Dr Rush is great, this review isn't about him though. It's for the guy (whose name I can't recall) who works on Thursdays only doing molar root canals.
So for some reason, they have another DMD do root canals of molars. Whatever. I make my appt and meet this friendly cheerful guy who tells me "I'm in good hands" after I explain how hard I am to get numb.
I'm quelling with anxiety at this point but he starts, trying to reassure me with cheesy humor and corny jokes. I appreciated the effort, but wasn't having it.
So things are moving along and my anxiety is increasing the whole time (fearful of the potential of serious pain that I had with other treatments), and I'm getting rather upset, frustrated and annoyed. He asks me if I'm ok, I say I've had enough I'm at my breaking point to which he replies "well just go on". I do.
He then proceeds to tell me by telling me I'm as numb as I can be, and that there are certain winces of pain I must deal with because of the location of whatever. Fine. However, when I was in some pain, I was chastised by being told "well peer reviewed journals in endodontics show that pain is heightened due to anxiety, normal sensations are perceived as pain", blah blah blah. Hardly the time for a grad school research method class. This pushed me even further to my tolerance threshold. I tell him this and he simply replies "I'm about quality not speed", to which I try and be rational and suck up the torture I'm enduring .
He does something and I flinched, I guess it was just weird pressure or whatever and he stops whatever cruel instrument he is using and literally scolds me by saying "there is no way you felt that. I've done 30,000 root canals and no one ever has or ever will feel what I just did. I don't believe you". I simply could not believe he was that belittling. At this point, I was seriously ready to leave but knew I'd have to endure this hell again if I left, so I again dealt with it. I had really had it with him at this point.
Finally he finishes. Great. Let me go home, I've had it you know it, I made it abundantly clear that I'm at my end. He then proceeds to tell me how I need anxiety medications next time I have a dental procedure because most of the issues I was having were "caused by me and my anxieties". ARE YOU SERIOUS!!???? I was ready to punch a wall out at this point.
So I'm ready to get my stuff & cry at home rather than there, and he hands me a paper about post root canal care. Great, I'll take it with me, I think I'm almost 30 with an MA, I think I know how to read. He then proceeds to read it to me and when I'm literally three minutes post trying to recover from this traumatic experience I just had, he stops mid sentence and say "excuse me, are you listening?". At this point, I of course tuned him out, he finished his speech, I got my RX and left.
I have never in my life been so insulted by a medical professional. It's a shame this guy works here at all because I will not be returning at ANY TIME in the near future to give my hard earned money to a practice that employs such disrespectful physicians. The rest of the staff here are great, but this one guy tainted my view of this place. I've had traumatic experiences with dentists before, which I explained to him, so this man should've understood this and done whatever he had in his "30,000" root canal repertoire to make this a tolerable experience for me, the PATIENT. It shouldn't matter if I'm one of the very few who are hard to numb or are super anxious or whatever nonsense he was feeding me; I was there, as his patient, an individual with individual needs that didn't fit the gamut of what a normal patient presents as. So a big fat thank you to this DMD who made me feel embarrassed, foolish, ridiculous, crazy and stupid all at the same time because I was very anxious about a root canal. I've never left a medical office feeling so stupid in my life. read more