Unpleasant Day at the Dentist's Office

I had an appointment at the dentist office today. Last time when I went there, I thought that I was late by 10 minutes, but my appointment was ten minutes earlier than I thought I had, and apparently my watch was five minutes behind the dentist office's time. I was given hard time being late for 25 minutes and because of that, they said that they could only clean a quarter of my mouth.

I have been visiting this dental office for more than twenty years. It is covered by my husband's work insurance, so we have to go to this particular place to get all the dental work done. There are many dentists, dental hygienists, and they often change. So each time when you visit, you see some new people work on you. Only people who didn't change there were the receptionists. There were three of them for as long as I remember. I usually never late for the appointments. I usually get there too early. Since most of the places run a bit late for the appointments, I thought I would go there exactly on time. However as usual, the subway delayed a bit and I was late at the last appointment. It was the first time in twenty some years that I was actually late for the appointment. It was also the first time I saw all the receptionists were new. I told them that I was never late before and I would be on time at the next appointment. I thought that it was good that if they always kept the schedule properly, next time when I come, I won't wait too long. Some other doctor's office would make you wait for more than one hour even if you had an appointment, so I thought this was a good practice.

Today I went there twenty minutes early. Even with the subway delay, I got there long before the appointment. So naturally, I have to wait for twenty minutes. Again, all the secretaries at the reception were new. Last time the hygienist who cleaned my upper right teeth told me that one of the receptionist was on vacation and another was in a hospital, but the one in the hospital was doing well. So I expected to see them back at the reception, but they weren't there. When my time came, one of the receptionists said that they are little running late, so I have to wait twenty minutes more. So since I came to the office early, I had to wait more than forty minutes. Finally I saw my hygienist who was supposed to clean remaining three quarters of my teeth.

She asked me "do you always get your mouth frozen for cleaning?". I have sensitive teeth. So usually they clean by hand instead of the machine, but last time when I was here, my upper right mouth was frozen and it was done by a machine. The last hygienist told me that they needed to do a deep cleaning once in a while and I needed to get local anesthesia for it. So I explained that to her. She said that "let's see how sensitive your teeth are" and started cleaning by hand without any local anesthesia. As she started, she said that I needed deep clean and needed anesthesia and done by a machine, but "I don't have time today, so I'll only clean the bottom teeth and you need to come back for the left upper teeth. Then you need to be back in four months to do the local anesthesia at two different times to clean half at each time." I thought she was supposed to do the local anesthesia and clean all three quarters of my teeth, why she isn't doing that as instructed on the chart and telling me the thing that I just told her.

That was quite upsetting. They told me last time that I was late and didn't have time, and this time I was earlier but still don't have time for it? Why didn't they book enough time to get the three quarters done? I didn't say anything because I didn't want to upset the hygienist who is working on my mouth. She was actually very clumsy and poked my gum and lip several times. Probably I should see another hygienist who can do a better job to do the rest.

Often I feel doctor's offices are not very considerate to the patients. When you come to one appointment, that will cause you for travel time plus wait time no matter what is done to you. They often book you multiple appointments instead of one long appointment. Sometimes that could not be avoided, but often they could. In my case, it takes about one hour to get to the dentist's office if nothing happens to the subway. If I wanted to be on time for sure, I have to leave one and half hours before. I know that she could have finished my last quarter of mouth today, but I think I was the last patient and she wanted to leave. So instead of her spending fifteen minutes more, she decided to waste at least another three hours of my time at the next appointment. Not seeing my usual nice secretaries working there today, there was no pleasant moment at the dentist office today.
 
Image by renaissansechanbara on flickr