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]
Originally Posted by O.city:
Gonna vent here a little bit.
Had a lady come in a year or so ago wanting to take all the rest of her teeth out and get dentures. "That'll fix all my problems".
I explained that no it won't, it's just a different problem and it's nothing like what you're expecting. You'll hate them blah blah.
She shows up a month later with no teeth ready for dentures. Ok, well here we go. I make her a set and surprise surprise, she hates them.
"I can't taste my food, I feel like I have a mouth full of plastic, I can't chew like I used to".
Well, no shit. You do have a mouth full of plastic and you now have about 30 percent of normal function. At best. I had a prosthodontist in school always say "dentures are a replacement for no teeth, they aren't a replacement for your teeth".
Anyway, her insurance pays half and she owes the other half for them (bout 1k). She says "I'm not paying until I am happy". Uh, sorry, but thats not how this works.
Anyway, being the nice guy I am and all, I do like 4 adjustments and a full reline on them at no charge and take up chair time for the past month.
She has her mom drop the old dentures off today with a letter that not only will she not be paying her half but that she wants reimbursed the insurance money for the other half.
The letter I'm sending back isn't likely to be pleasant.
Remind the stupid bitch that, with her teeth out, she can give the dude in the trailer next to hers about as good head as her meth hubby does. [Reply]
Originally Posted by O.city:
Well, after an hours worth of standing on my head for a lady to work on two back upper teeth because she can't lean back at all I may not survive.
"If I lean back at all the water hits the back of my throat and I'll have to swallow it".
First patient was an ortho patient, changed out her ligatures, no biggie.
Second one was an emergency patient with bombed out teeth everywhere. "Which one hurts the worst?. Well, none of them are worse but whatever you think".
Ok, that tells me nothing. But lets see what we can figure out. Tap around and find one on the bottom that's in bad shape and hurting. Ok, lets start there.
Meanwhile, I have 2 other chairs full with hygienist in one cleaning a patient and the next one waiting to get anesthesia so we can do some fillings.
I go to give the guy an injection to numb him up on the lower and he absolutely sounds like he's having a stroke and an orgasm at the same time. Yelling, moaning, screaming, moving around and kicking. I didn't even inject any anesthesia and he's losing his mind.
I calmly pull the needle out, take my gloves off and walk out. The rest of the office is just wide eyed and scared now.
Give him a card to go get put to sleep at the oral surgeon and he's pissed because I can't do it here.
Originally Posted by O.city:
Well, off to a great start this am.
First patient was an ortho patient, changed out her ligatures, no biggie.
Second one was an emergency patient with bombed out teeth everywhere. "Which one hurts the worst?. Well, none of them are worse but whatever you think".
Ok, that tells me nothing. But lets see what we can figure out. Tap around and find one on the bottom that's in bad shape and hurting. Ok, lets start there.
Meanwhile, I have 2 other chairs full with hygienist in one cleaning a patient and the next one waiting to get anesthesia so we can do some fillings.
I go to give the guy an injection to numb him up on the lower and he absolutely sounds like he's having a stroke and an orgasm at the same time. Yelling, moaning, screaming, moving around and kicking. I didn't even inject any anesthesia and he's losing his mind.
I calmly pull the needle out, take my gloves off and walk out. The rest of the office is just wide eyed and scared now.
Give him a card to go get put to sleep at the oral surgeon and he's pissed because I can't do it here.
Last time I had to get numbed up, that jackass stuck the needle directly into my jaw joint. I about jumped out of my skin. I can't say it was the worst pain I've ever experienced, but it was right up there [Reply]
Originally Posted by FlaChief58:
Last time I had to get numbed up, that jackass stuck the needle directly into my jaw joint. I about jumped out of my skin. I can't say it was the worst pain I've ever experienced, but it was right up there
