I should start off by stating that I am a nightmare of dental patient. I am sure that most dentists I've dealth with have gone into early retirement following their appointments with me.
Knowing this about myself, I was HORRIFIED when I learned that I had to get a root canal. I was referred to Dr. Mani by the Gentle Dental office in Brighton. I called his office on the phone and I spoke directly with him in order to give him the full background on my dental anxiety. I assured him the I would yelp, cry, tremble, shiver...you name it. I basically offered him an out, all but telling him that if he didn't think he wanted to deal with me, I could go elsewhere.
When I told him I was thinking of pursuing an appointment with a sedation dentist, he assured me that he could give me the same oral sedative, and that it would send me straight to la-la land. There was, he said, a good chance that I would remember nothing, or very little, about the procedure.
When I went in to the office for my appointment, he was as lovely and kind as he had been on the phone.
As the root canal got underway, it became apaprent that the medication he had given me had the same sedative effect as, say, a tic-tac. I was wide awake in my own personal root canal hell. And yea, I'm gonna admit it...I was NOT at my best. I did everything that one can possibly do to compromise one's dignity.
Crying? Check.
Yelping? Check.
Squirming? Check
Trembling? Check
Pleading for some merciful all powerful being to descend upon the scene and end it all? Check.
The thing that was kind of a bummer was that Dr. Mani obviously became annoyed with me somewhere along the line, and asked me a few times, "Why are you so upset? Calm down. Relax." (Not kindly, mind you, but with brimming annoyance).
After the appointment was over, I apologized for my antics in the dental chair. The dental assistants were absolutely lovely, brushing off my apologies as totally unnecessary. They were sympathetic and caring and made me feel like I might NOT be the biggest idiot in the entire universe. (Even though, come on, on the heels of a root canal, I wasn't lookin' so cool).
When I got to the front desk, I apologized again to Dr. Mani. All I got in return was his expression of gratitude that he does not have to deal with many patients like me and that it's lucky for him that I'm a real rarity in his patient load.
I was dumbstruck. Did he really say that crap out loud, you ask? Yeah, he did. He didn't wait until I was out of the office and safely away from earshot to bash me. He did it right there in front of me.
The crap part is that I tried to do the right thing in warning this guy that it was going to get ugly. He could have encouraged me to go to the sedation dentist as I had been poised to do. I gave him the low-down, and he urged me to come in nevertheless. I felt like kind of a jackass when he made his contempt for my anxiety so obvious.
I kind of wanted to say, "Well, it's doctors like you who CREATE patients like me." But I didn't bother. My face was all numbed up and crap so I would have just sounded like even more of a bumbling idiot than I already looked to be.
I paid my 340 bucks (damn, that root canal must have run around 1700 bucks if that was 20% of it)
I experienced some pain that following the procedure that I thought mgiht be atypical. I decided to swallow my pride and call to ask. I left a message and never got a call back.
But OK, maybe I should give the good news now.
According to my own dentist, this root canal was performed expertly and was "elegant". You'd have to be a dentist to describe a root canal as such. read more