"The other dentist"

Let's talk about a man I call "the other dentist." Some background: this past week or so, I've had some bad pain on one side of my mouth, resulting in hyper-sensitivity to temperature and an aching jaw. Finally I caved and decided to go to the dentist. Since I'm in Orem now, I looked up dentists covered by my insurance provider and basically just chose one. I don't even know what his name is, so I just call him "the other dentist." Because I really resent him lol. Here's why:
I went to see him, let him know the symptoms and where it felt like their origins were, and his assistant took an X-ray--one X-ray of one part of my mouth. Really thorough, right? "The other dentist" brings the X-ray in, and starts talking about molar 19 and how it's starting to crack, blah blah blah=$1400. With insurance, I'd be paying $458 out of my pocket. He wanted to put a crown on that bottom molar. In his words, "We'll put a crown on it, see how it does, and if it doesn't do well, we'll have to do a root canal." In my head, I'm thinking, "You want to make me pay $458 for a procedure you're not even sure is the right one? How bout we get it right the first time?" He gets up to leave, and before he can take off and forget all about me, I ask him what I can do for the pain in the meantime. Isn't it his job to address these issues?? He decides maybe he'll prescribe me amoxycillin (which I'm allergic to) and lortab (which I hate with a fiery passion.) Then he forgets to give me said prescription. The heck, man?

Nuh-uh. No way. I'm not about to let this dude operate on my teeth when he's not even sure about any of the things we've talked about. He inspired about as much confidence as a drunk weatherman.
So I call my family dentist who is also in my family ward. He just so happens to be out of the office for the next week. My mom calls another family friend, Dr. Larsen, and he got me in yesterday. Thank heaven. Because he looked at my mouth, took X-rays (of all my teeth) and said there was nothing wrong with the tooth "the other dentist" wanted to crown. I was kind of seething inside when I heard that. The real problem wasn't even on the bottom half of my mouth. "The other dentist" was looking at the wrong pole. He was looking in Antarctica, and the problem was in the North Pole. Problem tooth is number 5--a tooth on the top of my mouth, 4th from the back. That one needs a root canal. It was as simple as Dr. Larsen using an ice stick and placing it on each tooth to find the culprit. It took about 15 seconds for us to discover which tooth was the guilty party. The pain I was having in my lower jaw is called "referred pain," a result of the layout of dental nerve pathways which can cause pain to be felt in location different from its real source. I felt like slapping "the other dentist," but since I don't carry out violent mental plans (no matter how ingenious they are), and because he was 40 miles away from the dental chair I was in, I didn't.

If I had let "the other dentist" have his way, I'd have paid $458 for an operation I didn't need, which would have entirely missed the real problem. I'd be $500 out and still in pain, with an imminent abscess. The real problem, incidentally, will still cost me a pretty penny since it entails a root canal and a crown. But I'm content because I trust the dentist doing the work, and he even showed me what's going on, explained how it works, etc.
The more I think about "the other dentist," the more I resent him. This guy works at Monarch Dental with a whole bunch of other dentists--it's not a private practice. They're near campus, so I'm sure a significant part of their patient base is students who are one-timers. They have no incentive to provide the best service since, no matter what they do, most of their patients won't be lifetime ones. I feel so taken advantage of by the guy! It's gonna take me awhile to forgive him lol. But seriously, growing up, I guess I was ignorant enough (I call it innocent, misplaced faith) about medical matters to assume that, go to any doctor/dentist, you'll get the same diagnosis and treatment. Obviously, that's a far cry from reality, but you'd think they'd at least try to make a correct diagnosis. Right? Is my resentment apparent yet? lol I hate feeling like I have to be wary every time I visit a doctor or dentist because they don't really have my best interests at heart. I'd rather feel like I can trust them. But "the other dentist" poked a big, fat hole in that mentality. And when I think about the fact that he had the X-ray he needed to diagnose the right problem...grrr. Either he didn't look at the whole X-ray, didn't recognize the problem, or didn't tell me the real problem. Dr. Larsen, on the other hand, suspected the diagnosis from a cursory exam. He told me that it doesn't even take a dentist to recognize the decay apparent in the X-ray.

In better news for my future, I think I've flossed three times since I got home from my appointment yesterday. This girl will now floss as diligently as she has brushed. Take that, "the other dentist."