Chapter 8 – Her Appointment Goes Wrong!

I wake up slightly when I feel a set of hands gently pulling back my lips and adjusting the set of cheek retractors. Even through the latex of the glove, I can tell that they are a man’s hands. I figure that it is my dentist or one of his assistants starting my check-up, or maybe the hygenist is finished with the other patient, so don’t bother to open my heavy eyelids and check. The gel that she spread over my gums has numbed my whole mouth and I can’t feel anything that the hands are doing in there. There is an acidic smell in the air that quickly goes away when I hear the sound of suction near my head. There has to be two people in the room with me because the sounds are coming from both sides of me. The strong male hands gently shake my shoulder and a voice says, “Bite down please.” A block is inserted into the left side of my mouth and I bite down. The block is moved and I am asked to bite down again. This happens twice more before I am left alone and drift off again with my mouth propped open by the block.

Then I hear a quiet voice from my left say, “One, one”, a pause, then, “Two, one”. This goes on for quite a while until they reach, “One, six. Two, six.” Then I hear, “Light, please.” and a barely audible buzz begins in front of me.

I must have fallen asleep again because I hear, “Three, six. Four, six,” then the buzz. This time a female voice accompanies the hand that gently shakes my shoulder, asking me, “What is your favourite colour?” I don’t know what my answer is and I don’t think they have any idea what I say, either.

I begin to dream. The dream starts out with voices just behind my head quietly having a discussion about someone in the office saying something to someone else. The voices get farther away from me, but the volume increases so that I can make out parts of what is being said, “I said the patient in room four is ready for you, not room fourteen. The patient in room fourteen came in for a routine cleaning and check-up. I put her on this side because all the rooms on the other side were full. I can easily schedule the patient in room four another appointment. The lady in room fourteen is going to be a completely different matter.” The voice doing the talking is one that I am sure that I heard very recently.

The male voice responds with, “She is still asleep. Can’t we just remove the braces and tell her that we aren’t going to charge her for today’s appointment? She won’t know a thing about what happened to her.”

The first voice replies, “We don’t do things that way here. Today is your last day working for us, and when I talk to your instructors, probably your last day in class as well. You can pack up your things and leave now.” Her voice has more than a little anger in it.

Then she directs her next question to another female, “What is your excuse for what you did to her? Did you even check what the records said on them? I updated them well before you did any work on her.”

A timid young voice replies, “I realize now that I should have checked what the records said, rather than take his word. When I saw her laying there and the condition of her teeth, I made an assumption that I felt was justified at the time. She had all the scans and records done that all the other orthodontic patients have in their files. It looked as if she was ready for the braces to be installed. The bands even fit around her back molars when he fit them the first time. He did try to wake her up and she did respond when he had her bite down to seat them in place.”

“Now that you know that a mistake has been made, what is your suggestion as to how it should be handled?” There is still a hint of anger in the voice, but mostly interest in what the answer will be.

“I think that I should be the one to talk to her. I was one of the people who made the mistake and I should be the one to try to fix it now. Depending on how she responds, I think that the first thing to do is offer to remove the braces. We should offer to pay her for her time to return and maybe a reasonable payment for the effect of the stress that my mistake has caused her.”

“Another possible solution would be to offer to treat her at a reduced cost. She already has the braces on her teeth, so we wouldn’t charge her for the braces and the installation time. We could even finance them for her at no additional cost.”

“A third possible solution could be to offer to pay to have them removed by another orthodontist. If I was her, that is probably the choice that I would make. I don’t know if I would trust us not to make another, possibly bigger mistake.”

The very familiar voice returns. “I think that you are right in saying that you should be the one to apologize to her for your mistake. You have come up with three very good solutions and I can think of a couple more, but for now, we will try those three.”

My mind has been clearing as I have been listening to them talk. I realize that I haven’t been dreaming and that everything that they have been discussing has happened to someone in the office. My jaws still feel a bit numb and my lips seem to be a bit puffy, almost as if I have had a filling done. I try to sit up but it seems to take a bit more energy to move than I am willing to put out at this point.