While we were in England a filling fell out of my tooth. Thankfully it didn't hurt. Nothing worse than going to a dentist in a foreign country. (I'd already had one experience with a British dentist - his "fix" cost me thousands when I got back home, but that's another story.)We were planning to leave for Kentucky not long after getting back from England. My tooth didn't hurt and I was happy to delay getting it seen to until we got home from the Kentucky trip. Mark didn't think so. He was concerned that I would have a problem while we were gone and encouraged me to get it fixed before we left.
We were supposed to leave on Saturday so I got it "fixed" on Thursday.
"I lost a filling."
He looked at it and said, "You need a crown." Typical US dentist.
"No, I don't. Just fill it."
"You need a crown. Maybe a root canal."
A crown is 10 times the cost of a filling and that doesn't even account for the cost of the root canal. TEN TIMES! Does he think I'm made out of money or does he just think I'm stupid?
I insisted on the filling. He told me he'd have to drill out all of the old filling. It seemed like he was drilling out my entire tooth. And then when he got ready to fill it, wouldn't you know it - it broke. Now filling was no longer an option. It would have to be a crown. I know this stuff happens, but it just seemed too convenient to me.
Let me say that this dentist bought the practice from the dentist I went to for over 10 years. I have no real experience with him other than he put in a filling after the endodontist did a root canal several months ago. A relatively easy thing to do - didn't require drilling or even numbing.
But on this occasion, several things were wrong. It's been my experience that the assistant assists. Assisting consists of keeping the tools organized on the tray, keeping the patient's tender, but numb parts out of harm's way, handing the dentist whatever he needs, and balancing the need for water and the need for suction.
None of those things were going on. There were two sets of hands poking around in my mouth. Two times the "assistant" shoved something so far into my mouth that she engaged my gag reflex. She was not putting water into my mouth until it became so dry that I was choking. Remember that they were drilling away my entire tooth. Lots of dust. No water. My throat was sore for over a week. He also left her in charge of making and fitting the temporary crown. I've got to say she was fast. I've had these fitted before, usually by the dentist rather than the assistant and it usually took longer than two minutes.
Of course, before I left the office she asked "How does that feel?"
"How would I know? I''m numb from my chin to my ear."
Once I did know I could tell it wasn't good. The inside of my cheek was shredded from biting it. Not sure whether this happened after I got out of the chair or while I was still in it. Like I said, she didn't put much effort in to making sure I didn't injure myself while I was numb. But the temporary crown was so ill-fitted that I could neither eat nor talk without biting myself.
I called, but it took over an hour for someone to call me back. I wasn't even certain that I'd called the right number. The message was going on about "the Google customer I had called" and I had called for a dental emergency - not a Google customer. And all that happened was he called in a prescription mouthwash so I wouldn't get an infection. I declined the pain pills - I already had some. When this proved to be of very little use, I called back again. This time I was given a prescription for something with lidocaine in it. Swish it around. Yes. Fine. It made my mouth numb. Now I could continue biting it without even knowing it. Still, no one at the dentist's office offered to disrupt their weekend. Just leave me to die until Monday morning.
On Monday morning I went in. "How are you?" he said.
"I'm angry. I'm in pain. I've been in pain all freaking weekend. And it should not have been this way. This was not necessary." Calm. Collected. No shouting. But no doubt about how I felt, either.
He took the temporary crown off. He made and fitted a new one. It didn't surprise me that it took an hour and a half as opposed to two minutes. I know his assistant thinks that she has a magic touch - she said as much - but I disagree. Fortunately, she wasn't there that day. It might have been uglier than it was.
I'm not sure how it will go in the future. While we were in Kentucky, the tooth ended up getting infected somehow - of course on the weekend so that I couldn't get antibiotics until Monday and just had to do my best with the throbbing pain from Friday until Monday. As I'm writing this, it's Wednesday and I've been on the antibiotics for a couple of days. It's much improved. So is the dentist. He has actually called me twice to make sure that I'm okay and that it's improving.
As I revise this the following Tuesday, I can report that although he prescribed the antibiotic to be taken every 12 hours, I found that it was far more effective taking it every six hours. Of course I had to call for a refill a bit sooner. The dentist wasn't exactly delighted that I'd changed the dosage, but he didn't argue much - just told me to wait as long as I could. I'm now up to eight or nine hours. (Seriously my only other option involved alcohol - and while I don't mind a drink in the evening - I will not have vodka at breakfast! No matter how bad it hurts.)
He and I may be able to salvage the doctor-patient relationship. But he may have to ditch that assistant.
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