Couple of days ago I heard my mobile phone pinging. I looked at the text and my heart sank: it was a text from my dentist telling me that I have an appointment today.
I’ve been with my dentist for close to ten years now; I know he has ‘light hands’ and still the thought of having my regular six monthly ‘check-up and clean’ gave me hot and cold flushes.
There are two things I’m certain off:
a) we all need to go to the dentist; and
b) I’ve never met anyone who looks forward to visiting their dentist (if you are so exotic that you like going to the dentist, please let me know in the comments).
This made me think: is there anything I could do that will make my visits to the dentist less traumatic? In fact, I decided to try and come up with a mind trick that will make me more accepting of what cannot be avoided: my twice yearly visits to the dentist.
Then it was rather obvious: one thing that will make me more accepting of my visits is to get to love my dentist.
Not the kind of love that breaks couples but the grateful love we share with a brother/sister or a close friend; the love that thrives on trust, care, honour and civility.
These are the thirteen signs that will help you spot a dentist you could love that I could think about; these are also the signs that you’ve found a great one.
1. The receptionist knows your name. This may not seem important at first but I find that it make me feel good to be seen as a person and treated with respect, sympathy and human warmth.
2. The dentist knows your name. Here you can see my previous point. Except that the effect is magnified by the fact that this is the person who’ll be drilling in your month. Yeah, human warmth and sympathy can offset the annoyance of the dental drill nicely.
3. The dentist knows the name of your kid(s). This is about maintaining your humanity. You may think it is not very important but I used to go to a dentist who didn’t know my name and had absolutely no idea whether I have children or not. I am not even sure whether he knew that I am a bit more that the teeth he checked and cleaned. Call me weird but I didn’t like this much.
4. You can afford to see your dentist regularly. Here in the UK we still have a mixed system: there are dentists who work with the NHS (National Health Service) and there are private dentists. The jury is out on whether the NHS dentists are cheaper although I did witness a at my dentist (private) a guy telling the receptionist that he is leaving because he is retiring and he can’t afford to stay. Thing is, I am not convinced: after all we still pay for the NHS (about £50 for a filling and £219 for more complex treatment) and all good dental surgeries have fairly reasonable dental care plans.
5. You really want your dentist to stop working so you could talk to them. Sound ridiculous, I know. Still I love talking to my dentist – we discuss anything from current politics and the state of the NHS to the latest changes in British higher education. Thing is, he talks much more; for obvious reasons.
6. Your teeth look and feel good. This is kind of important. I did go for a while to a dentist who didn’t have a hygienist and didn’t clean my teeth himself. This was bad and didn’t last long.
7. Your dentist passed ‘the wisdom test’. Now, this is not about wisdom at all; we are talking about teeth, wisdom teeth. When choosing a dentist I found myself with one who told me that there is work for about £1,000 to do in my mouth so they can take me on. You know what was funny? The woman wanted to do a white filling on my wisdom tooth. So, if a dentist tells you they need to do a filling on your wisdom teeth, just look for another one: this is not one you can love.
8. You get a reminder to go for a check-up. It is really important to have regular check-ups. Because I’m not too keen on going to the dentist I tend to forget when my next appointment is due; if I didn’t book immediately that is. If I have not been for six months, I get a letter reminding it is time again. This is important (see point 10).
9. You get a reminder of your appointment. Yep, even when I’ve had the foresight to book an appointment I have been known to forget about it. Which is not good for my dentist (waste of time), not good for the surgery (loss of income) and not good for me (charged or missing the appointment). This is why I welcome the text message I receive couple of days before.
10. Your dentist does more prevention than correction. Yep, it is true about teeth – prevention is better than correction. This mainly means oral hygiene and this goes beyond brushing your teeth regularly. So, if your dentist cleans and polishes your teeth and insists on creating good hygiene habits, keep him/her. It is less painful and certainly cheaper than correction.
11. You have not needed a filling in years. I remember my shock about twenty five years ago when my dentist at the time told me that there is no reason for humans to lose their teeth – it is a matter of good dental care. It is true though and if your dentist is ‘for keeps’ you are likely to need a filling very, very occasionally (I haven’t had one for about five years now).
12. Your dentist works with the same nurse for years. Apart from the comfort of knowing the whole team, this also tells you about the kind of person your dentist is. After all, happy and respected employees don’t leave their jobs.
13. Your dentist saves you the pain and discomfort they could do. I left this one for last but it is not trivial – dental work can be painful in very acute ways. At the same time anaesthetic doesn’t always help. If your dentist saves you the pain when this is possible, keep him/her.
Finally…
Looking after your teeth is important. What I’ve noticed is that every financial and economic crisis I’ve lived through (and I’ve lived through at least three of those) shows very quickly as deteriorating dental health. And I’m not talking about ‘movie star smile’ here, or diamond encrusted teeth. I am talking about people in pain who lose their teeth un-necessary.
Don’t be like that and find a dentist you can love visiting and can afford. Oh, and make sure that this is high on your spending priorities.
photo credit: Sappymoosetree via photopin cc
I enjoyed this post so much. It made me agree to each and every point you cited. I don’t have a regular dentist because each one that I saw in my 49 years (which was a very seldom occurrence) seemed to have the kind of attitude that says they are only after getting paid. No personal touch, no interaction that will show me they are still humans.
Respect doctors and dentists but it is hard to know if you need work or not. You can have a small cavity that the cautious one will treat straight away, the bad one won’t see and the not so good one will ignore until it grows bigger and you need a crown instead of a filling.
So a dentist saying you have work may not be such a bad thing.
I actually don’t mind going to the dentist (I know, I’m crazy) but I’ve had some issues with my dentist lately. It’s not their work that is a problem, but their work hours and their customer service is a bit of a problem. They’ve just gone downhill.
I agree with all your points except point number 7!
What is your thinking behind the “wisdom test” can you elaborate?
thx
@Sam: Well, the tooth is still with me and there is no white filling in it. I believe that this detist (and I’ll never say all dentists are like that) was proposing to do dental work that wasn’t necessary. Still isn’t.
I love my dentist she’s the sweetest