Goodness gracious me! It has been too long since my last post. Hope you are still there and reading my posts!

It is time for the dentist’s point of view as a team member of dental practice.

At 8.45am

“Oh no, not the Ms. Flumsy again” thought the dentist in the morning when she entered her surgery. Apparently her regular nurse was off sick or something as the practice manager (PM) had called in the temp. The one that had visited the surgery before.

The dentist was disappointed at the PM who clearly had not listened to her when she said she would not want to see this temp again.

You see, everything was wrong with this one. She had long and colourful nails. She had heavy makeup and strong perfume. She didn’t have any idea of assisting a dentist. She thought that using the suction was the most important thing as a nurse. And every task she did took ages to do. And she did them in wrong order. And knew nothing about cross infection control. And went for a cigarette when she should have called a new patient in.

Even though the dark cloud hanging above the dentist head was obvious she forced a smile and said with overly sweet voice “Good morning. How are you?”

“I’m good. And you? Okay?” replied the nurse with a wide cockney accent sending shivers down the dentist’s spine.

The dentist took a look at the day’s schedule. She could feel panic increasing the further she read the day’s treatment plans. Check-up, root canal treatment, crown work, extraction of wisdom tooth, check-up… And of course the time-table had been planned so that the dentist would have her regular nurse assisting her. It was a tight schedule but manageable when the nurse knew her business.

Nevertheless the dentist made a decision not to cancel any patients.

At 9.05am

The first patient was sitting in the patient chair with the bib and safety glasses on. She was about to have a check-up done.

“Oh, I didn’ remember yew ‘ave dis computer software! Don’ know ‘ow ter use it” the nurse says suddenly. The dentist sighs and gives a piece of a paper to the nurse to record her findings.

Then she begins her check-up routine and after checking the teeth with a mirror and a probe she reaches for the fiberoptic. Only it’s not there. She turns her gaze at the nurse who is at the front of the computer screen cleaning her fingernails and looking disinterested.

“Could I please have the fiberoptic?” she says with overly calm manner.

The nurse begins to go through the drawers but cannot find the device. The dentist waits. The nurse checks the autoclave.

“Gawdon Bennet! There are instrumun’s ‘ere from yesterday but its not ‘ere, innit.”

The dentist remembers that her colleague sometimes borrows the fiberoptic as the practice has only one of them. She asks the nurse to go and check from there. She examines the patient’s soft tissues meanwhile.

“Here i’ is” the nurse says triumphantly when she returns and waves the fiberoptic in the air and attaches it to the unit. The dentist notes that the nurse did not wipe it with disinfectant but she thinks it’s not that big deal especially now when she’s running 5 minutes behind the schedule.

She completes the check-up and sends the patient to the reception. Then she records her notes to the computer as quickly as she can.

“Exam” she writes. No time for all the gibberish.

Then she updates the chart from the piece of paper and checks the next patient’s records. A root canal treatment. She notices that the nurse has placed only the basic instruments on the tray and disappeared somewhere – probably for a ciggie. The dentist starts to collect instruments she needs and calls the patient in. She feels her blood pressure raising.

“I really cannot be doing nurses duty, simply just cannot…” 

She is numbing up the patient when the nurse walks in.

“Oh, yew ‘ave already taken da patien’ in! Wasn’t da appointmen’ at 9.45?” 

The dentist does not reply and carries on with the treatment.

At 10.10am

The dentist is done with the filing of the root canals and is about to rinse the canals with the sodium hypochlorite for the last time. The nurse grabs the suction.

Silence.

The nurse places the suction back to its holder and takes it off again.

Silence. Not a sound.

The dentist realises that something is wrong and it cannot be fixed quickly. She asks the nurse to inform the practice manager about the malfunction.

Meanwhile she tries to figure out how she can finish the treatment without the suction. Luckily she wasn’t born yesterday and she takes a sterile gauze and places it close to the root canal treated tooth before she rinses the canal with the sodium hypochlorite. The gauze absorbs the liquid. She puts the calcium hydroxide to the root canals and seals the canals with temporary filling.

She escorts the patient to the reception in an intention to ask the PM what she has done about the suction but then she sees two practice’s regular nurses entering her surgery. She goes after them to see if they can fix the problem.

The nurses try to figure out why the suction is not working even though all the other suctions in other surgeries are fine.

The dentist checks the time. She’s now over 10 minutes late from the schedule. And the next treatment is crown work and that cannot be done without the suction.

The nurses need to return to assist their dentists and the PM needs to call in repairman. This means the dentist needs to cancel the next patient’s appointment. Zero income for the next two hours or so or until the suction is fixed. She walks to the reception to meet the patient and break the news.

The patient is not happy. He has taken two hours off work to come to the appointment. In a fear of losing the patient to another practice the dentist promises a discount from the treatment.

At 12.30pm

The dentist has tried to make a use of the spare time and goes through laboratory bills in her surgery. The repairman has not been in yet and it is soon lunchtime at the practice. Things are not looking good. She won’t be working until the late afternoon.

The surgery door opens and the hygienist pops her head in.

“Great, you don’t have a patient. Would you mind coming in to my surgery to check something? I have your patient in the chair and I think I found a decay on the lower right 6 and also something on soft tissues…”

The dentist walks in the hygienist’s surgery and greets the patient. She puts the gloves and face mask on.

Dentist: When did I do the last check up?
Hygienist: Err, yesterday…
D: And where was it that you suspect a decay?
H: On lower right 6. On the buccal side just below the gum line. There is another one as well but I think it is still in early stages…
D: Where is this?
H: On upper right 2, mesially. I don’t have a fiber optic so I couldn’t check it properly.
D: There is one in my surgery.
H: I know, but the turbine attachment is not working in my unit.
D: Ok then, let’s have a look…

The dentist takes the probe and checks the lower right 6 first while the hygienist stands on the nurses side and watches.

D: It seems to be ok…
H: It’s more subgingivally. You need to push the gum aside slightly.

The dentist feels this unpleasant feeling in her stomach when the probe sinks inside the tooth on the site hygienist mentioned.

D: Yes… yes, you are quite right. This needs to be repaired. Let’s see what we can do about it as it is quite deep… How about the other one. It was the upper left 2?
H: Upper right 2 mesially.
D: You are right it is decay but hard to say without the fiber optic if it’s advanced. I will check it on the next visit.
H: There is also something on the soft tissues I’d like you to have a look. It’s on the cheeks and under the tongue. Could it be lichen planus?

The dentist takes a look.

D: I can see what you mean. Hard to say for sure without biopsy but it does look like lichen.

Then she goes on informing the patient about lichen and asks the patient to book an appointment to decide what can be done to the lower right 6.

The patient looks shaken. Yesterday she got all clear and today she hears there is something seriously wrong with one of her back tooth plus something – possible cancer – on her soft tissues. She is not convinced when the dentist says there’s nothing to be worried about.

The dentist leaves the surgery and feels like going home. Or to the pub. This day is just one of those days she would like to forget. But she must stay to treat the rest of the patients – providing that the suction is fixed before this.

But it is time for a lunch first and she decides to go out for the full hour.

At 2.30pm

The dentist returns to the practice after the lunch break and chats with the receptionist before going to the surgery. The receptionist tells her that the repairman came in and did his magic in 15 minutes. The suction works again. Whoopty doo!

When the dentist reaches the surgery she can see through a glass tile window that the surgery’s lights are off. She opens the door and sees the unit lifted up to the highest position which the nurses do at the end of the day.

“What the hell?” comes out of the dentist’s mouth.

She walks back to the reception to see the PM.

“Why is my surgery closed?”

“Oh is it?” replies the PM and walks to the surgery.

“Oh lord” she says when she sees the surgery, “the temp must have gone home… I thought she went for a lunch!”

“I cannot believe this… this is unacceptable… did I or did I not tell you that I do not want to have this temp assisting me ever again?”

“I’m sorry but I did not have…”

“I don’t care. Your job is to keep the surgery running and I have seen only two patients today which is outrageous. And those two I have had to treat practically alone as the nurse is useless…”

“I understand. I see what I can do… I will try to reach the temp. Maybe she’s somewhere close by. I don’t understand how she thought she could go home.”

The dentist was fuming. She did not want the temp back but she did not have other options if she wanted to see the rest of the patients. But she soon learned that the temp was nowhere to be reached. The PM offers to come in to assist her.

“Well it’s better than nothing” she replies.

After she had seen the first patient for the check-up she was much calmer. She took in the next patient who had just seen a hygienist for a scale and polish.

When the patient opened the mouth she started to get annoyed again. The hygienist had not rinsed the polishing paste properly. It was in every between the teeth, this gritty blue paste.

“Seriously, who uses this much polishing paste!” she thought whilst her cheeks were getting red from the annoyance. You see, this wasn’t the first time. It happened with every patient who came to see her after the hygienist treatment. Soooo annoying!

At 5.30pm

When the day was over the dentist felt like she was the only one in this practice who knew her business. How was it possible that she was surrounded by so many incompetent people? She thought about changing jobs.

But would the patients follow? Some probably. Would it go from bad to worse? Yes possibly. Should she start her own practice? Definitely not, too much stress. Should she quit dentistry? Yes, it would be the wisest thing to do but she wouldn’t afford it as she’s still paying the student loan.

She went home fearing what the next day would bring. One thing she has learned in these couple of years of practising dentistry was not to check the next day’s patients. It was about minimising the stress. But there were so many other things she had no control over that sometimes just felt too overwhelming. Way too overwhelming.

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Part I: Is It a Skyskraper? No, It’s Your Ego
Part III: I’m Sorry but I Did Not Get Qualified So That I Can Make Coffee for You