I have been going to this practice almost two decades. Their recent addition of an APRN is not good. I may never go back, depends upon resolution.
I was supposed to get a root canal this morning and suddenly dental professional of same duration gave me reason to question treatment. I don't believe that he was prescribing adequate antibiotics as infection keeps returning. He's done pain meds but not enough that I can take them during day as I cry in pain; have to save them for night misery. What is needed is an endodontist and adequate pain relief so I can have half a functional life while I locate said specialist.
This aprn took one look at me in my grimy sweats after weeks of insufficient pain relief, little sleep, and the anxiety of a root canal desperately needed not happening and decided I was a. doctor shopping for meds and b. somehow accused me of not taking psych meds, something I never brought up, and which wasn't true. She tried to deflect her assumption and bias as if I had mentioned anything about anxiety meds at all other than that I do not take benzos any longer because they're addictive and dangerous. Apparently being in pain and having a normal panic attack, something that wouldn't make any real doctor in office who has known me for years blink, had her ready to call men in white coats with straightjackets. She might as well have said "I think you are a scary psychopath, not a person w PTSD and anxiety also in physical pain." I know GP's are not trained in psychology but this is just sheer prejudice and ignorance. She said I should take a new antibiotic as the one I'm on isn't clearing the infection. When I pointed out the obvious problem of having been given two scripts for a single day of pain relief in fourteen days, she said to go to an ER. My experience from taking pain meds a dozen times in 30 years is that the ER will not treat a pain problem for more than a night. A course of medication for five-ten days is given by a doctor who knows you well enough to know you are not an addict and not going to become one if they give you the blessing of pain respite for a few lousy days until problem can be addressed.
Her "medical" advice was to go to Aspen Dental. If my dentist can't solve this issue, a doctor who doesn't have the confidence and credentials to work for someone other than a commercial dentist isn't going to find the problem.
It was all I could do to get out of the office without breaking down in tears over the failure to be heard and any acknowledgment of the problem given. I overheard the discussion through the door before she came in. She was being coached on how to handle not helping me. As she told me she was going to send me out with no plan for specialist referrals, no plan for pain help if the dentist continued to fail me, and no way to afford the $3k ER visit in the event of more unbearable pain, she was shaking and fidgeting and unable to meet my eyes.
Out of spite, after I left, she refused to call in the antibiotic she recommended strongly because the dentist "is treating me." But he's NOT. That's why I went to my longtime GP. Because I lost faith and I wanted another opinion and a referral to a QUALIFIED specialist... not a commercial dentist outfit who can spend millions on ads instead of retaining highly skilled professionals. Neither Josephine nor Dr. A would have suggested Aspen Dental. I question whether this APRN even knows what an endodontist is, because that is what I should've been told to find for this situation.
Nurses who brought me in told me that pain medication could be prescribed, so I also didn't appreciate the duplicitousness of the office staff member who told me that it was not an option and that the office simply doesn't prescribe pain meds at all, period, full stop. I don't need to be lied to as well as being presumed based on disheveled appearance as a "junkie."
I have asked for pain relief a handful of times in my life and never been treated like this or ever even turned down. I was in trauma treatment next to a zillion addicts, and I'm acutely aware of the opioid crisis and the need to be careful and not use addictive substances often or casually. In addition to the addicts, people in horrible pain are suffering because doctors can't trust their own judgment to prescribe without worrying about scrutiny. While I am sensitive to all this, nothing excuses the flat wall of zero affect and empathy I encountered with this APRN. read more
