Dental Office Fun

I am a dental assistant. Here are some of my stories of some "fun" people.

This guy comes in complaining of tooth pain. We just barely squeezed him into our very tight schedule. Lucky to be seen this day at all really. "Omg my tooth hurts so much" he says, while sipping on a freakin rockstar energy drink. I wanted to tell him "well maybe if you put down the liquid sugar, it wont hurt so much", but instead did my job. We told him he needs a root canal, and that we don't have time to take care of it today, so we'll put him on antibiotics and pain-meds. "I cant believe you guys wont do anything for me today". I tell him "we are. we're giving you antibiotics and pain-meds and we'll get you scheduled for a RC." "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW LONG IT WILL TAKE ME TO FILL OUT THIS PERSCRIPTION? AT LEAST 20 MINUTES! I'VE BEEN IN PAIN SINCE 3AM!" he yells at me. I calmly tell him, "Well if you've been in pain since 3 in the morning, another 20 mins isn't going to kill you."

This happens all the time. A patient we've never seen before, will just walk in, or call us, and just TELL US "I need a root canal". "Oh ok sir/madam, name?" *Type in name to our system* "Sir/Madam have you been to our office before?" "No. But i know i need a root canal." Like, oh ok, lets just drop everything we're doing to accommodate you. But yet we still try to help. "Oh ok, was the root canal diagnosed in another office?" "No, i've never seen anyone about this tooth. But i know i need one." How?! How do you know this? You must be a dentist then? You diagnosed it yourself? No, of course not.

This was a fun one. We have this patient (lets call her Mary, of course we won't use real names) who freaks out over any dental work. Mary is the very definition of "scared of the dentist". Mary comes into the operatory, and asks me "so what are we doing today". I tell her, "Just one small filling today ma'am." IMMEDIATELY: "I need to talk to your office manager!" And jumps out of the room before i can say another word. 5 minutes later, comes back in TEARS with the manager guiding her back to the room, over 1 tiny filling. Eventually we did it, but my god, was that lady a project.

Patient comes in for something simple. Easy-peasy. Asks me "So what treatment do i have left to do after today?" I look at the chart, "Uhhh, looks like you have 2 crowns and a bridge after this." IMMEDIATELY: "No i don't. The doctor said i only have 'half a bridge' to do." (A HALF A BRIDGE ISNT A THING BTW) I wasn't going to deal with that shit that day, so i just said "Ok!" and figured someone else can deal with him.

Happens all the time. For whatever reason the tooth is a goner. Its got a horizontal/vertical fracture, or the decay is too deep, or there's a perio-abcess, etc. But regardless the tooth is NON-SAVEABLE. No matter what we do, it's out of our power to save the tooth. BUT the patient is ADAMANT that they want the tooth saved. "Well then get a time machine and tell yourself from 2 years ago to go get regular dental checkups."

EXACT OPPOSITE OF LAST STORY. Patient has got PERFECTLY good teeth. Like yeah, they have a few fillings here and there. Maybe a crown or 2. Or maybe even missing a couple of teeth. But they come in a tell us: "These teeth aren't worth the trouble. Just extract all of them for me and give me dentures." We of course tell them, "That's pretty un-ethical of us to do; dentures are a whole 'nother set of problems; trust us, you want to keep your natural teeth; etc." But they REALLY want dentures. Too bad. Go find another office with less morals than us then.

This is SO annoying. "I'm afraid of overdosing on radiation so i don't want any xrays today. Just look inside my mouth and tell me whats wrong." Ok, first of all for those of you that don't know: Dental xrays are like the least radiation exposing of all xrays. You honestly get more radiation from standing in the sun for 20 minutes. Secondly: How are we supposed to diagnose what's going on INSIDE your tooth, just by looking?! (BTW i understand if you only want a normal checkup amount of xrays once per year instead of every 6 months, but I'm talking about a patient not wanting ONE freakin xray on a tooth that's been bothering them.) I had a patient tell me this, and i told them, "Then we can't do anything for you. No xrays=no treatment." Most patients give in at that point, and i usually explain the whole radiation exposure thing. But i had one lady who was APPALLED at the very idea of taking 1 xray on her. So she left with no treatment of any kind.

PLEASE! If you are a parent; and you are scared of the dentist; DON'T LET YOUR CHILDREN KNOW. Kids are smart enough to pick up on your habits, and if they see that you're NERVOUS AS HELL about taking them somewhere. THEY'LL GET NERVOUS TOO. If you're calm and relaxed, your children will be calm and relaxed. It makes my job much easier when i hear "Don't worry bud, its just a tiny filling. It's easy." As opposed to "OMG IM SO NERVOUS FOR HER, I HOPE SHES OK!" When i hear the latter, its like "oh god, here we go." and the kid is freaking out over a CLEANING.

Doctor puts mirror in mouth for 2 seconds. Once he removes it, patient acts as if there is poisonous acid inside their mouth. Can't even talk. Just mimics suction. It's just your own saliva in there. What are you afraid of swallowing?

We did a crown on a canine tooth for this 19 year old girl recently. Once we tried it on and handed her a mirror, so she could check to see if the color matched well enough for her, she exclaimed, "WHY IS IT SO POINTY?" We had to explain to her that canine teeth are always pointy. And showed her the 3 other canine teeth in her mouth. Like, how have you never noticed this before? Not once did you stand in front of the mirror and see that you have 4 teeth pointy-er than the others?

Anyways, thanks for listening to me vent!

Doggy Tax!

It should be noted, that in actuality, cases like these arise very infrequently! 99% of the time, my job and my patients are an absolute delight! I love my work. These are just the most ridiculous people to come through the office.

EDIT: Wow! Made it to most viral! Thanks guys! If this gets over 1K points, i'll give the people what they want and create a 2nd post. :D

EDIT#2: YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME! I originally posted this just as a way for myself to vent and maybe have like 100 people see this and have a good laugh. I did NOT expect it to come this far. Thanks for the internet points! I'll create a 2nd post soon!