Sunday Dental Thread: Narcissistic American Edition

[PCIntern]

Well, it's Memorial Day Sunday and I have just returned from my office, having taken care of an emergency - a (Progressive as a matter-of-fact) lady fractured her front fixed bridge and could not 'walk out of the house' until it was repaired. And I was happy to do this for her since an aesthetic emergency qualifies as just that: an emergency. The whole process including travel time took just under two hours, but it goes with the job and I have absolutely no complaints in this regard. It's the 'right' thing to do. While I was there I called in several prescriptions for antibiotics and pain killers for three folks who were having slight problems, but didn't want to trouble me with a visit - that's dental shorthand for "it hurts some but not worth coming all the way in for a look-see". and that's OK too. They'll be fine and I'll check the answering machine all today and tomorrow.

Driving home, I was reminded of the medical/dental adage that there are only two patients in every practice: the patient who is oh-so-important and the poor guy/gal who that patient is going to attempt to displace. In recent years, due to the proliferation of self-help/assertiveness books, many people try all those great tricks to push their way into the office in order to get their work done at their convenience in a timely manner. Just so you know if you're one of the former: we're on to you. Yes we may see you and endure your aggressiveness, but, as the cop said to Serpico: it's not that we'd DO anything to you, but we might not be there when you really really do need us.

Most of us really do try to help others in a most sincere and timely manner. There are also many many stories of docs and dentists who don't respond to their patient's needs and in the profession we call them Republicans. Just kidding: we call them "Double-O docs: Licensed to Kill". But I digress.

My practice has become inundated with 'me-firsters', people who actually believe that helper people, whether they be docs, auto mechanics, computer repair-folks, department store salespeople, and the like were put on Earth simply to take care of them. My barber and I were talking about this and I complimented his father on starting his business in 1939, siring my barber, and having him go into his profession IN ORDER THAT I MIGHT HAVE SOMEONE WHO CAN CUT MY HAIR ON SATURDAY AFTERNOONS. And rather inexpensively as well that it should be.

This attitude has evolved concomitantly with the right-wing mantras which include the importance of the individual with money who can make demands upon the slavees (sic) in the society. This is not to say that everyone who exhibits this behavior is a Winger - on the contrary, it is epidemic and transcends social class and financial wherewithal. A few years ago, I happened to be at the reception desk of my office and a lady showed up without an appointment who works in the City Hall bureaucracy here in Philly. She wanted to be seen right away because she had a hair and nail appointment for which she had told her supervisor nothing - she had said that she was having a dental problem which needed immediate attention, as I found out later. Of course, she wanted a note showing that she had been there for 3 hours when in fact, I had been able to see her about 20 minutes after she'd arrived (over her vociferous protests for being 'kept waiting') and she could have been back to work 10 minutes later. I told her I'd give her a note for the visit, but not for the three hour interval which she wanted. She was mad as hell, and I told her in no uncertain terms that not only was I not going to lie for her, but that the City had been sending out investigators and following these people and if the doc dissembled (lied) about the appointment, none of his or her notes would be allowed in the future.

Now where I come from, that's a compelling argument...but not anymore. This lady was adamant. And so was I. I said, "here ya go"...and handed her her radiographs and told her to find another dentist. She was livid but wouldn't take them..not because she was loyal and really a 'good person gone slightly astray', but that she would have difficulty finding another dentist near her who takes her insurance and has early morning appointments.

This is what America has become: a group of individuals who were sold a bill of goods by the Conservatives that they have all kinds of ridiculously inappropriate 'inalienable rights' all the while losing their real Constitutional rights: the right to privacy, the right to avoid unreasonable searches and seizures, the right to a lawyer and a trial by jury in the case of Gitmo and who knows what extraordinary renditions' places, the right to have a vote counted as it was cast.

It is time to restore reasonableness and civility as well as the Constitution. At least the one with which I grew up - imperfect as it was, it has been decimated and in its place, the American Narcissist with Credit Cards has emerged.

[CoffeeCat]

1. George Bush made Narcissism...

...socially acceptable. His rise to power, his behavior and his policies (torture, lying, war-for-profit, murder,
bashing and putting the squeeze on the poor and vulnerable) are a tip of the hateto narcissists, psychopaths
and sociopaths.

Bush has made it "en vogue" to be an abuser.

He's also taken the amoral sting out of lying, covering up and destroying people.

Our society is rotting, because of the George Bush mentality. You serve the general public and people
who serve the general public, no doubt, see the effects of this on a daily basis.

I'm sorry you have to deal with situation and people that are so completely off the charts. However,
you are standing your ground and refusing to capitulate. That takes guts and it causes more angst.
Simply giving these people their way and ignoring the sociological ramifications of all of this--would
definitely put you in a comfort zone.

You're fighting back, instead of accepting the harsh reality and going along with it.

Bush's damaged will be reversed only when more good people like you say "NO!" to narcissism and other
pathologies and stand up for what is good, just and decent.

Major, major kudos to you.

[PCIntern]

6. thank you...actually

I've come to sort of enjoy this...most of these people come unarmed to this "battle of wits".

...and I'm the one with the high-speed handpiece as many around here like to say: I'll pre-empt them, although I'm not that amused by the statement.

[alarimer]

18. I think it goes back to Reagan actually

the 80s were the "Me" decade and the decade of greed.

And whenever Rush Limbaugh started too. I think we can blame him for at least some of the incivility, at least that towards poor people (you know, those people who can't pull themselves up and are just a drain on society).

[bean fidhleir]

2. Wonderfully well said!

I've noticed that the same attitude of mind manifests in other ways, too (as, logically, it would).

For example, there've been several threads around here recently on economic-migrant immigration and the ethics of welcoming or repelling the would-be migrants. It's interesting to note that none of those claiming that migrants must be welcomed seem eager to give up their own job so that someone making less can take it. It's that same "my rights are inalienable, yours are negotiable" attitude at work.

[sandnsea]

5. We're already competing with them

and we know it, whether they're here or in their own countries. The fight is against the business owner using illegal labor to bust unions and get around employment regulations. Fighting workers isn't going to change the way business owners treat labor. We have to fight for labor all over the world, that's the only way to stay on an even foot ourselves.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

11. Well said. Big biz does not care where their cheap labor comes from. nt

[bean fidhleir]

21. Yes, the fight is against the owner class, but (and this might be self-evident to me

because I myself have been up at the sharp end) owners can sink us faster than we can sink them. That's a point Adam Smith made in 1776. Owners have everything on their side except the law against informal immigration. That's the best tool we've got because it's already on our side, it doesn't require that we create something. All we have to do is demand that it be enforced.

I had to take a reduced ss pension because at age 61 I couldn't find work. The H1Bs had soaked up all the spare jobs. The cheap-labor owners don't want people over 50 in the first place, but without those H1Bs I'd have at least had a chance. But Clinton let a million of them in, and that cooked my "too old" goose.

There are laborers who would be glad to take ag, janitor, and other similar jobs if only the jobs paid a living wage. Why should we privilege migrants from Central America or Asia when we have citizens who need the work? What's so deserving about migrants?

Yes, we should have labor solidarity around the world. But why should we privilege migrants above citizens for the benefit of the owner class? What's the principle behind that?

[treestar]

45. Lou Dobbs, is that you?

You always turn to this subject. This thread is not about immigrants.

No one has to give up their job to an immigrant. What about those from whom the immigrant purchases things? They'd have less work without the immigrant worker.

It's the exchanges that create jobs. The jobs don't just exist in a vacuum. Fewer exchanges, fewer jobs. Anyone with a basic understanding of economics can see that.

The average American does have a me-first attitude. The rest of the world could not be expected to accept that.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

3. Marketers have coopted the concept of freedom

Notice how every ad for toothpaste and cell phone plans touts freedom and choice. It's no wonder people don't mind the government listening in on their phone calls. Hey, they can that phone in 12 different colors!

[colorado thinker]

4. Thank you for this.

The coming "correction" may teach these people that they are NOT the center of the universe and that others do not exist merely to serve them.

[Subdivisions]

7. Damn1 I just missed being the one to send this to the

Greatest Page :(.

K&R

[Pooka Fey]

8. A really great post. Thanks for writing. K&R

[enlightenment]

9. I don't disagree with your assessment - but I don't think

the root cause can be safely laid at the feet of conservatives - or George Bush (Sr. or Jr.)

In your last line, you mentioned two fundamental tenets of civil society - reasonableness and civility. In the early eighteenth-century, as the concept of civil society was starting to gel, those things were called "politeness." Politeness was much more than we view it today; it was an extremely important internalised belief system that had little to do with the veneer of manners that replaced it. Unfortunately, politeness was difficult to achieve and more difficult to maintain, and wasn't expected of any but the privileged. So, though it was a great idea, it had limited usefulness - but it was better than nothing!

Today, many people sneer at even the outward veneer of manners much less true politeness, but I don't believe that conservatives or capitalism are to blame for it . . . at least not single-handedly. We all have pet complaints, and the willingness of many people to view themselves as the center of their universe is certainly a valid one, but the slide toward this attitude started long before 2000.

Those that wrote and designed the Constitution were certainly familiar with politeness in the guise it had assumed by the mid-eighteenth century, and their belief that the people would be guided by the basic rules of civil society is encoded in the way they wrote. They wrote a document for adults and we have become a nation of children. We won't restore the one without the other; we have to grow-up and take responsibility - admitting that responsibility sometimes means that we don't get what we want.

And that's all of us. Conservatives and liberals alike.

[PCIntern]

10. Your point is well-taken but...

(there's that word again), humanism and politesse, which were among the philisophical and behavioral attributes which many of us were schooled to pursue, have been utterly discarded by this group who took power during the Nixon years and beyond.

Even Joe McCarthy sat there and listened to Joe Welch lambaste him. Now, the RWer would start screaming over his words and stop him cold. Senators complain that their compatriots are not as polite and civil as they used to be. While I agree with your premise, I believe that we have significantly deteriorated in the last decades.

[enlightenment]

19. Agreed - I only object to laying the decline at the feet of

one group of people. I simply do not see a big difference in the behavior of politicians these days, regardless of their party or ideological leanings. We've become a nation of - and please pardon my language - rude tw*ts.

It is endemic. Last week I had lunch with a good friend. She's a busy lady, but the lunch was her idea and arranged around her schedule, so I assumed we had an hour to share each others company. We both teach college and during lunch she was telling me about a student who just couldn't turn off his mobile phone during class, despite her very clear rules about such things. I commiserated with her about this of course, as it is an on-going problem that gets worse - not better - each semester.

During this conversation and throughout our lunch, my friend pulled out her Blackberry not once, not twice, but three times. Why I don't know. To check her messages, I presume. It never even occurred to her that her behavior was as egregiously rude as her student's failure to put away his mobile.

I related this story to another friend, who made an interesting and apt comparison that I will certainly adopt and use in future. She said, "if I pulled out a book and started reading it right in the middle of a conversation with someone else, that person would be rightfully offended by my failure to give them my full attention. Checking you phone for messages or worse, answering a call, is no different. Why do we accept the latter and condemn the former?"

Why, indeed?

My point is that there is something going on that is breaking down civil society, and I simply do not believe that it is the fault of the conservatives alone. I fully agree that civil society has deteriorated significantly in the last few decades, but I think it is because we have reached some sort of critical mass, involving multiple elements, that has accelerated the decline.

[PCIntern]

20. I could not agree with you more...

BTW...which vowel belonged in that word? Enquiring minds want to know.

As an aside: we have 3 signs in our office which ask people not to use their cell phone in the office. I had to go out into the Waiting Room and ask a gentleman to please take the conversation outside, since he was yelling. He said, "I'm sorry - was I not supposed to do this?" I pointed wordlessly to the three signs and then said to him, "even so, screaming at your subordinate in this office is not being appreciated by my working-class clietele, and quite frankly, not by me, the son of two working-class people." All said with a smile, BTW. He laughed and finished his harangue outside in the hallway.

[enlightenment]

30. An "A" . . .

though depending on the country, an "I" would be just as bad.

Not the worst of words, certainly, and not the worst in my personal vocabulary (unfortunately). Still, I try to keep the vulgarities out of print!

[PCIntern]

31. Thank you...

I thought so!

Glad I'm "onna ball" here!

:hi:

[noamnety]

12. That's sort of the theory behind prostitution

That men who want to have sex should be able to have it on demand, and there should be a class of people available for purchase. It's seen as a right.

I'm sorry to see people on this thread trying to interpret this as justification for treating immigrants as subhumans less deserving of jobs. I see that attitude as part of the same symptoms.

[bean fidhleir]

22. "treating immigrants as less deserving of jobs"

Why should they be treated as more deserving? If we have people out of work, why should we let competitors in? Whose interests are being served by inflating the available-labor pool?

[noamnety]

29. They aren't less, they aren't more. They are just people.

Just like we are just people.

Entitled Americans, indeed.

[bean fidhleir]

32. Will you give up your job so that someone now earning less can have it?

You've declared everyone else to be as worthy as yourself, so if need is the only criterion, you should give up your job so that someone less fortunate can improve her or his situation.

But I bet you won't. I bet you have some reason why you're entitled to keep it.


And there are many people starving in Africa and other places. The money you earn could mean the difference between life and death to a few of them, and you could live off of your rich (by comparison with Africa) relatives or, failing willing relatives, begging. This is a life-or-death situation over there. Are you donating your income to keep those starving, desperate people going?

I bet you aren't.



We're very high-minded as long as it's not we who have to make the sacrifices.

[noamnety]

35. Nice try.

Bit of a difference between not taking a complete vow of poverty, vs. being such a complete bigot that you won't allow people who are able to do a job well to even have the chance to compete for it.

A while back when I was debating with some other western supremacist on DU, I made the comment that if I had to climb into a lifeboat with a bunch of middle class Americans vs. some poor working illegal immigrants, I'd throw my hat in with the immigrants. Threads like this are exactly the reason why. Some folks who claim to be for human rights would be the first to toss someone else overboard if it threatened their own sense of security. That person was very clear that an immigrant's life was worth less than an American's to her. Not even her own life, we weren't talking her willingness to throw herself overboard to save another. It was just basic western supremacy and xenophobia which had taught her that American lives are worth more than others.

[PCIntern]

36. "Uh-oh...somebody git the Sheriff"

:rofl:

[bean fidhleir]

38. There's nothing easier than to demand that *other* people make sacrifices

and call them bigots if they refuse. Especially when you sacrifice nothing yourself because your situation is "different".

Until you're willing to, at a minimum, give up your job so that someone making less can take it and thereby improve their life, you have no right at all to call people names.

[noamnety]

39. I used the word bigot

because I thought it sounded nicer than calling people here xenophobic racists. :)

I appreciate that you are trying desperately to say nobody is entitled to an opinion unless they live with less than the least person in the world. That's quite nice, a defense based on the idea that you can be as selfish and xenophobic as you like and nobody is allowed to criticize that unless they meet your impossible purity test of being literally on the verge of starvation.

Purity tests aside, I'm not sure what else you'd call it except xenophobic, racist and bigoted when a person believes people in all other countries have a moral obligation to put the needs of the American middle class front and center at all times when considering how to best provide for their own children. That's what the call center person in this OP described: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3337332
Deep down, Americans are so full of themselves that they actually are outraged that those uppity brownskinned folks in the rest of the world don't recognize that they should boycott jobs in their own countries even, until they've verified that Americans got first dibs on those jobs. We are apparently more deserving of work just by the mere fact of being American, and we get downright pissed off when people from other parts of the world don't get that.

[bean fidhleir]

41. No, I'm calmly saying that ethically you must practice what you preach - or stop preaching

It's unbecoming to hold other people to a standard of self-sacrifice that you don't even try to meet yourself.

People quite reasonably make judgements on a sliding scale. No one would vote to convict a person who steals bread. But someone who steals a Mercedes? Convict. Someone who steals the old junker some poor person needs to get to work? Throw the book at the bastard.

Many people perceive the "desperate immigrant takes vacant, shitty job to avoid starving" framing as baloney. What they see is young, ambitious migrants coming to the US and putting citzens out of work and/or lowering wages by increasing the labor pool. And the stats from Pew seem to support that perception. According to a study by Kalena Cortes, who distinguished refugees and migrants, those young migrants tend to invest little in terms of improving their edu level or language skills. They're here to "milk" wealth from the US and return home with it.

It's the same with the call center, just displaced in space. The jobs that once fed citizens here now are performed badly by virtual migrants in India - and we pay for it.

So when you tell other people they're bigots/xenophobic racists for resenting those ambitious economic migrants, it really stinks.

[noamnety]

48. "virtual migrants"???

Indian citizens working and living in India aren't migrants of any sort, any more than someone working at a Toyota plant in Kentucky is a "migrant."

[bean fidhleir]

49. Yes, virtual migrants. They're (nominally) supporting US purchasers

of US-made products. If they were supporting Indian products, or Indian purchasers of US products, okay. But they're not. They're virtual rather than physical migrants.

This contrasts with the US Toyota employees, who are building vehicles to be sold in the US. If they were building cars to be shipped out of the US, okay, then they'd be virtual migrants too. But they're not.

Not many people who phone SoundBlaster support are surprised when a Chinese answers. The cards are made in Taiwan, so it makes sense for support to come from there. People might be (and often are) irritated by the fact that there are probably only 2 people covering the entire English-speaking world - the company spares no economy - but nobody regards it as part of the problem that it's Chinese who are (not) providing the support.

[noamnety]

52. Toyota may be planning on exporting US made Toyotas to the Middle East.

http://www.businessweek.com/autos/autobeat/archives/2008/05/is_the_us_toyot.html

So I'm guessing you will then have a problem with those American workers working in American factories, right? Will you really be calling them migrant workers? Will you be pissed off that they are taking jobs away from those in the mideast? Will you think they have a moral obligation to quit those jobs once exports begin, out of respect for mideast workers?

[bean fidhleir]

53. If the plant's output goes to the mideast then yes, US workers will magically

become virtual migrants. They will have virtually migrated to Japan or the destination country for work. "Virtually" because it's the job that did the physical relocation, not the worker.

If the output of the plant starts going to Abu Dhabi (or wherever), then yes if they have solidarity they should let the jobs go there too. That, or the Abu Dhabi government should demand that Toyota build them there if they want to sell them there.

Food should be grown where it's to be eaten, shirts sewn where worn, houses built by local labor, etc. Cars shouldn't be made in their current form anywhere, but that's a slightly different issue.

In her books on civilization, Jane Jacobs made compelling cases for import replacement as the only way to create a healthy, stable local economy. In her last book before her death, she made the case that we are moving couthlessly toward a worldwide collapse of civilization that's at least partly independent of the collapse impending because of the climate disaster. The collapse she warned against will/would happen because we're accepting form in place of substance (e.g., credentials rather than competence; schooling rather than education; atomized relationships rather than webs). We're doing the social equivalent of what we did to the physical world, and we need to stop if we want to live.

[noamnety]

55. localization in terms of physical resources makes sense.

That IS a sustainability issue. Telephone call centers, however, aren't the same as locally grown food or locally produced clothing, because we aren't paying to ship materials around in the same way - in terms of sustainability, not so different from you and I talking through the internet.

I don't see the nationalism issue as being the same as localization in the same way you seem to. A company producing goods in France and exporting to Spain may be more local/sustainable than a company producing goods in California and exporting to New York. Are the workers in France migrants, and therefore worse than the workers in California, even if their exports only travel 40 miles to their destination?

[bean fidhleir]

59. " Are the workers in France migrants, and therefore worse than the workers in California"

I can't answer. If the people in France exporting to Spain are working for a French company, they're not migrants. If they're working for a Spanish company, they are, because products should be made where used.

But the same is true, mutatis mutandis, of the Californians. In terms of where jobs should be located, I can't see why we should pay a lot of attention to political divisions, especially when they're both more and less than they seem.

To me, California and New York are like Russia and Spain in terms of jobs, not like Paris and Marseilles. To the extent we seem like a single country it's only because of a common language and 230+ years of power-grabbing by the national government, something Europe hasn't undergone yet. But we're really not a single country, nor were we intended to be.

So I see your exemplary people working in California for a NY company supplying goods to NY as virtual migrants, in the same way the Okies are universally considered by historians and sociologists to have been physical migrants in their move to the west coast in search of work.

And in terms of better/worse I agree that your French workers shipping 40 miles are almost certainly much less bad than Californians shipping 3K miles, for a given class of product.

My sense is that, if we want to stay in business as a species, we must urgently re-evaluate our conventions in terms of their toxicity. So in general and ultimately we should regard work as being located correctly only if the worker's commute is no more than a comfortable walk or short bicycle ride away, and the product of her/his labor is consumed within local cartage range. OR is exported rather than repatriated (i.e., the producing organization is local to the workers, not the consumers).

[bean fidhleir]

60. oops, forgot to respond to your first para

"Telephone call centers, however, aren't the same as locally grown food or locally produced clothing, because we aren't paying to ship materials around in the same way - in terms of sustainability, not so different from you and I talking through the internet."

I have two objections to that, but I'll only mention one: whose purposes are being served by shipping jobs abroad? The answer, of course, is that the only intentional benefit accrues to the wealthy. Why should we sacrifice our wellbeing so that they can increase their wealth?

[tibbiit]

13. Symptom of dental Narcissism

Teeth bleaching, the new Anorexia!
As a long time dental tech, I see this effect daily in custom work.

I tell patients everyday that bleaching is the new anorexia lol.
When people dont know when to stop and their teeth become light blue, its pretty extreme.
tib

[PCIntern]

14. Right you are!

along with incessant, compulsive use of lip balm, these are terrible habits in and around the mouth.

Frightening, isn't it?

[Missy Vixen]

15. From your lips to God's ear, PC Intern

I badly need a cleaning. I knew I'd have to wait. The scheduler at my dentist's office apologized to me (!) because my appointment won't be for another two weeks. I assured her this was fine, it was my own fault that I'd have to wait so long for not previously scheduling, and I'll do my best to be extra-nice when I see them again.

Another thing: We say "please" and "thank you" to retail clerks, etcetera. Can I TELL you how many times we've been told that we are the only people who've said that "please" and "thank you" for the entire day to someone else?

Does it cost now to be courteous? You'd think so, judging by the behavior we see on a daily basis.

Julie

[JerseygirlCT]

16. Well, as someone who has blessed good and caring dentists

during several extremely painful dental emergencies, I thank you and congratulate you.

My wonderful old dentist would get so concerned about me (I kept getting abscesses - he suspected it might be the stress of pregnancy at the time - they did all come during or right after that...) that he demanded I call him Sunday morning. And if I was hurting, in he'd come - on Sunday morning. He wasn't concerned about hours or rules or any of that. I was hurting; he was there. He got me into the fancy endodontists on a holiday weekend when the worst of them blew up big time. It was 2 weeks past labor, and the pain of the tooth was far, far worse than anything childbirth had done. (And I needed medication for that - it was bad). I was literally reduced to a sniveling moaning mess, curled into the fetal position from pain. But he called them, and got one of them in to treat me. I can't tell you what that meant to me.

When his wife finally won and he retired, he made sure he was passing the practice to the right person. It took him years to find him. And he told me he'd especially told the new guy about me with instructions to take care of me, lol.

People like you are treasures. And anyone who'd act like an ass about that is well, an ass.

[PCIntern]

17. There are/were many of us out there...

the numbers may be diminishing a bit...hard to tell. When I used to teach, I would say to the dental students, "Even IF you're in it for the buck and the buck alone, if you show this type of caring and humanism, the patient will never ever forget it and your business will prosper beyond your wildest dreams. Soon, you'll actually begin to feel that you're doing the right thing...unless you're a pure sociopath. There is nothing more rewarding to me than the appearance of the patient's face when the pain is alleviated. I've had remarkable experiences in this regard, and so will you."

[JerseygirlCT]

27. Good for you!

I had some awful dentists as a kid - when boy, that's the worst time for it. The memory of fear and pain lingered into adulthood. It was so wonderful when that ceased being the way it works. Of course, being a veteran of too many extractions and root canals now, I don't think anything dental can scare me. But I wish I'd had such good care as a kid. I'm very thankful that mine see no reason to fear a trip to the dentist!

And yes, the new guy's business is booming. It's gotten to the point where it's tough to get an appointment (does make you sort of miss the old guy's days, lol). But he's been kind and built on the kindness of his predecessor, so I'm not surprised that word's spread.

[Vinca]

23. I blame it all on refrigerator white teeth. People who used to be normal

suddenly think they're the center of the universe once they get their now mandatory refrigerator white teeth. Even Lou Dobbs became a bigger pain in the ass after he appeared with his unnaturally white teeth.:rofl: Oh, the superficiality of it all.

[PCIntern]

24. Funny you should say that...

last night, CNN was showing a reprise of Dobbs' broadcasts recently, and he ust had his teeth done...even the lower incisors to refrigerator white...makes Bioform 59 look like 82!

[Vinca]

25. I saw that, too. He went from nicotine yellow to Amana white

in a matter of seconds. Don't get me wrong, cosmetic dentistry is a wonderful thing, but when you can't focus because of the glare off the teeth, it's too much.

[PCIntern]

26. We have all kinds of interesting stories

I have one gentleman, about 33, who had laser bleaching at another office - I don't do it, I think it can be a problem. Anyway, he went from not bad-looking slightly reddish-gray to white white white teeth WTIH A MATTE FINISH!! They won't polish up and he's got weird, chalky teeth, and is mad as hell.

A real practice-builder.

[JerseygirlCT]

28. The people whose teeth have gone nearly to blue

always scare me! They probably glow in the dark!

[PCIntern]

40. In the disco days

the black light would make people who had porcelain crowns in the front look really weird....there'd be an iridescent glow of the porcelain but you could see the metal or tooth preparation (peg) underneath. Neat-o!

[tblue37]

33. I teach college English. We also deal with this sort of

self-absorbed, demanding attitude in our students and their parents. I could recount a lot of stories similar to yours--Oh, wait! I already did:
Teacher, Teacher
http://www.teacherblue.homestead.com/index.html

Right now I am dealing with angry emails from students who didn't get the A or B grades they demanded. They don't understand why their inability to write papers worth an A or a B should have any influence on the grade they actually get in the course.

Sigh.

[PCIntern]

34. Sounds familiar...

when I used to teach doctoral level and post-doc students, we used to get the following:

1. Will this be on a test?
2. Do we have to know this?
3. Parents(!) calling for their 27 year old son/daughter.

This was de riguer every academic year...and I last taught in the mid-80's.

[JerseygirlCT]

51. I thought that "helicopter parent" thing was new

Mine certainly wouldn't have thought of doing something like that back in the late 70s/early 80s. But I've seen some today who probably would. Do they really think they're doing their kid any favors?

[tblue37]

54. I imagine they do think so. But I have seen many promising students who

became weak and incapable of doing things for themselves simply because their parents have always taken care of everything for them. It is a pervasive phenomenon these days.

[JerseygirlCT]

58. Scary stuff

We're by no means the "bootstraps" type of parents. We're a very close, tight-knit family, actually. But I cannot imagine taking from my child the opportunity to grow both academically and as a person that he'll gain by navigating higher ed by himself! We'll be there with open ears and arms, but he's going to have to deal with his own life - and for a while, he'll know he's got a net somewhere down there.

[JerseygirlCT]

50. We were at an orientation recently. The school's

semester consists of 4 courses. One parent wanted to know what her child, who plays a sport, would be taking.

Ummm... four courses.

These kids SO need to get away from mommy and daddy running their lives!

[barbtries]

37. that was a great read

you sound like a cool dentist.

[dysfunctional press]

42. i dropped my upper denture plate last year, and it broke in two...

...right down the middle between the two front/middle teeth. i super-glued it together, and then had it re-lined by my dentist, and at the same time had him fit me for a new upper plate, figuring that the broken/super-glued one wouldn't last long...but it's been 8 1/2 months and it's still going strong. having the new plate made was a total waste- and since it had been less than 5 years since i was first "in-dentured", it wasn't covered by the dental insurance i now no longer have anyway.

[PCIntern]

43. Yeah..that cyanoacrylate works great...

we use it to hold little grafts down in place if they're unsuturable (is that a word?) - if they're too small to stitch into place. Problem is that it's water soluble so over time it can give, but if your acrylic was thick enough in your palate of your denture, then it'll hold for a long time. If it breaks again, do NOT use acetone to clean the old glue off...it will distort the acrylic and you won't be able to do it on the cheap again - you'll have to get it professionally repaired.

BTW, the midline is the line of least resistance b/c the bite bilaterally applied, creates the stress line over time - dropping it just completed the fracture.

[JCMach1]

44. Enough Self-Esteem already! How about some good old-fashioned GUILT

[treestar]

46. A lawyer, I get people who assume I should work on Saturdays

One wanted to come in last Sat. I said, please, it's Memorial Day Weekend!

One colleague got a phone call at home on Christmas Day! Some people. Why would even they be thinking of their case on Christmas Day. Even if they weren't Christian, wouldn't they still be aware?

[PCIntern]

47. About 20 years ago, the following occurred:

I give my staff Christmas Eve off and I stay in the office until about 4 PM so no one has to go into the Holiday with a toothache or a broken front tooth. Nice guy, right?

I get home at about 5 and for some strange reason, I decide to check my messages and there's one message from this guy who isn't the easiest fella around to treat. so I call him right away and he tells me that he broke a large hunk from a tooth and is in some pain, so I tell him that I can't come back in this PM, but that I'll see him Christmas AM at 8 AM. So I meet him in the morning like an idiot and he shows me this tiny chip from an upper premolar, still in enamel, and I test the tooth and it isn't fractured so I ask him, does it hurt a lot? His reply was, "No, but I figured you didn't have anything else to do today since you're Jewish and this was very convenient for me since my family get-together isn't until 3 this afternoon. I smoothed off the tiny chip, went to the front and asked how much. I replied, "Two hundred dollars - 30 for the visit, and 170 for the lie." He actually paid me and he, as he made out the check said, "you know, neither my wife nor I will be back to you." I answered, "That's the idea, and please, don't even think about stopping payment on this check."

Many years later, I still see his widow, BTW.

[Aristus]

56. I get a lot of "me-firsters" who are going to be a problem for me one I become a Physician Assistant

I have to take lots of calls from our patients who are currently taking narcotics of one kind or another; Vicodin, Percocet and so on. Washington State law requires a patient to keep an in-person office visit with a medical provider before they can get a prescription narcotic refilled. Well, you can probably imagine how many of these patients call in to me to get their Rx's refilled, insisting that they have a "special arrangement" with their provider. I tell them special arrangement or no special arrangement, you've got to come in for an office appointment before you can get your refill. God, the way people scream and curse at me when I tell them that! The shouting, the rudeness, the "I'm so special" attitude.

Now, if someone is in genuine chronic pain, they have my sympathy. But the sheer gall of the narc-addicts trying to get their fix! I've already resolved to tell all the back office personnel I work with when I become a P.A. - No patient of mine who receives an Rx for narcotics will ever have a "special arrangement" with me. Ever. If they want a refill, they will come in to the office and sit down with me before they get it. They will submit to random urine-tox screenings as I deem necessary. Anyone who demurs, protests or refuses will be sent away with a scrip for OTC Tylenol. End of story.

I feel for you. Every time I see a "me-firster" in any situation, from any walk of life, I just shake my head sadly at what this country has become.

[PCIntern]

57. It's a real problem...

we get calls on Fri afternoon...my tooth is killing me but I've been really busy...and I've never come into your office before...can you just call something in for me?

Our response is, "do you have any suggestions?"

The reply is often, "Yeah...Percocet 10/650 about 30 of them would be great."

Us: "Yeah it would. Unfortunately, you aren't getting that...you're getting 2 Advil plus one regular Tylenol every 4-6 hours, since I have no idea who you are. And that's OTC."