ME AND MY DENTIST!

 ME AND MY DENTIST!          

 

The other day I saw a caption, which read ‘DENTIST USES SEXY DRESSES TO DISTRACT PATIENT’. The article mentioned how a dentist (somewhere in Munich) has bought for herself, and for her some 10 or so nurses, tight – fitting, cleavage – maximizing dresses to distract worried patients while they worked on their teeth. According to the doctor and to put it in her own words – “The most important thing is to take away patients’ fear. The sight of cleavages gets patients narcotized and distracted from pain rather quickly. Some patients’ mouths are already wide open before taking the chair.”

This fleshy idea really works or not, I do not know. But one thing I am sure of is that it must have increased her male clientele. Here I shall say nothing about her unethical practice. But I would rather dwell on the fear that a patient has when he or she goes under a surgeon’s knife (kind cruelty of surgeon’s knife). My experience (Recently, three years back to be precise, I had got dental procedures done on seven of my teeth!) tells me the physical pain is nothing, one can easily bear it, but the real pain is when the doctor gives the astronomical bill.

My dental treatment was an ordeal in itself. There were, may be, some 30 to 40 sittings. There wasn’t soothing sights for my eyes at this clinic, but all the procedures were not that painful either. First there was cleaning then was the extraction of one of my teeth. Each sitting I would ask the dentist as to how much it would ultimately cost me. With a broad smile he would always tell not to worry about the cost. Then I had some 7 implants done – first the temporary plastic ones and then the permanent ones---- at  the age of 65 years, as I was then (now I am 68, almost), these 7 permanent may out live me. But the biggest ‘then’ was when I got his bill in my hands – A bill of Rs.84000/-. My eyes almost popped out. I did not have any tooth ache. The pain was transferred to some other location.

And here was the place where the patients’ mouths were left wide open after leaving the dentist’s chair – not just some patients but almost all. This is Mumbai and not Munich. Here it leaves a big wide hole in patient’s pocket!

                                                                   Vinay Trilokekar