The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:
-
Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.
-
Updates to let us know how you are doing. This provides valuable feedback on past advice / encouragement and will hopefully make people feel a little more motivated to follow through. If you want to be reminded to post your update, see the post titled 'update reminders', below.
-
Advice. This can be in response to a request for advice or just something that you think could be generally useful for many people here.
-
Encouragement. Probably best directed at specific users, but if you feel like just encouraging people in general I don't think anyone is going to object. I don't think I really need to say this, but just to be clear; encouragement should have a generally positive tone and not shame people (if people feel that shame might be an effective tool for motivating people, please discuss this so we can form a group consensus on how to use it rather than just trying it).
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
I hate the dentist.
I'm not scared of the dentist, I just hate everything about the office visit. I hate having to schedule appointments months in advance. I hate having to arrive 15 minutes before the appointment only to wait for 30 minutes before I'm escorted to a chair and another 10 minutes before the dentist sees me. I hate that the dentist is always trying to upsell me on tooth whitening products, and their business model is full of moral hazards. I hate that the dentist only provides "dumbed down" explanations of everything and can't answer my questions in any detail.
Nevertheless, I feel a need to go every few years in order to remove tartar from my teeth and verify there's no cavities. (I'm still not really sure why I should remove tartar from my teeth, though, as no dentist has been able to explain this to me other than it's "just what you should do because bacteria".)
/rant
I do think there are good dentists out there but man I agree. Sorry to any mottizens who are dentists but I really don’t feel like dentists deserve to be called doctors in any sense, they seem more like Nurse Practitioners if you’ve ever dealt with such people.
sure they’re knowledgeable but their “hit rate” in terms of good ones vs. seeing specialized doctors (what they claim to be) makes it apparent that they’re not in the same tier of healthcare professional.
More options
Context Copy link
Unless things are very different in your country compared to mine, I think you just need to look for a better dentist. Dentists are some of the least crappy people in the whole healthcare field in my experience.
More options
Context Copy link
Seconding @bolido_sentimental that it doesn't have to be that way. My dentist genuinely cares about doing the right thing for my teeth, always is happy to give me detailed answers to my questions, and is generally on time. Definitely would encourage you to look for a new dentist.
My personal experience has been that the smaller the practice, the more likely they are to give a shit. If it's "$city Dentistry" with 3-4 different dentists on staff, you might get good care but it's always going to be uncertain (the good dentist might quit, be unavailable, etc). Whereas if you go to Dr. so-and-so's personal practice, he is the guy and you will see him every time, plus he has a strong incentive to do right by his patients (so the business grows). A small practice like that can be harder to find, but I think it's worth the effort.
More options
Context Copy link
My dentist doesn't do any of that stuff, man. I just get cleanings and get occasional cavities filled. I have a 10+ year old crown that he could easily say, "Oh wow, yeah, that's beyond it's useful life" and I'd go with it. But instead he says, "It's still looking good, we'll check on it again next time." I don't think I've ever been there longer than one hour.
It doesn't have to be like that. Try a new dentist. Ask people you know to refer a good one.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link