A DENTIST IS A DENTIST

A DENTIST IS A DENTIST - part I

 

Have you ever been to a bad dentist?  Of course you don’t really know you have a bad dentist until you go to a good one.  When you have a good dentist you start to wonder about all your previous experiences with a dentist. 

“Oh, this cavity is in a really bad location, it is very hard to reach.  I’ve never seen anything quite like it!”

“This Novocain will hurt just a bit.”

“This might be a bit tricky.”

Years ago I went to a dentist who could not even fill a cavity.  He took an hour for a single filling.  He was pretty much all thumbs.  He did double up on the Novocain, gave me plenty of laughing gas, and played some “Stones” through a pair of headphones while he labored.  My teeth hurt like hell hours later, but it was as close as I ever got to a real drug experience.

I found another dentist 38 years ago, the office of Dr. Noonan, and Dr. Dembinski.  In all those years, I never had a filling take over 20 minutes to drill and fill.  The Novocain shot never hurt, and nothing was ever “tricky!”

I never had to wait past my appointment time…ever!

One Saturday morning I was 10 minutes late for a nine o’clock appointment with Dr. Noonan.   Dr. Noonan prided himself in never falling behind schedule.  He shot my tooth up with Novocain, and returned three minutes later to drill.  It usually took ten minutes for the Novocain to kick in.  It still took ten minutes for it to kick in on this Saturday.

I was never late for an appointment with Dr. Noonan again.

One time Dr. Dembinski did tell me a root canal job was going to be tricky.  He recommended a specialist for this job.  I questioned why it needed a specialist as he had successfully done several root canals on my mouth in the past.

“Well, my experience and several years of Dental College tell me I should not try to do this root canal, I think you need someone who specializes in this particular situation…but if you’d like me to try…”

I never questioned Dr. Dembinski’s expertise again.

When I retired several years ago, Drs. Noonan and Dembinski were not in my new insurance plans network.  I needed to find a new dentist.

I found one even closer to where I lived, “Smiley Faces” run by a Dr. Paresh Patel.  I wanted to save money so I signed up with Dr. Patel.  A dentist is a dentist right?

Tomorrow - A DENTIST IS A DENTIST - part II