I had the pleasure of starting my weekend off with a visit to the dentist at noon on Saturday. I was kinda dreading it all week and that must have affected my sleep as I awoke somewhat restless and too early on Saturday morning.
When I arrived at the dental office, the vibe was off almost immediately. I’ve been with this practice long enough that when I walk in, they know who I am, what time my appointment is, and why I’m there. About two years ago, I actually stopped going up to the front desk because they would always go, “yeah, we know who you are, just have a seat”. So now, I just make eye contact with whoever is at the front desk, say hi, and just proceed to the waiting area.
This time, there was only person at the front desk, and I’d never seen her before. Nevertheless, I looked at her, said hi and began to walk over to take a seat. She stopped me right away and asked me who I was. Weird. I had to backtrack and went up to the desk to identify myself. She confirmed my name and then also wanted to confirm I was there for some fillings, which I said yes. Only after that was I offered a seat to wait.
After sitting for about a minute, a dental hygienist emerged and said my name. I got up and said hi. I followed her to the back of the practice, which I’d never been to before. She led me to an actual room with a real door. This office is pretty much an open office plan and the treatment areas are not separated by walls, just like bookshelves instead. You can hear other people getting their teeth worked on, their conversations, and I’m pretty sure we’re all sharing the aerosols generated by all the tools. Anyways, this time, this was a real treatment room with walls and a door! What a treat!
They explained to me this was the kids treatment room. The walls were still pretty stark but there were some kids decorations stuck to the wall to give it a more playful appearance but that was it. I didn’t even see a TV on the ceiling which the other areas had.
After I sat down, a dentist I’d never seen before arrived. He was new to the practice and I don’t know where the other dentists I usually see were. He was very friendly though and made sure I knew exactly what was going on. He also made sure that if I had any questions, he’d answer them.
As for the actual procedure, it went as well as it could, considering I got poked with three needles, had that awful dental dam stretched across my mouth which restricted my breathing, was subjected to drilling, and I was in a full-body clench for almost an hour. Other than that, it was a great time.
Once they were done, they released back into the waiting room like I was a formally caged animal. I had to settle up because my insurance doesn’t cover all the filings.
I mentioned the vibe was off because I haven’t seen any of the normal front desk staff now for my last two visits. Like I mentioned, I’ve been going here for years and I can recognize multiple people from that office now. It seems like they only have one person working the desk now and that person has been new for the last two times. They also have this new dentist now, who I enjoyed having him work on me though, but I wonder if his arrival was part of some recent big changes to the practice. Do dental practices suffer from layoffs like the games industry? The economy is not in great shape, so I wonder if people are foregoing dental care to save money. If that’s true, dental offices aren’t gonna make that money.
Well, I’m not going back to that damn office for another few months, so I’ll check on them then.