I have a dentist appointment and I notice a few things about it.
The dentist no longer reads his patient's medical history!
Not even from the previous appointment.
I feel treated like a number.
The assistant only checks my date of birth at the end of the treatment, just to be sure.
The dentist says: 'everything is fine'.
Really? I say.
Normally a patient/client would be happy with such a statement.
Not me, because I do remember the previous time.
An incomplete root canal treatment by the dentist before that. There too I felt like nothing more than a number.
Colleagues walk in and out of the room where I sit anxiously in the chair. Conversations are being held. There are emergencies.
He has numbed me, but I feel the pain of the whirring in my jaw. With needles or threads he penetrates the roots of my poor tooth.
It's an unpleasant affair anyway. I constantly feel the pricking and hear his hurried conversation with others. I want to shout hello, but I can't.
He is very busy.
Extremely busy.
And what do you do then as a dentist?
Can he keep his attention on the patient/client?
It's a clear 'no'.
The tooth (my tooth) is provisionally sealed. He will continue another time. No problem, he assures me.
As an example, he mentions pregnant women.
They also have to wait months due to pregnancy and that goes fine.
So I have now been promoted to pregnant woman.
For my little son with 10 small cavities, he of course also has no time.
The dentist wants to refer him to a female colleague who does have time.
I remember my way through a series of dentists looking for new trust.
This dentist cannot give me that. Do you understand?
Anyway, my new dentist, whose name I got through the grapevine, should be better. I open myself up and really want to experience it that way.
At the moment the current dentist says everything is fine, I know that's not the truth.
This dentist did not read my history.
I am very surprised.
So I say 'I don't think everything is fine'.
The dentist sticks to the position 'everything is fine'.
And what about that incomplete root canal treatment?
That was about 1.5 years ago by now.
So I've been pregnant longer than all women ;-)
The dentist looks frowning and doesn't know what I'm talking about.
The dentist says, 'there's only a questionable case on the left'.
That's not what I mean.
I ask if a photo can be taken of the inflammation on the right. That is refused. It would serve no purpose and then the dentist says it causes too much radiation and the endodontist will take photos anyway. I ask again for a photo of that and it will definitely not be done.
Possibly of the questionable case. Well!
The photo shows two cavities under a filling and an appointment needs to be made for that.
With anesthesia, the dentist says.
I always wonder why that's fashionable these days. Does it bring in more money perhaps?
I ask for names of endodontists in the area. There seem to be two. I wask for findings and experiences. Those don't exist.
The dentist says: one is in Rotterdam and has obtained his diploma; the other is closer by, has no diploma, but has practiced a lot.
I wonder if this is the right basis to make a choice, taking into account my search to regain trust and engagement.
What is going on in this world anyway?
Is there anyone at all to be found with the right intention(s) and professionalism who knows how to deal with people, as patients or clients, and provide them with the best care, without putting their own interests first and meeting them as a person instead of as just another number?