I am one of those people who loathes going to the dentist. It gives me immense anxiety and I dread it for every second of every day between when I book the appointment and when it's over. I tried Modern Age Dentistry because they're in my neighborhood and it confirmed every single fear I have about dentists- I will never go back.
I got to my appointment 15 minutes early and filled out all the forms, including the question "when did you last get a teeth cleaning," to which the answer was 2.5 years ago. Yes, I know that's really bad, but also cannot possibly be the longest time they've ever heard anyone go between cleanings. But of course I wasn't proud of it and was happy to put it on my form to get it out there. One might think that the point of filling out the form is to not have to repeat the answers to every single question out loud to every single person who works on your teeth. But you'd be wrong. The X-ray technician, the hygienist, and the dentist ALL asked me IMMEDIATELY without even the pretense of pretending to look at my form (or my teeth.) I think they might need to take a lesson in medical beside manner- because guess what, most people hate going to the dentist. You might think it's fun, but that's why you're a dentist. So if you've got a patient who clearly doesn't want to be there, pretend like you're asking about STDs or something else the person might not be proud of and show the slightest amount of sympathy - I didn't just forget to go to the dentist for 2.5 years, I avoided it. And you're reminding me exactly why.
Back to my visit. You know what is hard for people who hate going to the dentist? Showing up 15 min early to your 10am appointment so you can sit from 10am to 10:20 alone in a dental chair, while you wait for someone to come in and do something that's going to suck. Especially when you can hear the entire staff chitchatting in the breakroom next door. So I do that, and then get 20 minutes of incredibly uncomfortable x-rays (which was not the technician's fault, it's just a gag-inducing experience for me.) But nonetheless, not a lot of fun, and I'm eager to get the rest of it over with. The technician said he would send in the hygienist "right away" but I literally laid their for another 15 minutes listing to the employees chatting in the breakroom before he came back to tell me I'd need to move to the hygienist's room. So I guess I wasn't even in the right place, or he didn't know why I was there? Despite the forms? And no one in the office felt a remote sense of obligation to check in on me?
Bottom line it was 11am when I got started with the hygeinist even though I had a 10am appointment- not a great way to start out a dental visit you've been dreading.
The hygienist was ok- she scolded me for not flossing enough, repeatedly, but I expected that. What I didn't expect was her trying to show me pictures of my gums and the inside of my mouth, which I had to insist that she not. I was already close to vomiting from the x-rays and she had scolded me vociferously for not flossing enough- I really did not need to see a picture of my gums for her to get her point across, I'm not an idiot. If I was the kind of person who enjoyed seeing closeups of my gums, I probably would floss more, you know?
At that point I just couldn't be nice any more and said "please don't. I hate everything about this." And then she kinda softened and realized I was miserable and just tried to get me through it. She did a good job. But then the dentist came in and it was clear she was much more interested in impressing him than she was in my experience as a patient. He asked her if she'd spoken to me about the "crowding" in my lower teeth and she said yes right away, but she absolutely had not. That was my first clue that I was a prop. They then proceeded to have a conversation about me as though I wasn't in the room, including how "lucky" I was that my gums weren't worse and reference to a cavity. So the moment I found out I had a cavity (my first, ever, which they should know since they just spent an hour and a half in my mouth!) was the dentist and the hygienist talking to each other like they were talking about a text book, not a person. I had to ask them, "so I have a cavity?" No one had the human decency to say, hey, we know you're already super uncomfortable, here's some bad news- you have your first cavity. Here's what that is going to entail." Nope! Literally were talking about me like a was a test dummy.
The dentist then tried to talk to me about straightening options for my lower teeth, and at that point I was late for another appointment and really not interested in his brochures, to which he patronizingly responded that it was his job to tell me about the situation, and mine to decide what to do about it. I said I was really late for something and rushed out of there.
Every single thing I hate about the dentist was exemplified by this place and then some- stay away! read more
