Monday, January 28, 2008

Sweet Vindication

I know that you can't please everybody, but as a dentist whenever someone is left feeling like they didn't get what they expected it bothers me. A year ago I had a patient that was young and in braces. They came to me with pain that I diagnosed as needing a root canal and gave them a referral. A few days later we got a call from the mother who was mad and said that the endodontist (root canal specialist) said that the pain was just from her braces "and that any stupid dentist would know that." I knew the mother had probably added in a little to what the endodontist had said, but still that stung pretty badly. I obviously felt pretty confident in my diagnosis and the family kept coming to me. I worked on both the mother and father still and solved a couple big problems for them, but the daughter didn't want to see me....until today.

I was the only doctor in the office and she had pain again in that same tooth, so she had to see me. We took an xray and had definitive proof that there was an abscess and the tooth would need a root canal (large PARL for the dental nerds). She hasn't had braces for a year so that obviously isn't the source of the pain. The mom got real mad again, thankfully this time not at me! She said, "You were right the whole time and that other doctor was wrong!" She kept thanking me for doing such a good job. I was just glad to have my biggest dental negative now be a positive!

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Boo yah!

Wendy said...

Touche! I hope she apologized for being so rude.

Zappe Family said...

What sweet vindication. Love when the tables turn like that. Pat yourself on the back.

Jodee said...

Nice one Dr. Calderwood, keep it up!

Hillary Pond said...

That's been your biggest negative? You're lucky then. I get way more complaints than that no matter what I do. Maybe people trust dentists more than dance teachers.

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Bennett Family said...

sweet! gotta love it.

Anonymous said...

Just out of curiosity, what diagnostic procedures did you use the first time to tell you it was endo related? I'm just wondering why the endodontist didn't pick up on it. Was it just a gut feeling? Just kidding.

Carson Calderwood said...

Fistula, perc +, no response cold test...thus my confidence. Only difference was the PARL after a year. Needless to say I contacted the endo guy after that and let him know my "concerns."

galbraith's said...

nice- erin has had 4 root canals since we have been married. yeah, we have spent a fortune on her teeth! by the way my tag name is ccw rubicon xpress though i do not have halo yet, i am planning to get it here soon. right now i mostly playing ghost recon 2 and call of duty 4- we will definately have to play some time.-mark

Anonymous said...

Wow, I'm amazed with those positive symptoms that the endondist would say such misleading things. It's simply baffling.

Chris said...

Two things you should have done - backhand her and tell her to apologize. lol