Saddest Dental Office Story so far...

[PCIntern]

We'll do this 'clinically':

A 51 year-old female presented today, with a history of attending this practice of 27 years. Her chief complaint was that her job was eliminated nineteen months ago. Unable to find work, she had to move to rural Pennsylvania with her racist, mentally-unfit mother. The domicile consists of a 12x15 room shared by the patient, her mother, and seven fully grown dogs. Cell-phone photographs reveal a level of filth and depression hitherto not seen by this practitioner in the context of his patients.

After the patient's crying subsided, she begged the practitioner for a job, money, food, and quite literally anything to help her get out of this environment which, she states, may kill her shortly, one way or the other.

Having directed her to various social service organizations to which he has connections, the practitioner went to sit in his office and stared at the wall for a while. He completed his day, and then wrote this post.

Diagnosis: Bush Recession in extremis

Prognosis: Guarded to Poor

On edit: The patient did not incur a bill for services, of course.

[Orrex]

1. No doubt she won't bother to seek work, now that unemployment's been extended.

According to Bunning, at least...


What a sad story, and I fear that stories like it are not uncommon.

[DesertFlower]

2. very sad. nt

[Beaverhausen]

3. you are an angel

You helped her with resources and you didn't charge her for your own services.

[Sal Minella]

4. Don't think PC is an Angel. Think he's a good Democrat, though.

By golly.

[Echo In Light]

5. k/r

[lpbk2713]

6. This is the famous Bush legacy we heard so much about.

You have my respect and my admiration, sir.

[Behind the Aegis]

7. What a mensch, you are!

[rhett o rick]

8. A different sad dental story. A man came into the free health clinic and ask if they had dental

services. His tooth was badly aching. The clinic explained they had no dental services. The man apologized took a knife and grabbed one of the workers and said, "Please call the police." They did, and he went to jail peacefully, and got his tooth fixed.

I hope my story doesn't diminish the great thing you did. Just wanted to tell this story.

[pitohui]

9. really? in what jail was this?

i don't want to say i'm a skeptic abt the story but most ex-cons i see have terrible teeth, no evidence that they're getting free medical/dental care in jail/prison

one of my friends was in federal prison and basically has NO teeth now...

it just seems like a variant of the welfare cadillac queen story to me, all these stories of someone, somewhere getting all this marvelous care in jail

what would stop the guards, etc from saving money by saying that you were malingering and refusing to give you treatment? there have been scandals in the past of women in prison in this area who were pregnant (because of rape) and could not even get an abortion scheduled and it's pretty hard to claim that a PREGNANT prisoner is faking...

a toothache is pretty invisible, ya know? i guess if i'm saying if it worked out for this guy you know, good on him, but my guess is that most people would just end up being arrested and still not getting any work done on their teeth

[asdjrocky]

10. I got a tooth pulled in jail.

Some of the best care I've ever received.

[PCIntern]

12. I externed at Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary

a long long time ago...many stories

[asdjrocky]

13. Yeah.

My teeth are going fast. I was joking with a friend that maybe if I did thirty days I could get dentures.

I think what you do is wonderful, helping people is always the best medicine.

[monmouth]

17. You really need to start writing your memoirs or a book on your

life PC. Always a good and interesting tidbit here and there and an enjoyable read. Thanks for the story, and hopefully your patient will find the help she needs...

[PCIntern]

19. I am writing...

eventually you shall read of this...it is unlike any other book about dentists or doctors...

[Mira]

34. WOW - now that's news! I can only imagine what that book will be like.

I very much admire your dedication to humans and their trials.

[truedelphi]

36. No one understands the pain of a bad tooth till they are in that situation.

I was at that point myself last week. Luckily there was enough money for me to obtain everything I needed, from the first decent dentist I have dealt within fifteen years or more.

But I really was thinking that I might jut get drunk (Something I never ever do) and find a knife and cut the thing out of me.

This man's solution seems damn logical in comparison. Yet every day of our lives, our elected guardians tell us that what is wrong in America is the terrorist problem?!? And not our rotten HCR Senate Bill type scenarios.

:shrug:

[wtmusic]

11. Thank you. nt

[Mika]

14. Dentists suck, drive Ferraris, and are all a rip-off.

:sarcasm: X 200


Bless you PCI. :toast:

I used to do a week a month, now its two (one at the pro bono clinic, and now another at the office).


:hug:

---

[PCIntern]

15. thought that might be you...

:hi:


P.S. You forgot...

[badgerpup]

33. Last month one of the clinics in town...

...did a "Dentistry from the Heart" program. They set up a one-day clinic in which they saw over 300 people...:wow:
With that volume of patients, they could only do one procedure for each person; a cleaning, a filling, or an extraction...but those 300+ cleaning/filling/extractions were a BIG help to those who received them.

I was in the high 200's...and the techs and assistants were still courteous and kind and respectful towards me as a person...despite the fact that I'm a low-income, marginal and obviously slightly 'off' person.

My turn came near the end of a long day, when they'd seen over 250 people. Most of us had been waiting in a very large tent with ONE heater. The temp was in the high 20's and dropping, the humidity was high due to snowy sleet, so the cold was pretty penetrating. Small, hard, folding chairs. Toothaches of varying degrees. People were uncomfortable to say the least...yet the mood and attitude was surprisingly positive on both sides.

It could have been hell on roller skates, but it wasn't (I know, because I asked...this is part of my 'slightly off'-ness...I ask about things). Busybusybusy, pressure ON because there were at least 300 people to be seen in a 10 hour period (they managed to help 314! :wow:)
They did a lotta good work that day. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Mine was just a filling...but I kept thinking about all the people sitting there with EXCRUCIATING "Please, just kill me" toothaches :cry: who were now able to get that stabbing infected tooth OUT...and were no longer in pain from it and could start feeling better.
Not just pain from the tooth, but clearing up the illness caused from an abscess or infection. That can really drag one down...and how many people didn't have to deal with that any more?

So yeah, I'd have to say that a lot of dentists (and their techs, assistants and other henchfolk) are pretty wonderful people.

[Quantess]

16. I wonder how she pays for her cell phone?

Or maybe she lost service and now uses it as a camera?

[PCIntern]

18. ...it's hard to get a job when they can't call you.

Cell phones are not luxury items for many anymore...it can be the only link which they have to civilization if they're homeless or shuttling between/among folks.

[xchrom]

20. I'm sure you do wonder about her cell phone.

And that says more about you than her.

[Quantess]

21. It does?

Asking a question about a second hand story about a woman in poverty makes me...what?

IMO, for you to criticize me for a simple question, makes you a self-righteous finger wagger on a high horse.

[ljm2002]

22. Many people these days use prepaid cell phones...

...so they're not on the hook for monthly service charges, just for what they use. Would not surprise me if that was the case for this person.

[Quantess]

26. That makes sense.

I know someone who can sometimes be reached with a pre-paid cell phone, and sometimes can't be reached because the minutes ran out.

[prolesunited]

27. I have a prepaid service and it's cheaper than my land line

I get so few calls on my land line that I might just cancel it.

Not every cell phone is an iPhone. Virgin and Tracfone sell very basic models for $20 or less.

[hunter]

32. My cell phone is about $7.00 a month.

Cell phones are often the last link people have to society.

[elocs]

23. Why aren't Democrats everywhere referring to it as the "Bush Recession"?

:shrug:

[PCIntern]

25. Because we're dopes...

because the rethugs handed us the best material since the Group was writing Your Show of Shows, and we just can't do anything right...

Pisses me off no end...

[elocs]

30. Well I say it's right sporting of Dems to let them define the terms and set the debate

just so Democrats can be on the defensive. You have to admit, the Republicans have got this ploy down pat. Nothing succeeds like success.

[nadinbrzezinski]

24. And my friend you should write this in not so a clinical setting

but your diagnosis is RIGHT ON.

:hugs:

Been there, done that, got the T-Shirt, mostly with abused women who were in an ahem bad relationship.

And it never ever got any easier

[prolesunited]

28. The patient's mother sound like

one of the people featured on the show "Hoarders." It's a very compelling show. Participants have varying degrees of mental illness. It's sad and tragic. I hope help is found for the patient's mother as well.

[Blue-Jay]

29. Is it safe?

[PCIntern]

31. Try to locate screenwriter William Goldman's essay

on going to the dentist following his Marathon Man era...

funny!

[csziggy]

35. Thank you for giving her an ear!

I am surprised that your community does not have some form of dental care. A few weeks ago when I was in my dentist's office (finally getting a crown on the tooth that got the root canal last year) he had a student technician observing. She had been putting in work at the local county health clinic where they do basic dental work - fillings and pulling teeth. Part of the discussion was about a local program for referring patients who needed more work to dentists that do pro bono cases. My dentist said he does two or three cases a month, so does his partner.

Maybe one reason our community does have this program is the existence of the medical and dental schools since they can be utilized at the health clinic and around town for free work. I am not sure how the system is run. But it was good to hear that my relatively new to me dentist is as generous as he is.