One Patient’s Story

This is the story about a woman I met recently named “Carol”. Carol’s story is the reason I do what I do every day and brings me back the next day. The interesting thing is that it has absolutely nothing to do with performing the actual physical work of dentistry.
Carol is in her 70’s and for most of her life has gone to the dentist infrequently. She presented to my office a couple of months ago for a second opinion. At our first appointment Carol brought her most recent x-rays, a treatment plan from another dentist, and a page-long list of questions. She was well-prepared for the complimentary consultation I was giving her and seemed to know exactly what she wanted.
About 8 years ago, Carol visited a dental office that touts itself as “holistic”. Carol had about $10,000 of dentistry done at that office and unfortunately had not seen a dentist since. Her reason for visiting that particular office was because she was/is very concerned about her health and believed that a “holistic” office could provide her with what she was looking for. Now, only 8 years later, her teeth were falling apart.
Carol had eight crowns done on her upper back teeth at that time. The crowns, still in her mouth, were failing due to recurrent decay. More importantly to Carol, her front teeth were in severe breakdown. Carol had her mind made up; she wanted full dentures.
Carol sought out a local dentist, presented her desires, got a written treatment plan with fees, and then came to me for a second opinion. She brought that treatment plan with her and it appeared very reasonable – take out all remaining teeth and place full dentures. The first thing I noticed was that Carol had 6 lower front teeth that have been decay-free and have had excellent bone supporting them for 70 years. However, her mind was made-up, she wanted everything taken out. She did not want to have to deal with maintenance of teeth any more.
Over the next two consultation appointments I had with Carol, we discussed many different treatment options. We thoroughly reviewed the advantages of keeping these lower front teeth each time we met. Carol brought a list of questions to each of these meetings, which we discussed in depth. It was decided – Carol was moving forward with full dentures.
We have had two more appointments since then. Because of the location of the dental laboratory that I use, those appointments were spread-out over a few weeks. At this point, we had done some procedural steps to get her ready for full dentures, but the teeth are still there. They would not get taken out until the dentures were ready to be delivered.
At each appointment I discussed a different aspect of why it would be such an advantage to her to keep those lower front teeth. Her mind was not changed. Yesterday, Carol walked into my office to tell me that she has decided that she wants to keep her lower teeth.
Okay, so what’s the point? The point has nothing to do with what Carol’s final treatment is. Carol has every right to decide on what she feels is right for her.
The dentistry Carol received 8 years ago was good technical dentistry on the teeth that were treated. However, the “holistic” dentist did not treat her as a whole person and left the rest of her mouth destined for failure.
The local dentist she got the treatment plan from provided a very reasonable treatment proposal. They had one visit, decided on treatment and her next step was to go to the oral surgeon and have all her teeth out.
Far too many times I see patients and dentists rush into treating teeth. Taking the time to engage in conversation and treat the person as a person and not a tooth is less common than it should be in my opinion. My point of this story is not that I got Carol to do what I felt was best for her, but that I gave her my time, answered all her questions, and allowed her to decide what was best for her. She needed the time.
There are few things we have to rush into in life.