do is painful, and I'm not a sadist. I don't like hurting people, seeing their fists clench and toes curl.

Well Coolin' I'm surprised you didn't call him out on this bit. Surely if he improved his injection technique, he'd have more 'weird patients' like me who don't mind visits(with right dentist).
It really is that simple. Painless techniques mean relaxed patients - means easier time for dentist too.

He's spot on - on the not wanting to pay thing though, I agree. Teeth are far more important than hair and make-up and worth directing your income towards over and above what NHS pays out for very basic care.

 

[norwegianchick]

What I'm really thinking

This is the real link, but that's the entire article right here in the forum.

Weird, I think this dentist should talk more with their patients, to find out what the patients really think.

I got my dentist flowers and a nice card and said thank you even if I had stuff done that hurt.

Of course a dentist is going to have unhappy patients, that goes for all professions, but if 100% of this dentist's patients are unhappy then I think he/she might be doing something wrong.

I also can't really understand the dentists who get so worked up over patients lying to them. It's hard to admit that they haven't been successful with their oral hygiene regimen, like it's hard to admit that their overweight is due to too much and the wrong kind of food. No one would be proud of being a couch potato. Further, people don't feel strong obligations to the dentist, it's not as bad lying to them as to a close family member or friend. And they're not lying, they did floss. Several times, or at least once. It's basic human nature.

Knowing how to communicate properly with the patients will solve most of these problems, but there will still be a lot of it left that the dentists will just have to deal with. Like waiters deal with cranky diners, and stand up comedians deal with people who don't laugh.

 

[chickenjen]

I agree with norwegianchick. I've had some procedures done in my dentist's office that weren't supposed to hurt but did.......my dentist apologizes profusely and either gives me Novocaine (or more if I already had some) and/or comes up with ways to make a procedure more tolerable, less painful. I just appreciate the way he treats me as a person and not just another set of teeth. My dentist will talk with me a bit about non-dental things to try to relax me and I think it helps. It helps me because I then see the dentist as a person, not just a devil with sharp, pointy things. I found out that my dentist and I have a lot in common, so we always talk about that right before he gets down to business.
I have also sent my dentist thank you cards and Christmas cards thanking him for the work that he did.

 

[Steve In Cleveland]

These "What I'm Really Thinking" articles are kind of fun but I don't think they're indicative of what the "typical" dentist is thinking. Like any other people, there are happy dentists, and grumpy dentists, and talkative dentists, and terse dentists, and everything in between. And because they're people, dentists have good moods and bad moods, too. Hopefully your dentist is professional enough to not let their mood affect the quality of their work, but just remember that they're human just like you and me.

 

[oldben]

The dentist is not a devil. Just ask for anesthesia. I don't sit on dentist's chair without an anesthesia.

 

[chickenjen]

The dentist is not a devil. Just ask for anesthesia. I don't sit on dentist's chair without an anesthesia.

Well, I have had some dentists who could have fooled me...........they yelled and screamed at me, they wouldn't give me any more Novocaine although I was still in pain......those dentists, yes, THEY were devils because they helped shape my dental phobia.
My current dentist is a wonderful caring person, and even though I'm still afraid at times, he does everything he can to try to calm those fears.

 

[carole]

When we as phobic patients enter into the dentist surgery and sit in the chair we can tell if a dentist is a devil or not. There is an arrogant air around the devil ones. Sometimes we give them a second chance to see if it is just us. But within 2 or 3 visits we know, now what we do about it does differ. Some of us are too scared to do anything other than tolerate this behaviour, others run and never return to that dentist. And some just don't know what to do, and avoid going causing problems later in life.

What ever we do, we do not deserve to be the victim of attitudes that this man in the written piece has. If he is unhappy in his job he should not be doing it, if he likes the technical side of the job then he is quite free to go and work in a lab. As no doubt his skills with inanimate objects are good.

As for him becoming a hairdresser/barber who would pay a miserable so and so to cut their hair. Every one in customer service has a part to play when interacting with other people. No matter what the job if there are customers there then we all have to have a smile and a cheery Good day. It doesn't hurt does it.

 

[chickenjen]

When we as phobic patients enter into the dentist surgery and sit in the chair we can tell if a dentist is a devil or not. There is an arrogant air around the devil ones. Sometimes we give them a second chance to see if it is just us. But within 2 or 3 visits we know, now what we do about it does differ. Some of us are too scared to do anything other than tolerate this behaviour, others run and never return to that dentist. And some just don't know what to do, and avoid going causing problems later in life.

What ever we do, we do not deserve to be the victim of attitudes that this man in the written piece has. If he is unhappy in his job he should not be doing it, if he likes the technical side of the job then he is quite free to go and work in a lab. As no doubt his skills with inanimate objects are good.

As for him becoming a hairdresser/barber who would pay a miserable so and so to cut their hair. Every one in customer service has a part to play when interacting with other people. No matter what the job if there are customers there then we all have to have a smile and a cheery Good day. It doesn't hurt does it.

Well said, Carole!! Thank you

 

[letsconnect]

Methinks "oldben" is a spammer - sorry jen, I've deleted him

 

[littlestar88]

I'm still not sure for me at least if the pain thing is the cause of the phobia. As a child I probably had more pain from the eye doctor when they had to treat a burn on by cornea (from a bit of ember from a campfire - ouch!) than from my boring 6 month dental check-ups. Personality is a huge part (may be a problem for this dentist) but also I knew the eye doctor would do everything to fix my eye, dentists on the NHS had/have a bad reputation for extracting teeth (especially milk teeth)!

 

[coolin]

Well Coolin' I'm surprised you didn't call him out on this bit.

Ha ha

There was just so much to reply to - so I left a bit for others to have a go at - lol

 

[chickenjen]

Methinks "oldben" is a spammer - sorry jen, I've deleted him

That's quite all right, letsconnect.

 

[gettingthere]

When we as phobic patients enter into the dentist surgery and sit in the chair we can tell if a dentist is a devil or not. There is an arrogant air around the devil ones. Sometimes we give them a second chance to see if it is just us. But within 2 or 3 visits we know, now what we do about it does differ. Some of us are too scared to do anything other than tolerate this behaviour, others run and never return to that dentist. And some just don't know what to do, and avoid going causing problems later in life.

What ever we do, we do not deserve to be the victim of attitudes that this man in the written piece has. If he is unhappy in his job he should not be doing it, if he likes the technical side of the job then he is quite free to go and work in a lab. As no doubt his skills with inanimate objects are good.

This makes me think of the wife of my husband’s best friend. She works in oncology but when asked will describe herself as a scientist. She is phenomenally intelligent and fascinated by the science behind disease cure and prevention. When she planned to work on a hospital ward, administering treatments to patients, most people that know her were shocked and even her OH tried to convince her that she would be better working in a lab. She is just not a people person. Ten years later, she never stops complaining about how much she hates her job and (IMO very unprofessionally) constantly derides her patients. She is fully committed to treating cancer and she gets this real spark when describing to us how the various drugs work and how these were discovered but always follows this up by saying that she wishes she didn’t have to deal with people when “doing her job”. She gets genuinely angry when talking about patients who (shock! Horror!) talk to her; ask questions or the worst of all, get anxious about their treatment. By her own admission, a lot of the treatments she administers are painful, invasive and often undignified. She clearly has no bedside manner and does not stand for any anxieties, which she takes as a personal affront to the science and medicine that she administers. She talks about people that come in crying and shaking and how she just snaps at them that they should be thankful there are treatments available to cure or prevent their illness and if they are going to be “silly” or don’t want this, they should just leave. She also once told me that these people annoy her so much that she is intentionally rougher with them. The thing is, I have noticed over the years that the more miserable she has become in her job, the more angry she has got and the I am sure her patient “care” has slid even further downhill. She has had a few complaints made against her but this has just made her angrier. Unsurprisingly, I have never told her about any of my own dental/needle/medical phobias and actually consider this person to have caused, or at least intensified, some of my anxieties in recent years because of the way she talks about her work. I am genuinely scared to death of being in that situation; scared, vulnerable and potentially facing a terminal illness on top of my existing anxieties about the treatments I would need - and then being treated that way by a medical professional. I think this woman could have had – and probably still could have – a great career on the technical side of things but should not be working with vulnerable people.

Anyway, that was rather long winded but my point is that unfortunately there do seem to be quite a few healthcare professionals that think this way. I do believe that those who think differently and make an effort to reassure their patients outnumber the more technically minded but unfortunately those are the ones that tend to stick in the mind . It seems that many of these technical-sorts are concentrated within dentistry and I wonder if this is to do with the way the discipline is taught, or has traditionally been taught with far more emphasis on skills than patient care. This acquaintance does remind me of the devil dentist I saw a few years ago – my first foray into dentistry in 12 years and it almost set me back to square one when the would not even turn around to greet me, instead stayed at his computer with his back to me whilst demanding to know if I had paid the receptionist in advance and then, when I shakily and through tears, started my carefully rehearsed speech (to the back of his head) about how I suffer from dreadful anxiety, he cut me off and said “do you want to be here or not. If you don’t want my help then you know where the door is.” He also refused to stop when I was yelling and frantically waving my hand during the treatment. Yeah, I don’t need an internet article to know what that dentist was really thinking of me and the sad truth is that in the case of the dentist who wrote that, her patients have probably also cottoned on to the fact that they are an inconvenience and an annoyance to her (just noticed, why have I assume the author was female when everyone else has gone male???), which is probably also why many of them lie – they are downright scared and hope that they can avoid a lecture.

So yes, some dentists are devils and many of these devils have caused a lot of anxiety in a lot of people over the years. Personally I just can’t stop thanking my dentist and all the staff at his practice when I am there – even if the appointment has left me a little shaky at times – I feel secure in the knowledge that I am not judged by my anxieties or previous avoidance of the dentist, I am treated like a person rather than a set of teeth and every effort is made to provide me with a personal service and make me as comfortable (both physically and emotionally) as possible .

Yes, some dentists are not cut out for working with the (potentially anxious or otherwise) public but even those people must realise that a simple smile will go a long way to putting patients at ease. Sheesh! You’d think dentists of all people would want to show off their own pearly whites. Why then do so many have a permanent frown???

 

[carole]

I agree with all of what has been said and we do always know. What I don't understand is why do people that do not want to interact with patients do it. Is there some extra qualification needed that lab workers need and don't get so take it out on the people they are supposed to care for.

I think this attitude is really insulting to the health professionals that do care and enjoy working with people, it just makes their job so much harder, and they pay the price in time and energy that it takes to be able to treat people.

I wonder what opinion these kind of people have about their peers, now that would be interesting to read about. Both from the side of the caring and uncaring side of the fence.

 

[chickenjen]

This makes me think of the wife of my husband’s best friend. She works in oncology but when asked will describe herself as a scientist. She is phenomenally intelligent and fascinated by the science behind disease cure and prevention. When she planned to work on a hospital ward, administering treatments to patients, most people that know her were shocked and even her OH tried to convince her that she would be better working in a lab. She is just not a people person. Ten years later, she never stops complaining about how much she hates her job and (IMO very unprofessionally) constantly derides her patients. She is fully committed to treating cancer and she gets this real spark when describing to us how the various drugs work and how these were discovered but always follows this up by saying that she wishes she didn’t have to deal with people when “doing her job”. She gets genuinely angry when talking about patients who (shock! Horror!) talk to her; ask questions or the worst of all, get anxious about their treatment. By her own admission, a lot of the treatments she administers are painful, invasive and often undignified. She clearly has no bedside manner and does not stand for any anxieties, which she takes as a personal affront to the science and medicine that she administers. She talks about people that come in crying and shaking and how she just snaps at them that they should be thankful there are treatments available to cure or prevent their illness and if they are going to be “silly” or don’t want this, they should just leave. She also once told me that these people annoy her so much that she is intentionally rougher with them. The thing is, I have noticed over the years that the more miserable she has become in her job, the more angry she has got and the I am sure her patient “care” has slid even further downhill. She has had a few complaints made against her but this has just made her angrier. Unsurprisingly, I have never told her about any of my own dental/needle/medical phobias and actually consider this person to have caused, or at least intensified, some of my anxieties in recent years because of the way she talks about her work. I am genuinely scared to death of being in that situation; scared, vulnerable and potentially facing a terminal illness on top of my existing anxieties about the treatments I would need - and then being treated that way by a medical professional. I think this woman could have had – and probably still could have – a great career on the technical side of things but should not be working with vulnerable people.

Anyway, that was rather long winded but my point is that unfortunately there do seem to be quite a few healthcare professionals that think this way. I do believe that those who think differently and make an effort to reassure their patients outnumber the more technically minded but unfortunately those are the ones that tend to stick in the mind . It seems that many of these technical-sorts are concentrated within dentistry and I wonder if this is to do with the way the discipline is taught, or has traditionally been taught with far more emphasis on skills than patient care. This acquaintance does remind me of the devil dentist I saw a few years ago – my first foray into dentistry in 12 years and it almost set me back to square one when the would not even turn around to greet me, instead stayed at his computer with his back to me whilst demanding to know if I had paid the receptionist in advance and then, when I shakily and through tears, started my carefully rehearsed speech (to the back of his head) about how I suffer from dreadful anxiety, he cut me off and said “do you want to be here or not. If you don’t want my help then you know where the door is.” He also refused to stop when I was yelling and frantically waving my hand during the treatment. Yeah, I don’t need an internet article to know what that dentist was really thinking of me and the sad truth is that in the case of the dentist who wrote that, her patients have probably also cottoned on to the fact that they are an inconvenience and an annoyance to her (just noticed, why have I assume the author was female when everyone else has gone male???), which is probably also why many of them lie – they are downright scared and hope that they can avoid a lecture.

So yes, some dentists are devils and many of these devils have caused a lot of anxiety in a lot of people over the years. Personally I just can’t stop thanking my dentist and all the staff at his practice when I am there – even if the appointment has left me a little shaky at times – I feel secure in the knowledge that I am not judged by my anxieties or previous avoidance of the dentist, I am treated like a person rather than a set of teeth and every effort is made to provide me with a personal service and make me as comfortable (both physically and emotionally) as possible .

Yes, some dentists are not cut out for working with the (potentially anxious or otherwise) public but even those people must realise that a simple smile will go a long way to putting patients at ease. Sheesh! You’d think dentists of all people would want to show off their own pearly whites. Why then do so many have a permanent frown???

!!!!! Thank you!!!!