Had a pretty interesting day today at the office. Morning was pretty normal, drill and fill, check hygiene, extract a tooth etc. Nothing too out of the ordinary.
Pretty normal lunch. Trolled around on CP, ate an apple and a handful of wheat thins.
Then the afternoon hit.
I see inmates from the county jail here in town if they have a tooth ache or something, sheriff or deputy will call up and bring them up in shackles and the whole bit. It's not big deal, most of them are just happy to get out of pain and it's not a problem. So dude comes in, my assistant goes in to ask the normal "which tooth is bothering you, let me get an xray, blah blah". I was in the lab doing something so I wasn't really paying attention. She comes in and says "doc, you will need to come look at something" to which I responded "he need a tooth out, which tooth is hurting"?
"All of them". Huh, ok, weird response but lets go check it out. Sure enough, continued meth use pretty much causes things to not go so well intraorally, so he was pretty much decayed out and most teeth were broken off to the gumline (google meth mouth if you want to see it, i'm not messing with photos). Asked if I could extract all 26 teeth he had left in the 30 minute block we had on the schedule for him.
I laughed, said "nah, which one hurts the worst, we'll take that out". He pointed to one, I numbed it up, used an elevator to take it out, about 30 seconds worth of pressure and it was pretty lose. 2 teeth next to it are super mobile and infected (which starts draining as I get this one out, that smelt nice) so I told him he was getting 2 free extractions since he was already numb in that area and they were loose and I was right there, no harm no foul.
It's always fun when we see the inmates, the Sheriff comes up and sits in the room with them all serious, then when I come in the room we talk about hunting or why the Chiefs always break hearts or something.
He breaks down and starts crying thanking me, that he already felt better (if you saw the amount of infection I drained, you'd see why) and asked if he could make an appointment for when he got out. "Sure, how long you think you'll be in this predicament".
"I figure 4 or 5 years, you scheduling ahead that far yet"? Told him nah, just take care of himself and come see me when he gets out.
Next patient is an amish guy (we have a fairly big amish community near us), super nice guy, needs a crown. Asks if he can barter instead of pay, I ask what is in it for me, said he'd bring me a dozen eggs every week for 6 months (they have chicken barns or something) or I could have a quarter of one of the cows they're butchering. Sold, eggs and beef for a crown, sign me up.
Only problem with that is he scheduled an appointment for himself, but brought 4 other family members who all needed work done.
So we had a waiting room full of inmates and Amish this afternoon. Thought that might be a good name of a band or something. [Reply]
Was only in the office 3 or 4 days over the HOlidays, was a nice break. Back to the grind (lol grind) today in full force.
Making a denture for an old dude here in town, wants a gold canine in it. Told him I could do it, but it would cost more. Got it done a while back, turned out pretty cool actually.
Had an issue this morning. I was knee deep in a root canal in the back and I heard some yelling up front. Stuck my head around the corner to see what was up and my receptionist was getting yelled out by a pt that I worked on once or twice. Apparently we sent him a bill and he wasn't happy about it.
"I've spent enough money in this office to pay for one of those fucking dental chairs, this is ridiculous blah blah blah". I calmly walk up there, pull up his chart that has all the fees he's paid and stuff.
Dude has paid a grand total of 184 dollars to me in this office. I print it out, show it to him, ask him how much he thinks one of those chairs in the back cost. He gets more upset and yells.
I tell him not to worry about paying that 43 dollar bill he has in his hand it's on the house. And by the way, you also need to find another dentist, we wont' be seeing you here anymore.
"But I have a toothache right now I need to have worked on, what do I do?" he says as he realizes I'm not gonna fuck around with his bullshit.
"Way I see it, you've got 2 options. Pay your bill, apologize to my receptionist for treating here like that for doing her job, sit down, shut up and wait for them to call you back. Or pocket the 43 dollars and get out, it's up to you".
He wrote a check and I pulled another tooth over my lunch break, he paid and thanked me. I told him that was the last time I'd be working on him, it would be better in both our interests if he went elsewhere. He apologized again and said he had never had a dentist as good as I was (yeah, breaking my arm patting myself on the back) I said sorry and good luck.
I'm not dealing with that kind of shit.
i'm so proud of you, pulling a sauto and firing a customer...:-) [Reply]
Patient called last week, said he needed an appointment he'd broken a tooth off, wasn't hurting. Told him we couldn't get him in til today. No worries he said, I'll be fine till then.
Shows up today, happy, no issues, says it's a small chip should be an easy fix. One look in there and this upper premolar has fractured the whole outer cusp off and there is an exposed pulp. I run the explorer around it, touch the nerve and he says he felt that a bit.
Holy hell, dude is tough as shit. That should have been excruciatingly painful.
Numbed him up, took some endo files and started a root canal. Took the nerve out, irrigated it with Sodium Hypochlorite (look that up and get back to me if you want a laugh). Closed it up, will finish it next week, didn't have time today but he'll be out of pain and good to go. [Reply]
Someone asked me about this the other day. Here is a "hot" tooth. Irreversible pulpitis, aka, throbbing ass tooth ache. At the 2 minute mark, he opens the pulp up and it starts to bleed. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
So what you're saying is you did a thing you KNEW should be excruciatingly painful just to see how tough the guy was.
****ing dentists - I always knew you were sadists.
Ha, no that came out wrong. I meant that the broken tooth in the way it broke should have been. Dude has been chilling with an exposed pulp for 5 days. That's nuts. [Reply]
Originally Posted by O.city:
Ha, no that came out wrong. I meant that the broken tooth in the way it broke should have been. Dude has been chilling with an exposed pulp for 5 days. That's nuts.
I don't know what it is, but I'm a complete bitch with teeth/mouth stuff.
Sturdy as hell with other stuff; have had some really good impacts in sporting events where teammates come huddling around expecting me to be rolling about or something but the old man was southern stock so he just told me to shut up and play or stuff like that when I was growing up so when stuff hurts, you just kinda stand there and bleed or pop it back into place.
But when it comes to all that teeth stuff...haaaaate it. Had a cracked tooth that nagged at me for months; started giving me headaches and things like that. The dentist did his x-rays and was like "yeah, we can probably do this easy thing that will hold and you should be okay for quite awhile but may have some occasional discomfort"
"Or?"
"Well we can grind it down past the crack and put a crown on it..."
"And that's largely permanent?"
"Yeah but it's native teeth and I really hate to...."
"Dude, just go get the grinder. I'm done with this shit"
Won't get my wisdom teeth pulled because they're in and they don't hurt. "But they'll get cavities someday..." "Do they have them today? No? Then we're good here..."
I already mentioned that I can just about only tolerate the hypersonic water thing now. If I take a grounder to the lip, I'll spit out some blood and get in my stance. But if I bite the inside of my mouth I'm gonna pout like a little girl for the next week. Those little dot things you get on the tip of your tongue if you eat too much acidic food - might as well have a broken arm for as much as they bother me.
Originally Posted by O.city:
O.city story of the day.
Patient called last week, said he needed an appointment he'd broken a tooth off, wasn't hurting. Told him we couldn't get him in til today. No worries he said, I'll be fine till then.
Shows up today, happy, no issues, says it's a small chip should be an easy fix. One look in there and this upper premolar has fractured the whole outer cusp off and there is an exposed pulp. I run the explorer around it, touch the nerve and he says he felt that a bit.
Holy hell, dude is tough as shit. That should have been excruciatingly painful.
Numbed him up, took some endo files and started a root canal. Took the nerve out, irrigated it with Sodium Hypochlorite (look that up and get back to me if you want a laugh). Closed it up, will finish it next week, didn't have time today but he'll be out of pain and good to go.
Cracked teeth are the hardest things to deal with. They're hard as shit to I.D sometimes. I had a guy crack a front tooth eating some peanut brittle this past year, severe pain etc. Chased the crack with the drill, it ended up going subcrestal (below the bone) and we ended up having to extract it and have an implant placed.
Professional hazard for me I’m afraid. I manage an R&D team that formulates cleaning products for a living. We do offer a line of disinfectants suitable for medical offices (although not surgical theaters). [Reply]
So, O. City, I've got a good one for ya. So over the weekend, I get a call from a lady I worked on last summer. She was new to the office. She's a phobic patient, hadn't been to see a dentist in 15 years, had shitty dentists in the past, blah blah blah. Anyhow, I use kid gloves and TLC.
She tells me she's broken a tooth. "one you worked on" she says. Tells me "it's the crown you did on the upper left. The last tooth in the back".
I tell her I'll meet her at the office (this is a Saturday btw). She says she can't. I tell her I'll see her Monday morning. She says she can't. I tell her to call Monday morning. She calls, sets up a time to see me Tuesday afternoon. Tuesday around noon, she calls and cancels and reschedules for Wednesday.
She comes in, and tells me that she bit on the hard red and white mint that you get a Chik Filet. "I knew I shouldn't have bit into that, I've never done that" she says. I look at the upper left and there is a piece of tooth missing from the distal (back) of tooth 14, which is not the back tooth. It's a tooth I had done a filling on, but just on the biting surface of the tooth. The crown I did is on the bottome btw. She tells me she thinks its "my work" that failed. I tell her that the mint is pretty darned hard and it would break any tooth. She tells me she isn't gonna pay to fix something I did that failed.
I tell her that even though I think the mint contributed to the problem (it was the problem) that she'd not have to pay because I just felt like taking care of her.
She kept saying "I'm just not prepared to take full responsibility for this" over and over. I finally sat back, took my gloves off, and said "look, if you want to go somewhere else, I'd be thrilled. Really, I'd be super happy. But, since you are here, I'm here, and I'm willing to fix this for no cost, we can either do this right now without wasting any more of my time, or you can leave now. It's up to you" She tells me she wants it fixed. I fix it. Then she proceeds to tell me that she thinks I did something extra so it wouldn't fail this time. WTF? I cleaned it, bonded it, cured it, polished it. Same as I've done ten thousand times. Freaks [Reply]
Oh, and I have another one. We purchased the practice next to us three months ago. Agreed to keep the dentist on as an associate. He died today. So now I'm gonna be busy as hell until I find a new guy. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Peter Gibbons:
Professional hazard for me I’m afraid. I manage an R&D team that formulates cleaning products for a living. We do offer a line of disinfectants suitable for medical offices (although not surgical theaters).
What do you make that smells worse than Peridox? Anything? [Reply]
