Your Opinion Please

I went to the dentist this morning. I have gone to this dentist for about four years, I was one of the first appointments at this office. In the year that followed, he did MAJOR work on my mouth. He was gentle and considerate of pain and did a wonderful job. It took almost a entire year to get things in shape and lots of the insurance company $$ and lots of our $$.

That said, the man can be very rude. I sat in the chair one time and listened to him berate a assistant until the poor girl was in tears and I really didn't blame her at all. He is also always late. I learned early on not to make the first appointment of the day like I like to do, because you ended up sitting there waiting for him to show up. The office opened at nine back then.

They changed their hours to open at 10 and I had a 10:30 appointment today to get a new crown put in. I was there early, about 10:15 and there was another man there before me. The sign up sheet said his appointment was also for 10:30. At about 10:25 they sat us both in the chairs, offered magazines or a glass of water. We sat and sat, the assistants tried to keep busy but it was clear they were out of things to do. At ll, I decided that I would wait until ten after and then I was leaving. There was no way they could charge me for the appointment because I had kept my part of the arrangement.

The dentist breezes in at 11:05, numbs the man in the other chair, checks on someone who came in after me and at 11:08 finally gets to me. Now this was not a emergency situation, he just didn't even arrive at his office until 11.

How long would you have sat there waiting before you left? I kept telling myself that if I left, I was hurting myself, because I would have to go back anyway to get the crown. It was already paid for and took a long time to get the OK from the insurance company. But, since when is the dentist's time (or any professional) more valuable than mine? A Dr. gets behind in their appointments or has a emergency to attend to and you have to make allowances for that, but this was not the case. It happens all the time. When do you draw the line and say "don't treat me like this!"

Now to add to the story, my crown was way too big for my mouth and needs to be redone. I had to redo all the impressions and will have to go back anyway. He worked on the man and his assistant took over to do the impressions........boy this one better be right!! I will schedule a later in the day appointment but it will be late too because he will be running late from the ones he had first thing. GRRRRRRRR!