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lessons learned at the oral surgeon
Mar. 17th, 2005 07:44 pm1. I understand that heat increases swelling and bleeding, and that I should be applying ice rather than heat. I still don't like the idea of no hot tea for the next 2 days. (Along with no soup and no hot cereal, while I'm also avoiding crunchy and chewy foods, anything spicy or salty, and dairy products. Fortunately, I'm not hungry yet.)
2. "Open, please," or "Please turn this way" feel more professional and more specific than "Come to me." I don't know what is customary under the circumstances.
3. The procedure was long and exhausting, and I'm convinced it removed all the damaged and infected tissue. Pausing to take x-rays in the middle ("oops, it looks like we need to drill a little more") probably helped. When the x-ray showed it was finished, I believed it really was finished.
4. Most people jump a little when a phone nearby rings/beeps/vibrates/whatever. The oral surgeon had his phone on his belt or in his pocket, very near my head. I'm impressed at the steadiness of his hands with the drill when it goes off...but I still wish he hadn't left the ringer on when he was doing THAT.
5. I need to get better estimates of the cost of dental work before making decisions. Dentists give me estimates, based on what they think something will cost and what they think Delta Dental customarily pays. I read the estimates fairly casually. My perceptions are skewed by the notion that insurance should usually cover most of a procedure's cost. Or at least half, unless something extraordinary is going on. I need to discard that notion altogether, and remember that there are several unrelated "Delta Dental" insurance plans, and my company has the kind that pays for the least care. (Then they charged me for doing the procedure on a molar, an administrative error which made it even MORE expensive.)
6. Pain control is an uncomfortable subject. The oral surgeon could joke about it, and he was reasonable about giving me novocaine. When the novocaine wore off and he needed to keep drilling, I asked for more novocaine. I could be pushy enough to get it, but not quite pushy enough to make him wait for it to take effect. The surgical assistant told me to use ice, ibuprofen, a special antiseptic rinse, and vicodin. I was sufficiently upset about the co-pay to leave without getting prescriptions for any of that. When I came back half an hour later, they had an envelope for me, with a prescription for ibuprofen. Why, why, should I pay prescription prices for 800mg tablets of ibuprofen instead of taking the regular 200mg tablets of ibuprofen 4 at a time? After I sorted out the billing error, I asked about the antiseptic mouth rinse. I asked if there was anything else for me? No. I didn't have the nerve to press for the vicodin prescription. And the doctor (or surgical assistant or office manager) forgot all about it. It's probably safest that I not take narcotic prescriptions to the pharmacy from different doctors, lest the pharmacist think I'm a drug addict and stop filling any of my prescriptions. I hate having to think this way.
2. "Open, please," or "Please turn this way" feel more professional and more specific than "Come to me." I don't know what is customary under the circumstances.
3. The procedure was long and exhausting, and I'm convinced it removed all the damaged and infected tissue. Pausing to take x-rays in the middle ("oops, it looks like we need to drill a little more") probably helped. When the x-ray showed it was finished, I believed it really was finished.
4. Most people jump a little when a phone nearby rings/beeps/vibrates/whatever. The oral surgeon had his phone on his belt or in his pocket, very near my head. I'm impressed at the steadiness of his hands with the drill when it goes off...but I still wish he hadn't left the ringer on when he was doing THAT.
5. I need to get better estimates of the cost of dental work before making decisions. Dentists give me estimates, based on what they think something will cost and what they think Delta Dental customarily pays. I read the estimates fairly casually. My perceptions are skewed by the notion that insurance should usually cover most of a procedure's cost. Or at least half, unless something extraordinary is going on. I need to discard that notion altogether, and remember that there are several unrelated "Delta Dental" insurance plans, and my company has the kind that pays for the least care. (Then they charged me for doing the procedure on a molar, an administrative error which made it even MORE expensive.)
6. Pain control is an uncomfortable subject. The oral surgeon could joke about it, and he was reasonable about giving me novocaine. When the novocaine wore off and he needed to keep drilling, I asked for more novocaine. I could be pushy enough to get it, but not quite pushy enough to make him wait for it to take effect. The surgical assistant told me to use ice, ibuprofen, a special antiseptic rinse, and vicodin. I was sufficiently upset about the co-pay to leave without getting prescriptions for any of that. When I came back half an hour later, they had an envelope for me, with a prescription for ibuprofen. Why, why, should I pay prescription prices for 800mg tablets of ibuprofen instead of taking the regular 200mg tablets of ibuprofen 4 at a time? After I sorted out the billing error, I asked about the antiseptic mouth rinse. I asked if there was anything else for me? No. I didn't have the nerve to press for the vicodin prescription. And the doctor (or surgical assistant or office manager) forgot all about it. It's probably safest that I not take narcotic prescriptions to the pharmacy from different doctors, lest the pharmacist think I'm a drug addict and stop filling any of my prescriptions. I hate having to think this way.
