Question:
I was wondering, given the length of time between the new
appointments I was given,
if that is a sign that my dentist would prefer me to go to another dentist?
He doesn't dislike me, as far as I know, and I can't think of any reason
I've given him to not
want me as a patient, except that my case is a lot of work and he's only
open a few days
each week and already has tons of patients.
It's kind of hard for me to tell if the time between appointments is
because he wants me
to go elsewhere, or if it's just genuinely a packed schedule and this is
the best they
can do for me. I do feel that he has done his best so far to help me.
I don't want to be a disloyal patient by seeking out another dentist,
but I also don't want
to be so dense that I don't "get" signals that I should go elsewhere.
I'm not sure how to ask this of my dentist directly without it seeming
like an insult.
Answer:
You've said nothing to give me the feeling he doesn't want you for a
patient. He's just busy.
If you're concerned about how long things are taking, I'd have a frank
discussion. Perhaps longer appointments can be scheduled.
Yes, you have to be a little careful about "getting rid" of patients, but
believe me when I say there are ways that we use that leave very little room
for doubt.
I was just thinking, maybe he doesn't really want me
as a patient and he's trying
to give me subtle hints but I'm too dumb to get it. I heard somewhere
that practices sometimes get
rid of patients by scheduling the appointments with stretches of time
in-between, so I began to
worry.
I think he might be genuinely busy, too. He has so many patients, and
he is only open (at least
at this location) three days a week, so there's only so many days to
work with. I don't mind the
appointments being a couple or a few weeks apart, I'm in no hurry at
all, and have nothing urgent
that needs to be done. Actually, I'm sort of terrified at the thought
that he might not want me as
a patient because I have come to believe that he is the one and only
dentist in the entire DC metro
region who actually fills cavities instead of just ignoring them because
they aren't profitable. I don't
know what on earth I would do if I lost him, I am certain I would never
find another dentist in this
region who would be honest with me and would try to help me instead of
trying to help their businesses.
I think it would be easy to find such a dentist in any other part of the
country, but here, I think they
must be as rare as finding a diamond in the dirt as you are walking along.
The next three appointments, spread out over the next two months, are
for filling cavities....as far as I know, there won't be any lab work
done, but with this tooth that I think is abcessed, I could be wrong!
I really do think that he's just very busy. It's just that I thought of
what I had heard, that sometimes dentists get rid of patients by spacing
appointments out to make the patient frustrated enough to leave, and I
started thinking, well, my case really is a huge amount of work, who
could blame him if he didn't want to take it on?
But I've heard now from another dentist that dentists usually use more
direct means to exclude a patient they don't want to work on, so I feel
reassured that my dentist doesn't mind having me as a patient after all.
