My worst experience was when I agreed to stay late for a patient who was in
pain...he showed up 45 minutes after he said he would and told me the tooth
had been hurting for a week. He was late because he had gotten home late
from a party. It made me glad I killed two extra hours of my Saturday to
wait around and handle his "emergency"...oh...did you mean my worst
experience as a patient??...nevermind.

T

I guess normally (not on Saturday) it is not a big deal if a patient
is late, but in this case missing 2 hours on Saturday was your WORST
experience? Surely, you have had worse than this, eh?
posted at www.healthcareforums.org

David,

We all have bad days as patients and as people who treat patients.  I
try to live my life seeing things from the other side.

That said, I have been forced to report a couple of parents for neglect
due to their failure to be able to care for their children's dental
needs.  Being confronted with child neglect and having to report it is
very stressful to me.  I loose sleep.  I worry about how the family's
interaction with the deparment of social services will effect the
child.  Some dentists have been threatened for reporting abuse and
neglect.

As a patient, I had to wait over an hour to see an ENT specialist.  He
and his staff thought that it was just dandy that their patients had to
wait so long. They see waiting patients as a sign of how terrific the
doctor is.  When I finally got in to see him, he was friendly enough,
and seemed to know his profession, but I did not think that the
sterility of his instruments was assured.  I am not squemish or I would
have walked out.  I would never refer one of my patients to him.

One more thing, in this country about 50% of conjunctivitis is caused
by unclean opthalmic equipment.  That is all I will say on that
experience.

Dave Leader, DMD

I once had a bad abscessed tooth.  I was neglectful and  it got infected and
finally blew up my face like a balloon. It was actually shocking to look at
my face, due to the swelling. Anyway, needless to say, I was in agony(all
this while being fortunate enough to have full dental benefits from my job),
and I ended up in the ER. I hadda wait two hours for them to bring in a
dental intern. He said he would give me a long lasting injection that would
hold the pain for about 8 hours. I went home and went to sleep, being in a
state of sleep deprivation from this toothache. So help me, exactly eight
hours after the injection I woke up in pain and looked at the clock and
marveled at the precision of the doctor's prediction. I went to my dentist,
and I had to wait until eleven a m for a dentist to show upand open the
office. It was about 0730 hours, and I was in agony again. I was debating on
paying cash for any dentist, and I actually made an appointment and went in,
an the doctor told me it would be $180 for him to open up the filling and
relieve the pressure. I figured I would tough it out for another ninety
minutes and save $180. I still had to pay him about $30. I went to the
dentists office at 1045 and I found out I misunderstood them, they don;'t
open the office until one in the afternoon. The entire hallway of the office
building was empty, and I was so upset I was kicking the wall and furniture.
I waited the two more hours, and limped and whimpered into the office. The
dentist was this Greek guy who looked like he was either drinking very red
grape juice or wearing lipstick. He started giving me guff about not getting
to a dentist sooner, and he popped the filling off the tooth without any
anesthetic. It didn't hurt either, just popped off like a beer cap. Anyway,
I was still in agony,and I remember thinking it must be one hellacious
toothache that doesn't even retreat in the face of the dentist chair.
Usually the pain slinks off into a corner until you are alone again. Anyway,
I asked the dentist to give me something to numb the tooth, because it hurt.
He refused. He said, if I remember correctly, that it wouldn't help, or it
wasn't a good idea, or something. I started to acquiesce, and then I just
remembered how much I was hurting, and I sat back and just literally refused
to vacate the chair until he numbed the tooth. He said something like "oh
allright!" like a sissy or something, and gave me the injection, which
deadened the pain. I was now slightly angry with the dentists, and
said,"what was the problem with that? You think I'm abusing the Novocain or
something? Do you think I am lying about the pain? For God's sake" and he ,
well I don't remember what he said, I just left. They later fixed the tooth
up and it recovered from the abscess. I mean, really, what is the problem
with numbing a patient who is in obvious pain? I think he just didn't want
to change his decision once he said I don't need Novocain. I remember
thinking as I exited, 'what a dick'. He probably said the same thing about
me to his nurse. I wonder who she thought was right.Mike.

patient

WORST

What is your game, guy? Why are you doing this? You piss off some
dentist so bad he kicked your but halfway out the door?

SP