Some pain are mental and some physical but the one which is both mental and physical is “dental”! Read this on whatsapp forward and couldnt help but wonder what does the pain which a dental practitioner goes through ,is called afterall?
In a country where doctors are treated next to god ,our lot still struggles to be recognized as doctors. Patients have decided that a thorough diagnosis or treatment plans doesnt give us the right to charge them any consultation fee, because you really dint do anything really! Only hours of back breaking, trying to visualize and physically reaching out the back teeth gives us some bonus points to deserve some peanuts in the end.
When my kins see me they happily tell me that it looks like they have to see me soon for the treatment, i wonder if they are that enthusiastic with their cardiologist. Some patients come with their customized treatment plan,doctor do a filling in this tooth and let me go! when informed that the tooth needs a rootcanal and not a filling ,i receive a look so nasty which otherwise only pickpocketers or goons recieve by the police ! Other lot of patients demand warranty for my work.. how many years will this work? If not then will you replace it for free ? Wanted to inquire if that kind of policy is really valid with their kidney transplant doctors too! FYI we charge one billionth of the fee in comparison..Huh!
Terrorized ones:
Every single day in a dental office brings some sort of challenge .. a case which seems easy to handle suddenly becomes a herculean task! A smiling sweet person when sits on the dental chair unpredictably gets a panic attack so the tooth extraction which usually takes five minutes for an expert like me takes an hour ,at the end of which the convincing , pacifying, threatening and finally begging to cooperate i don’t understand, postoperative who needs more ice cream to cope up with the trauma. But the real pain was yet to arrive when the patient hands over half the amount promised of the fee and declares that i had quoted way too high already and had a lot of pain even though she was promised a painless affair.. couldn’t understand whose pain was more at that point of time.
Google ones:
These type of patients enter with a lot of confidence and have predetermined hidden agenda of ragging me. Every single diagnosis and explanation is crossfired with an already known amusing theories of their own , courtesy Google!
After a lot of convincing and finally showing them the original copies of my degree certificate reluctantly when they agree,I start doubting if they might take away the tools from my hand and start operating themselves! Nevertheless i get exhausted performing an hours job where the patient pukes twice on me and stops me multiple times during the procedure asking questions in sign language with her mouth open and i decipher and answer all of them with my superhuman power but still gives me no credit at all because the google said it normally takes half the time which is taken by me. Lousy me!
The little ones:
They are the biggest challenge in the dental clinic. A terrifed mother brings an even more petrified kid and i some how manage to make them sit on the dental chair after hours of tell ,show ,do! The moment my instrument makes noise the kid gives me two or three bite marks and makes a high jump from the chair into their mothers arm. The siren of crying is so high that my entire society is aware of my patients status.”looks like she is giving a lot of pain to the poor kid” is the common thought to the patients waiting in the reception, needless to say the terrorized ones already run for their lives when in reality anyone who is in pain there is me, bite wound needs to be tended and where is the number of my ear specialist?
Over Sincere ones:
These kinds are on the verge of getting extinct and are present in very less numbers. They stalk you full day ,call you hundred times to confirm if they are doing the right thing. They want to make sure if all the instructions are followed properly. They call up in the middle of night.. “doctor you said i have to take medicines every six hours ,i had it at ten pm last so should i take it now ?” I struggle to see the watch in sleep then mentally calculate and give him a yes, have people stopped using alarm? Unfortunately there is noone who i can call to inquire that!
recalling one such incidence, one such sincere kind came to get his tooth plucked. As i was performing the extraction i instructed him that if at all he experiences any sort of pain during the treatment he should lift his hands as a signal and i would stop and give him more anesthesia if required. Extraction finished uneventfully and he left with all the postoperative instructions. Next day he marched into my clinic and declared “doctor i am in lot of pain”! I advised him to let me have a look , he showed his arm and said that he raised his hand the entire night so that he doesn’t have pain and resultant his hand is hurting now! Now that is what one calls an over cautious patient. But what does a speechless dentist do about that?
Some bossy ,some over friendly and some over smart,the types of patients might be endless but the poor dentist and his problems remain constant. But then again where is the fun if there is no sense of achievement in what you do!
Whether anybody appreciates or not but as a dentist i would advice people to keep smiling because that’s the best thing you can wear while we try to make this world a better place creating one smile at a time:)
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