WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!?!…read more
I just walked out of my cleaning appointment at Dr. Malecki's office and I must say, I am blown away by what I just experienced.
I didn't even get to see Dr. Malecki. I walked out before I even got done dealing with his assistant.
I checked in with the receptionist and then a woman named Carol, who I am assuming is some sort of assistant, got me all setup for my cleaning. She sat me down, put the little drool towel on me, and then sat next to me and pulled up some x-rays that were taken about 6 months ago on my last visit. She then proceeded to start a completely incoherent rant that went like this, "I dont know if we should take new x-rays. I'm not sure what we are going to do today. These x-rays that we have are only of the left side of your mouth. So maybe we should take full mouth x-rays. I'm not sure. I don't know if we are going to do that or not today. I think we could, but I don't know. Because all I see here is the left side of your mouth. So I'm not sure what we are going to do today. I don't really know."
HUH?
At this point I start off by correcting her. Carol, those x-rays are actually of the right side of my mouth, not the left side. She said, "oh, you're right. Forgive me, I just got back from lunch." But in addition to correcting her, I also told her that her uncertainty and her constantly saying she's not sure and that she doesn't know what we should do isn't exactly giving me any confidence in her, and maybe it's best if we don't do anything today. You should know that I'm here for a cleaning. That is what I scheduled. So why do you keep saying that you don't know what we are going to do today and you're not sure what we are going to get done? And as for the x-rays, you are the "expert" not me. So you tell me if we need them or not.
She then goes, "okay well lets just dive right in then." and she starts to lay out a few tools. But then after 30 seconds she again starts rambling... "you know, without x-rays it makes it hard to do anything because I cant see what I'm getting into beforehand. So I dont know. Maybe we should take x-rays. I'm not sure what we should do today."
At this point, enough is enough. I get out of the chair and cancel the appointment. I personally don't know if x-rays are or are not needed, because I'm not the freakin' dentist. You are supposed to be the professional. Not me. If we need x-rays, fine. I am there to see a professional and follow their expertise and guidance, but this woman literally said she didnt know and she wasn't sure easily 20 different times, if not more than that, all within the matter of like 3 or 4 minutes. Part of me wonders if she had a beverage or two on her lunch break because she didn't seem to have any desire at all to do any actual work.
So again, I didn't even get to see Dr. Malecki. All I got to do was deal with some woman, Carol, who made it seem like it was her first day on the job, even though when I confronted her about this she claimed to have 30 years experience. There was no confidence coming from her. No certainty. No reassuring. No decision making. Everything was "I dont know" and "Im not sure."
I am there to see a professional and have the work performed by an expert. Carol came off as completely clueless (incorrectly identifying my existing x-rays), unsure of herself, incapable of making a decision and completely unqualified..... I am blown away by what I just experienced. Part of me thinks that maybe she was trying to "up sell" the x-rays in addition to the cleaning, but all of the "I dont know" and "Im not sure" junk was just sooo alarming. Had she just said, "you need new x-rays" I would have been like okay, cool, because she's supposed to be the expert. But "maybe you need them. maybe you dont. i dont know if we are going to do that or not. im not sure. i dont know what we are going to do today." WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!?!?!?!?! No thank you, Carol. I will find a different dentist who does know and who is sure.