My dentist is odd

If he is NHS and looks after your teeth well, you are truly blessed! Perhaps take earbuds and your phone, and say you need to listen to music to relax you? 😄

It never ceases to amaze me how dentists and hygienists for that matter, seem to want to have some sort of two way conversation when, me the patient, is horizontal with mouth wide open, maybe just my experience.

I wish my dentist would give me a running commentary of what they are about to do and what they think of the state of my teeth.

Oh, we don’t have hygienists here in France. It’s the dentist we pay for and it’s them who do the job.

He might calm down once he gets to know his patients.

Mine talks nonstop,too. I think he is a bit hyper but I really like him and he is a very,very good dentist. He will retire soon and he was asking what to do in retirement- a bit hard to answer when you are in the chair with your mouth wide open !

No, TerriB, not just you. Years ago, we had one who would put about 20 bits of kit in one's mouth, then ask, "How is mother?" "How is father?" "How are the children?" Of course, the only answers were "goo, ga, gew"!

We had a woman dentist who took over after our old dentist retired.
She used to ask questions when she had her hands in your mouth which made it impossible to answer, didn't explain procedures properly (I ended up having an extraction when a crown would have been the better option) and was generally just not very good. She moved away, thank goodness.

My present dentist is lovely, she is very professional but friendly too.

Have a really lovely dentist - private as no nhs here taking patients. Cant fault him.

My practice has a new hygienist and he kept calling me 'my dear'.. I found it intensely annoying as he was about 35.. I'd find it so from anyone TBH.. I'm weighing up whether it is worth any unpleasantness to say something next time..

Baggs you say your dentist doesn’t make eye contact and it’s possible your dentist may have autism.

dalrymple23

No, TerriB, not just you. Years ago, we had one who would put about 20 bits of kit in one's mouth, then ask, "How is mother?" "How is father?" "How are the children?" Of course, the only answers were "goo, ga, gew"!

😂

My thoughts too silverlining. Baggs if your dentist does a good job , just try and switch off - not easy I know but a good dentist is worth keeping!

Yes, silverlining.

I am denta-phobic & I would not, could not get in the chair if the dentist behaved like this. My present one is very calm & I am overue for my check-up.

My dentist won't look you in the eye and he has no chat but seems good.

When my mother was a young woman, in the 1930's, she had a dentist who used to put tango music on whilst tending to her teeth. He had a stack of 78 records and a gramophone and he would intermittently demonstrate his tango moves to her whilst she was in the chair. He was apparently an excellent dentist though.

I'm On my 5th dentist in my life (I'm 50) and he is the 3rd at the same practice that I've been going to since my late teens.

At that practice, the 1st was ok UNTIL I needed some work doing and she decided that the injection to numb, only needed 2 minutes to work. I felt everything and she wouldn't believe me. For several years after, I HATED going to the dentist and only went when I needed to. She sold out and the next dentist, WOW, what a difference, would talk, was polite, was SHOCKED when I said about the treatment and insisted that 10 minutes is the minimum time between numb jab and start work. She introduced me to the water drill and the ability of holding my hand up if I needed her to stop!

She sold out 2 years ago and a chap took over.

And he is very pleasant, very patient and I've read about him and he does have high reviews from his previous practice. I also got a heads up from one of the office staff who said he was great (she too did not like the dentist who scared me, she said she was nasty to those who were on NHS. She preferred the private patients)

New chap is quiet but I did have to speak to him about mum and we sat in the room, chatting quite easily about work mum needed then booked another appointment for the work to be done. Even mum said after, how good he was.

I know I'm lucky to have an NHS dentist and I know that there are some (dentists) that are shocking, (one of my childhood dentists REFUSED to do some work on my teeth whilst I was still under NHS care as it would take him too long to complete and he was going private, he did my 2 older sister's teeth as we all had similar issues. By the time we got a dentist who would take us on, I had hit 18 and the dentist said no to my issues as NHS would no longer fund it due to me being legally an adult, but you can pay yourself! I didn't have the money so never done! And now due nerves regarding dentists etc it'll never be done, that and I still don't have the money.)

When I was 21 I had this amazing dentist and his nurses, he was intelligent and friendly and talked me through what he was about to do, he cracked jokes and made me and the nurses laugh, great atmosphere all round.

Then he retired and I got Rumpelstiltskin, a horrible old nasty bit of work with a Scottish accent so strong I literally couldn't understand a word he was saying.

The lovely nurses seemed scared of him, they no longer laughed, atmosphere was dark, he snapped at me a couple of times, no doubt trying to make me cry but I refused.

That was the first and last time I ever saw him as I refused to go back from then on!

I thought all dentists were told as part of their training that chatting about everyday topics helps their patients to relax and calms those who dislike or are afraid of dentists.

It used to be very common indeed both in the UK and in Denmark.

German dentists are much more inclined only to tell you about the state of your teeth and gums and what they feel it would be necessary or advisable to have done.

I would never book a new appointment with a medical professional whose manner did not suit me.

My pet hate is the jovial gynaecologist!

Do you live in Ilford? We may have the same dentist!

Yes, there’s probably a ‘diagnosis’ there if we want to go looking for it. But he’s a good dentist, and it does no harm.

I used to have a brilliant female dentist, but, oh ,she was a gossip. While I was sitting there with a mouth full of equipment she would pass on all the bits of information she'd been told by previous patients in the village. Luckily they were usually people I didn't know! I was always very careful to keep our conversation away from personal things.

We used to have a great dentist when he retired we loved practice as his replacement didn’t understand my fear of dentists. My father died in the dentist chair when I was a child. The new practice had a wonderful Greek dentist that was brilliant, but after brexit he moved to Belgium. The dentist I see now very good.

Sorry it should say moved