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Every dentist goes back and forth from one century to another a few times
a day.
In one room we are forced to extract a tooth, in a method straight out of
the 18th century. The technologies we use, and the techniques we use have
not changed since the civil war, or the revolutionary war.
And in the room next door we do procedures like laser fillings, computer
designed crowns that did not exist in the latest years of the 20th
century.
In many cases we have to make this century leap on the same patient at the
same appointment. It is something we take for granted, but it is a
maddening experience sometimes.
We go to great lengths to be judged by our patients as being state of the
art. But sometimes events occur brought upon usually by the patient’s
neglect, which force us to be judged by standards that defy modernity.
Teeth still don’t come with handles to help us get them out.
“How long can I let my house remain on fire before I must call the fire
department” is still the means by which vast hordes of people use to
determine when it is time to go to the dentist.
No matter how much we try to keep abreast of the latest in pain
controlling technologies, we are still often forced by the patient’s
dental neglect to be the best “saw-bones-amputationist” which the civil
war could train.
This not the fault of the dentist. |
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