A sweeping generalization - but after today's experience I'm not looking forward to finding out if it's just one dentist's surgery:
- D: So what seems to be be the problem?
- S: bottom left tooth, right at the back is broken and open, has been since December...
- D: okay.. let have a look - this hurt (pokes the enamel with the pick...)
- S: a bit
- D: and, lets see .. over here (sticks the pick straight down into the obviously open nerve) ...
- ... patient struggles to pull himself back up off the floor...
- S: ?!???#?!?
- D: sorry about that - you appear to have the open nerve exposed!
- S: you're not kidding - just like I told you when I walked in here.
- D: oops that's serious, nurse..!!!
- D: looks like you left it a bit of a long time
- S: er... right, it happened in December and it's been impossible to get an appointment until Today!
- D: nurse
- ... about 40 seconds of activity and a pain later a lump of paste is shoved into the
hole and sealed...
- D: we had to patch the hole but you'll have to come back next week to remove it...
- S: ok.. so you don't plan to even clean it?
- D: Can't - open nerve you see.
- S: right.... you mean the open nerve you just shoved a lump of dental paste into?...
- Receptionist: how would April 2nd be for your next appointment?
- R: oh it's urgent... hmm
Surreal - dentists are no fun anyway, but I suspect some basic training teaches you that sticking sharp objects into raw nerves probably isn't going to be fun for the patient.. Anyway, I guess I won't be back in a hurry - not to find another way ... any way ... to extract the tooth.. Slamming door + piece of string anyone?!
We'll it could always have been worse I guess.... but definitely some research on good dentists needed! - the really really bad thing about bad dentist experiences is ... you just know that the next appointment is already in the diary. O, a couple of ibuprofen more...
ouch...
As you may have noticed the title is borrowed from the Jet Lag travel guide to Molvania :).
Posted by: steve | 13 February 2009 at 07:50 AM