Not So Gentle Dental

Maybe I should have been more skeptical of this outpost of a chain dental practice that's wedged between an Irish bar of ill repute and a check cashing store in Brighton Center. Maybe the homeless guy living in the lobby of the building that houses said dental practice should have been a flashing warning beacon. Maybe the receptionist who made Tammy Faye Baker look all dewey and fresh-faced should have served as a deterrent.

But I was in pain and the dentist who I've revered and respected for the past couple of years was actually MEAN to me when I called up to tell him I was experiencing some discomfort following the repair he did on my fractured tooth. I normally get a lot of patience, sympathy, and prompt treatment from this guy. I expected him to clear his calendar and race into the office to put me out of my misery when I called. Instead, he told me to keep taking 800 mg. of Advil every 8 hours until my scheduled dental cleaning on January 21st. Keep in mind, I had already been taking that dosage of Advil since December 20th, and I placed the call in question on January 4th.

I'm no great fan of my stomach, and sometimes I feel pretty anxious to blast it away, but burning a hole through it with Advil didn't really appeal to me.

So, I made the call to Gentle Dental. I knew they had lots of office locations, and, most importantly, Saturday hours.

I got an appointment for the Brighton Center location on Saturday. Two seconds after evaluating my X-Ray, the dentist proclaimed me in need of a root canal. So we got that underway. I can't really bring myself to describe it again. Read the previous post if you really need to know about my dental trauma.

At the conclusion of the appointment, the doctor handed me an Rx for vicodin. Clearly, then, he was anticipating pain. I thought I was being a good patient in asking, "What kind of pain is normal? What should I expect and when should I be alarmed?"

He assured me that he had left me poised to experience low, dull, throbbing pain, but that there would not be any nerve pain or sensation.

GREAT. Now we're in business.

This morning when I woke up, I almost fainted at the sharp, shooting, through-the-nerve pain in my tooth. I literally almost fell over when it hit me. I've never felt anything like it before and I never EVER want to experience it again.

Had there been a cliff nearby, I would have happily walked right off it. I do live on the 6th floor of my building, so I could have jumped out the window, but these storm windows are a bitch to open. Plus, knowing me, the only damage I'd do in the fall is break more teeth, which would make this whole scenario worse.

Anyway, I figured, "OK, this pain is exactly what he said NOT to expect. I'm going to call the emergency number." So, I look up the office online. There is a phone number there, and it explains that if a patient calls after normal business hours (Sunday), she should expect to get the emergency beeper number on the outgoing voicemail.

Thank Goodness.

So, I call and guess what......????

Not only is there no human voice announcing the number as belonging to Gentle Dental of Brighton, but there is absolutely NO information regarding any emergency contact number. There was just some automated voice saying, "Hello. Please leave a message."

FOR REALZZZ??????????

Yeah....for realz.

In an utter state of panic, I called the Brookline Gentle Dental location, and I get the absolute nicest, kindest human being on the phone. He is a dentist and he explained that what I'm going through is normal and that the other dentist probably should not have promised me absolutely no nerve pain. He said some patients have no nerve pain, but others do. I guess I'm one of the lucky ones.

Funny how your nerves calm down when you are in pain, but you at least know that it is "normal."

I left a scathing message for the corporate Gentle Dental folks. I don't give a shit. I am not going back there to have my root canal finished.

But come on, people, whose job was it to check the freakin' outgoing voice message and switch it on when the office closed yesterday??? That seems like something that should be in the normal realm of responsibilities for the office receptionist. She was probably too busy putting on another layer of foundation to get the job done.


The guy on call from that office is probably all psyched to have a nice, quiet weekend. Meanwhile, the Brookline office is all swamped with emergency calls and shit. Or maybe they just did a caller ID thing on their phone and programmed it to thwart my attempts to contact them. Everybody else got the proper outgoing message, but I was call blocked. After all, it's easier than having me in there shaking, trembling, crying, and whatever the hell else I did to compromise the very core of my integrity, self-respect, and dignity.

Anyway, I took about 800 Advil this morning to quell that pain. I had to turn on the radio to have some sort of distraction. I put on NPR. I figured they might be running a story about some third world country whose residents lots are worse than my own. Again, seeking solace in the misery of others is a great therapy for one's own suffering. Instead, there was a story on about the economy. They were talking about how Obama should try to get to the "root" of the problem by "extracting" the expendable income and taking a "bite" out of.....

whatever. I turned it off at that point.

Really, NPR...tooth metaphors. Is that the best you can do? Don't you have any sympathy for my suffering?

Apparently not.

OK, I'm out.