Serverlife

PSA: YOU DO NOT HAVE TO PUT UP WITH ABUSE/MISTREATMENT
I see so many posts here about how s**tty their practices are to work at, asking if this is normal and what they should do.

Here’s the thing, yes, many many offices are not great to work for, and plenty are downright hell holes. But NOT ALL OF THEM! NOT ALL!!

I found my dream office at the beginning of this year, and let me be clear when I say that by “dream office” I mean a place with healthy communication, no clique behavior, and dentists that aren’t a nightmare to work for and my dudes I FOUND IT

THEY EXIST

I LOVE the doctors I work for, I love my fellow assistants, I love the hygienists, I love the FD staff, I am so. So. HAPPY here.

So as someone that stayed with the hellholes way longer than they deserved, here’s my message, FIND A BETTER OFFICE. You CAN. It’ll take time but they’re out there.

Good luck everybody! This is a wonderful job when you get to do it in a good environment! 🦷

We NEED to unionize.
No more workplace abuse! No more unbearable long hours! No more working through your lunch breaks! No more abuse from rude patients! No more being blamed for everything! No more low wages! No more self loathing and low self worth because you hate your job!

Assistants are HUMAN. We make mistakes, we forget things, we have bad days. We are not perfect and shouldn’t have to be! We need to unionize!

No more bu****it! This industry will grind you down until you are nothing! These offices, corporate and private will drain you and then throw you away. Without assistants the whole industry will fail!

Don’t let yourself be abused anymore. Don’t let yourself be miserable. You deserve a peaceful workplace. We shouldn’t have to hop from office to office because they’re all s**tty! We shouldn’t have to be in this field for over 10+ years trying to find a “unicorn” office.

WE DESERVE MORE! NO MORE BS!

I walked out at lunch
So I started at a General office yesterday. In my interview was super transparent that i’ve never done RCT, I have only ever made one temp crown and that was 2 years ago, and that I would need a major refresher course because i’ve been in peds for the last 2 years. I do have a year worth of experience in General but like I said i’ve been in peds for the last over 2 years. They assured me no problem at all we are happy to train you and give a refresher course. Anywho I started yesterday and big surprise they throw me in to see patients right out the gate. No tour of the office, no basic run down or what Dr uses, not even a breakdown of their software. It was pure chaos. I asked for help multiple times and was told (over the headset) that everyone is with a patient and no one is available. I told the assistant who was “training” me that I didn’t feel comfortable doing a crown prep on my own yet I wanted to watch and she told me to just get them started and then she’ll come in. SHE NEVER CAME IN. ALSO they don’t fricken bag their instruments (??) So yeah they sent me to lunch and I sent a nice message to the office manager explaining that I would not be returning. But I already have 3 interviews set up this week for other offices so i’m not upset about it. But ya just felt like I had to share my horrible (now kind of funny) experience.

Tofflemire is underrated and the sectional matrix obsession needs to stop
Everyone acts like using a Tofflemire for posterior composites is some kind of war crime. It's not.

The flat contact argument? That's a you problem. Burnish your band, wedge properly, tight contacts every time. The system isn't failing you, your technique is.

Try placing a sectional ring on the distal of a lower second molar and get back to me. Tofflemire slides right in. Need MO and DO? One setup, one pack, while sectional guys are running two separate setups praying the contacts touch .

And yes, I know some of you will bring up the "matrix inside a matrix" technique where you put a sectional matrix inside the Tofflemire band for distals of 7s. You needed the Tofflemire to make your system work lol You literally came crawling back. Sectional stans invented an entirely new technique just to confess they couldn't do it alone.

Also the retainer looks like a medieval device and that's lowkey sick lol.

Also shoutout to the Greater Curve guy for putting some respect on Tofflemire's name.

Sectional matrices are just inferior more setup, more cost and overhead, more limitations. There's a reason the Tofflemire has been around for 80 years lmao

Strange patients
So I had a patient that came in for a limited exam for a chipped tooth. She asked me if it was okay if her “emotional support” can come in too and i said yes of course.
This woman sits in my chair and takes off her shoes and this man that came in with her is massaging her feet. mind you i haven’t even said anything yet. I end up taking some x-rays and the man leaves and comes back WITH LOTION. He then proceeds to TAKE OFF HER SOCKS AND FULL ON MASSAGE HER FEET. I’m sitting here mortified and so are all my coworkers that walk past and see this. He then tells me that he’s a celebrity because he got voted sexiest man on a cruise he just went on 😀
The Dr finally comes in and we did her tx thank god but while we were finishing up he’s putting her shoes and socks back on shaking her entire body.
They have been the talk of the office all week. I’m just not sure why you would act this way in any public setting especially at the dentist 🤦‍♀️

Fired a bunch of people for the first time today. It sucked. But I did it.
Rookie owner here. I'd read stuff from people who have taken ownership of existing offices and heard different takes on maintaining the existing staff. Lots of people saying "fire everyone and start fresh." Easier said than done to hire people. Everyone here was paid pretty low, but you get what you pay for. I've never seen such laziness in my life. Sitting around on their phones, checking out their hair, constantly texting the morning of work that they're "sick" every Friday.

Insanity.

Fortunately I'd been courting replacements for some time, and even though I'm paying more, I think it's worth it. Hardworking, motivated staff that can contribute to growth are not found at the dollar store.

Then came judgment day. Today. It was awkward. I went with the general advice of keep it short and to the point. No explanation of why, beyond "it's not a good fit" or "it's already decided" "this isn't a discussion", and just sat there awkwardly until they left.

Tears. Bargaining. It went over better than I expected, as some people are relatively loose cannons and I was worried about possible escalation.

It sucked.

But my A-team shows up tomorrow. And I couldn't be more excited nor happier. 100% worth it.

Thanks for the advice ya'll, r/dentistry with another win

Edit: lol at the comment from u/stephy1000 saying I suck. You're right I do suck.

She slammed all 3 doors on her way out.

It's today. Monday.

Be me.

I step out of a lower molar endo, found DB and DL canalz, feel alright. Patient is great. Quiet. Motionless. Lets me work.

Hygiene check time. 23 year old lady, although I assumed 30ish. Obviously a lifetime of caries restorations, but still has up to her first molars. All her anterior teeth have mottled, demineralized, stained enamel. Icon ain't fixing these motherf**kers. She complains of sensitivity. I ask about her diet and hygiene habits, I get the usual lie about brushing four times a day, carrying a toothbrush in her pocket, etc.

Her complaints? Sensitive teeth, and aesthetics.

Now any of us who are sane would tell her she's gotta get the caries situation under control. Buccal caries here and there, some interproximal lesions, but drilling into ANY of them would expose all of the demineralized areas and basically require crowning at LEAST all of her anterior teeth.

Before I even started talking she just goes straight to "my mom didn't take me to the dentist enough". Sure okay. Then she starts talking about how "the dental student was scraping into my tooth and fu**ed it up". I dont know what student she's referring to, maybe she went to a dental school for work at some point. She continues into "I want to get braces". Lol.

if she gets braces, she'll have fu***ng holes in every single tooth by the time the brackets come off.

I tell her this in what I felt was a gentle way. No orthodontist would take this case with her teeth this way. I sure as hell ain't giving her a referral to one. I tell her that anyone "scraping" into her canine wouldn't give it brown spots, but she doesn't agree.

Her: "Well I'M telling you that the dental student scraped it", as if it were my responsibility...

Me: "that isn't likely"

Her: "Well I'm telling you" okay now I'm convinced because she's telling me..otherwise I wouldn't have understood

Me: my mind's eight or nine remaining brain cells struggling to hold onto each other as if red rover was being sent over "alright well in any case, you have a lot of teeth that need to be fixed because of decay before any orthodontist will consider this case"

Her: "well I don't need your negativity right now"

At this point I use my "eject button" phrase and said "I can't help you" and I turn around and walk out, head back to my endo patient.

I give my staff the signal to make sure the patient knows where the exit is (it's a middle finger--not to my staff, they know this lol), and I can hear this girl getting increasingly loud and cursing to my front desk "you should tell that fu***ng dentist you hired how to not be rude and do his job", and when they told her "well he hired us, because he owns the place, and he wasn't being rude, he was just explaining what you needed".

She's belligerent at this point, flips the f**k out and slammed every one of the three doors on the way out.

Goooood riddance and that's why any affiliation I have with dog s**t "insurance" and the ungrateful, entitled motherf**kers that think they can get into my chair and say "I don't have fifty dollars to my name" and in the same breadth tell me "I need a lot of work done"

Moral of the story: having a good team is great! And when someone is gonna treat you like s**t, all you have to do is tell them that you're not the dentist for them and walk out.

It's a big plus to being a GP but it doesn't mean you have to tolerate abuse as a specialist either!

I've seen a lot of unethical stuff, but this is unreal.
I had some guy come in my office today (I believe he thought I wasn't there since it was Saturday and there was only one car there) and tell my assistant that I had hired him as a consultant and she needed to log him into a computer in my office so he could run reports. She's not a moron, so she told him she would go get me and the guy ran out the front door.

I don't think I've ever been so pi**ed off in my life. I don't know if it was another dentist or an actual consultant trying to steal data, but I filed a report with the police and gave them his pic. If it turns out it was another dentist, I'll be sending that on up to the state dental board as well.

Good News Everyone
Our savior is here. The Florida Surgeon General announced that adding Fluoride to water is malpractice and is recommending its removal. The voters have spoken. Their Mantra is Drill Baby Drill. Let’s not interfere with what the public wants. It is our civic duty to honor the will of the people. If we end up earning enough to buy a vacation home and a Porsche who are we to complain. So get out there and drill!!!

I was Somone’s Terrible Dentist today.
For the first time ever, I had a patient swallow something that they shouldn’t have. I was adjusting a filling and without warning the hand piece chuck broke and the bur flew to the back of my patients throat. I immediately tried to get it and said “don’t move or swallow,” but of course before we could retrieve it, he swallowed. We weren’t sure if it went down his throat or up the suction but it wasn’t in the trap.

Anyway, he’s on his way to get an x-ray, and now I’m a s**tty dentist story.

Anyone else ever have a hand piece fail like that? It’s a first for me and I feel horrible about it.

Edit: Update. Chest and abdominal x-ray came back clear. So relieved We got it with the suction.. Maybe he will come back for his other fillings after all. Time for some new hand pieces. I thought these were Midwest like our other ones but they are knockoffs that I guess were here when we bought the practice. Now they are in the trash.