Life… and a Little About Marketing

Ugh I hate specialists - I think it’s because everytime I go and see one, I realise how stupid I was in deciding not to persue medicine.

My wisdom teeth have been coming through for about 4 years now, but my dentist wanted me to wait until school finished and I assumedly stopped growing, to see what happens in my mouth. In late 2003, after school finished and just before I left on my travels I was told that there wasn’t enough time to operate before I was to leave the country, and the teeth were not really progressed enough to worry about heaps, but that if complications arose whilst overseas, I could arrange work to be done over there. As it turned out, there were some painful times for me, but nothing overly dramatic, so the little buggers are still in my mouth. Anyway I went for my first checkup since getting home (yes, I know I’m slack) a few weeks ago after putting it off for months, and was told they had to come out, and soon. My dentist then gave me a referal to an oral surgeon, who I visited today.

Firstly, how inconsiderate can people be? I got a phonecall this morning confirming the appointment which was quite nice but then the lady requested I arrive 5 minutes early to fill in some forms. I followed her request, filled out the forms and proceeded to wait, in the waiting room for twenty minutes. I know this is not uncommon, so why ask people to be early, when quite clearly the surgeon cannot keep up with his appointments. The receptionist apologised, explaining that it had beena particularly busy day, to which I questioned why she didn’t ring me back closer to the appointment time to notify me of the changes. I didn’t mention that I’d bet my life on his appointments being late more often than on time, but in hindsight I really should have. Double standards piss me off more than most other things in the world.

My second gripe about this guy was how he could get off charging $80 for a 2 minute consultation & form signing session. After the wait, the bastard only peeked in my mouth for about 3 seconds, explained what I had already known - that I needed teeth out - and what the procedure was going to be like, then threw me out. The receptionist grabbed my rather flabbergasted figure and demanded I pay $80 immediately for the consultation (if you could call it that), then left me, gobsmacked with the $1200 quote for the planned surgery. What is most upsetting is that dental work ISN’T covered by medicare, and only in a small way by our private insurer. How the hell can one man ripping out a few teeth cost over a thousand dollars? Oh I forgot to mention that price is without the anaesthetist and hospital charges! Total, utter ripoff. Perhaps I’ll operate on myself - I have a steady hand and I was always good at that operation board game….. hmm

It’s times like this that I wonder why I chose clinical research ahead of practising medicine. Silly boy.

Pete at Dialagranny.com