Thread: Workplace Diplomacy...

I work at one of those 'dental mills' that you hear horror stories about, but tell myself each and every day that it's a recession and I'm glad to have a job at all....

We have a doctor from China, don't know if that really matters, but he's a particular monster. He gives injections like the patients are cattle on a farm, I've seen him open virgin teeth find nothing and then bury them under amalgam, he's left obvious cavities and buried those too. At any rate, my frustration has been building over the last few months toward this doctor but I've held my cool.

Two days ago, it spilled over.

I was assisting during a root canal on a patient and he asked for the 'oh-when'...now I try my best to help in the best manner as I can with every doctor and work hard at getting along with everyone. I'm not a vindictive person and try to find reasons why people act the way that they do before I react in a manner that will reflect poorly upon myself. After searching around for this 'oh-when' he was looking for, the doctor jumped out of his chair and started yelling, 'get out...get out, I'll finish this myself!' I ripped off my gloves and stormed out of the room, 'FINE! I have no idea what you're looking for anyway!' Thirty minutes later, the floor supervisor says that I had concocted the entire scene on purpose to embarrass him and that he never wanted me to assist him again. Well, that was it, there was going to be a showdown when I could find time to corner him.

After work the next day, I found him alone in the breakroom (I didn't want to do this in public). I went off. How DARE he say that I was doing anything to compromise myself, the doctor, or the patient and that he should be ashamed of himself. Furthermore, how dare you go talking to everyone else in the office about how he didn't want to work with me in the future and that a real man should look someone in the eyes and air their grievances man-to-man instead of spreading rumors and lies. I asked him if we were on the same page and he said that we were, but before I stormed out of the breakroom, I noticed that his hand was shaking and he had a look on his face that he was visibly shaken by the incident. He probably deserved more for treating patients like crap for years, but let that go since I wanted my rant to be short and sweet.

So today, he pulls me into a back room...I'm thinking great, I'm going to have to beat this guy down when he goes for the jugular....not particularly what I have an interest in. He says that today was going to be his last day and wanted to work with me. I audibly scoffed at him and told him no and turned to walk away and he touched my shoulder as I was leaving and said please. I sighed a bit and said alright. The day went remarkably well and we got along just fine...of course I think that we were both on our best behavior but that didn't really matter at that point. At the end of the day, he pulled me aside and said that I was a good assistant and should keep up the good work. I thanked him, shook his hand, and patted him on the shoulder.

After that, he turned, and walked out of my office forever....

Reading your story made me think of how important it is to keep a cool head. Your restraint and obvious good manners is a way harder thing to do than go off right away and waited for the proper moment, especially when you know you were right. It has taken me a lifetime to learn that and still need more work. Your restraint and manners in the end must have had a deep impact on the doctor. Most important in the story you told was how big you were and that redemption triumphed. Well done and good lesson to us all. Thanks for sharing.

Yep, Not me at all. I would have gone nuts the first time I saw him doing a botch job on someones teeth. I don't really trust any kind of doctor though. Had a few bad ones in my time.


Mick

Why didn't you report him to the authorities if his competency is in question?

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Why didn't you report him to the authorities if his competency is in question?

The reason is because the sad truth is that the dentist easily gets out of these kind of cases. All they have to do is to bring you up before a board of inquiry and ask if you are qualified to make a diagnosis of carious lesions within teeth. Technically, only a dentist can make a clinical diagnosis so it's one of those things that unless another dentist is present and watching him work, there's nothing that can be done....sad. Now after watching first hand several thousand times, I can see and tell what is going on in a tooth, but to the California Dental Board I'm an idiot because I don't have the title DDS behind my name.

so what's an "oh-when"?

Lol....he was asking for an 'oven' which is where part of the miscommunication came from. The gutta percha (rubber points used to fill the area where the roots used to be) need to be heated using one of a few methods. One technique is to place the points into a heating device to warm them up prior to placing them. On top of the thick accent that made it hard to understand what he wanted, the term of oven is not the best term for the device. The term most commonly used is obturator.