Dentistry is easy, people can be hard?

 I have been a dentist for over 40 years and at this point most dental procedures are straight forward and relatively easy for me. Taking care of  people with differing expectations can sometimes be the more challenging part of dentistry.

I personally enjoy chatting with patients while I'm treating them. Of course sometimes our conversations can be more of a monologue since at times their mouths are propped open and they can't contribute easily. Most of the times our banter serves to distract my patients from the procedure they are having done and lessens their anxiety, but not always.

I was cleaning a long time patients teeth and it became clear that she wasn't enjoying the conversation and really just wanted her cleaning finished without a lot of chit chat. . She seemed to be channeling Sargent Joe Friday from an old episode of Dragnet ( just the facts please!) It can be hard to figure out why a patient clams up, but there are a number of possible explanations including that they are angry or resentful about something that went on in our office.

In my experience another reason that some patients are not that friendly can be that they are more affluent than their dental provider and do not see the need to make a personal connection with those who are providing them with health services. This is a manifestation of snobby behavior and I do not often experience this in my practice.  When it does occur most of these patients eventually leave on their own accord because my staff and I are quite friendly and they choose a practice that is more snobby than ours possibly because "birds of a feather flock together".

Dental phobic patients can be extremely quiet, since they can be petrified and are just not able to contribute to or listen to a conversation. They usually are like this for the first one or two visits or possibly longer.

People with some psychiatric conditions can also give the dentist "the silent treatment" due to their condition. 

Some people are just very busy and are not into making a connection.  They want to get done what needs to be done, as expeditiously as possible. This was often the vibe that my above mentioned  patient transmitted during her numerous visits to our office.

Frankly when I do get the silent treatment  I am often  left wondering if I did or said something wrong?  I try hard to perform the best dentistry that I can and really want to create a "happy" environment in our office. After my patient left, I asked my assistant what she thought and she answered that our patient wasn't in the mood for conversation. She must be right because before she left she booked and an appointment for her next treatment. She had a cracked tooth and wanted it addressed before the crack worsened.




from Ask Dr. Spindel - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/2022/10/dentistry-is-easy-people-can-be-hard.html - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Help! My Child is Terrified of the Dentist

Image
If you’re the parent of a young child, you know their brains are similar to sponges that soak up everything around them—especially in their first five years, which neuroscientists say is when they’ll do the most learning and developing in their entire life. At this formative time, your child may amaze you with what they notice: your facial expressions, the different tones of your voice, and your habits. If your habits include regular dental visits and an excellent oral hygiene routine, they’ll notice and want to emulate you. If you happen to feel anxious about your dental visits, or you groan when you’ve got to floss and brush, they may synchronize and feel your dread. This could lead to dental fears that stick with them for years—potentially a lifetime! Kids Can Be Courageous If you’re feeling guilty right now, go ahead and put that away as it won’t serve you or your little one. Everyone has some room for improvement, and Coastal Pediatric Dentistry® is here to help show you an...
Read more

Going for the Gold?

Image
On the left is the older allow, on the right the new one that my lab has chosen to use The cost of a penny weight of pure gold is currently $79.53. The cost of a penny weight of pure palladium is $130.6. It used to be that palladium was added instead of gold to the precious metals often used for pfms, but now laboratories are finding that palladium is no longer affordable. The lab that I am using has just changed the formulation of the metal it's using to one that has more gold than palladium. I really do not mind, but metals with more gold are softer and often easier for a dentist to accidentally polish off delicate margins. It is important when polishing "higher gold" formulations to exert less hand pressure when performing the final polishing of the crown's margins. Other wise there should be no problem with this change. Traditionally labs have chosen alloys with higher gold percentages for optimal esthetics, since alloys with higher concentrations of ...
Read more

Lemon Juice – The Good, the Bad, & the Sour

Image
In a great tale of opposites, lemon juice can be both acidic and basic, or alkaline. Read on to find out why people are talking about this, and what it means for your oral and overall health . What is pH and why does it matter? Drinking lemon juice (usually diluted in a glass of water or added to a cup of tea) is a beloved health tonic among fans of natural medicine. Potential benefits include lower cholesterol, lower inflammation in the body, and increased metabolism and energy. Lemon also contains high levels of antioxidants and vitamin C that boost your immune system. On a scale from 0-14, a pH of 7 is neutral (pure water) while numbers below 7 are acidic (unhealthy), and above 7 are basic or alkaline (healthy). Believers in holistic health blame many ailments on the body’s pH being too low or too acidic. Increasing your body’s pH is called “alkalizing.” Lemon juice in its natural state is acidic with a pH of about 2, but once metabolized it actually becomes alkaline with a pH ...
Read more