I recently had two appointments with Dr. Murphy. The length of this review and the level of detail is mostly for Dr. Murphy's benefit, in the hope that this can be a reality check for him. Thank you to all of his support staff, y'all deserve wayyyyy more money.
TLDR: talks endlessly about himself and made ignorant islamophobic comments.
The first appointment was fine, although it did take them 45 minutes to get me back, where I quickly learned that the reason that they were so far behind was because Dr. Murphy constantly launches into stories which have little to no relevance to the last story he just told, but definitely no relevance to me getting my cavities filled. I learned far too many details about this man's personal life- Dr. Murphy, I really think you should have been more supportive of your sons music career, I am guessing your dismissal of that was quite hurtful. I decided to write it off and not judge too harshly and booked my next appointment as I have worked in a medical spa and completely understand how things can easily get behind.
On my second visit yesterday, it just became ever more clear that Dr. Murphy's support staff is the only thing keeping the place moving. He scolded one of his hygienists in front of me for not giving him more time in between appts, meanwhile she had just clearly been trying to get him to stop talking about himself and get the appointment going.
He then went to numb my mouth to drill the cavities and do the fillings. I have unfortunately had lots of cavities throughout my life, and not a single filling has been memorable or negative or painful in any way. This man really started telling me that he had to go real slow to put in the shot or it wouldn't work and launched into a story about how in medical school they said you could do it up to 10x. Now, he did have to give me the shot twice, which is fine, I don't care. But all of the panicked talking and fussing about it does nothing to inspire trust in a patient and made me question why this activity was so difficult for this man, after a lifetime of my dentist back home having zero issues.
If all of this were not enough, he then just had to make disgustingly islamophobic comments (*face palm*). This (SOMEHOW) came up because on my previous appointment, I had indicated on my form that I am nonbinary, gave my preferred name and gave my pronouns. The staff was perfectly gracious and I was fine with some misgendering because the effort was there and I appreciated that. Dr. Murphy thanked me for showing him that he needed to update his form options- though he then went on to tell me that the singular they is grammatically in possible- despite the fact that he had just used the singular they in a sentence before while describing someone (ex. "I saw someone sleeping on the steps outside the building, but THEY must not be sleeping there anymore because I have not seen THEM lately.) I understand grammar, Dr. Murphy apparently does not. This is a common argument from people who are not big readers or writers. Nonetheless, I have heard it enough that I did not take great offense and laughed it off, no big deal. During my second appointment, he tells me that he updated his form and took a bunch of effort making sure the notes were right and how terribly difficult that was (eye roll). I thanked him because again, I appreciated the effort and I said that I was grateful that he was accepting and willing to make the effort for the change, and I meant that. He then tells me "Oh yeah, you know everyone isn't like that." I say yeah, and then he looks at me and puts his palms together and says "Explain the Muslim religion to me".
Me: "Uh, I mean it's an abrahamic faith..."
Him: "Yeah but we all have to be converted to being muslim and if we aren't the right kind they'll kill us."
Me: "Uh I don't think that's the case..."
Him: "But we're infidels!"
Me: "yeah I don't think most people that practice islam believe that".
At this point I was shocked. He clearly realized he crossed a line and changed the subject. I am guessing the argument is that he can be accepting of me being nonbinary "unlike Muslim people", thereby making a horribly bigoted comment about Islam in the same breath. Sir, I am Syrian and Lebanese. My family came here as refugees, your comments were disgusting and deeply ignorant and horribly offensive to me.Clifton is a multi-cultural neighborhood and I can only imagine the number of clients he has chased away with his absolute ignorance.
I believe that he can change and grow, but this guy needs to:
1. Shut up
2. Turn off Fox News and read some actual international news, you know, reported from areas where things are actually happening. Would you want people to read about American news from non-American news sources? Would you trust those sources to get it right?
3. Listen to his support staff and just other people in general way more.
4. Read some books wholly moley you sound like you're stuck in 1955. read more