A friend of mine who is new in town needed to get her wisdom tooth extracted. Being the only friend of hers who has lived her life in Delhi, she rightfully sought my help to look for a trusted 'dentist'.
While most of us have a family physician, do we also have a family dentist? Well, I don't have one. I know a couple of them, but a 'family' dentist is yet to feature in my list. This got me thinking...what possibly could be the reason for it. While I was fiddling with this thought, I managed to find a dentist for her. He was an acquaintance & mum had recently visited him. He seemed like a safe bet. & let me not lead you incorrectly, he did the job quite satisfactorily.
The dreaded day for her arrived soon. On our way to the clinic, thoughts of the poem by Ogden Nash 'This Is Going To Hurt Just A Little Bit' kept doing the rounds to lighten our conversations. Quoting some lines here:
"One thing I like less than most things is sitting in a dentist chair with my mouth wide open.
And that I will never have to do it again is a hope that I am against hope hopen."
It was a modest outfit. White as most clinics are. There was a regular attendant, reception with waiting seats, water booth, some magazines & dailies, the ornamental dental chairs and there were some informative posters of tooth related problems, graphically explained, that hung on the walls. I am sure you are familiar with one, if not more of such clinics.
The ordeal began for her & I waited as eagerly as her for it to end. While it went fine for the most part. The post surgery discussion with the doctor led me to the answer of why I don't think or have a 'family' dentist.
It's the cross-selling. That's it.
When I visit my physician to get cured for viral/any other problem, I don't get recommendations to fix some other part of my body that isn't even remotely relevant to the problem at hand. But most dentists end up doing this. The conversations about "why don't you get your teeth bleached", "scaling must also be done", "you know veneers are great these days" & oh, how could I forget the recent favorite of all, "braces". It happened with her too, on different grounds though.
It's the cross-selling. That's it.
When I visit my physician to get cured for viral/any other problem, I don't get recommendations to fix some other part of my body that isn't even remotely relevant to the problem at hand. But most dentists end up doing this. The conversations about "why don't you get your teeth bleached", "scaling must also be done", "you know veneers are great these days" & oh, how could I forget the recent favorite of all, "braces". It happened with her too, on different grounds though.
& then the conversations about re-visits ensued. While I know that we must visit a dentist every three months for regular check-ups, let's just be honest here...we are Indians. We don't go by the book. Hell, we don't even use measuring cups! We only visit a doc when a problem arises. Period. Why do dentists not come to terms with this reality. Another rhetoric why!
While I hope that there must be some who are different & even the ones who follow these mechanics must have their reasons but, the conversations around 'cross-selling', 'unnecessary revisits', 'exorbitant fees' etc. make it seem more like a business than a noble profession.
Maybe what I have is a skewed view. Just maybe.
