If you’re looking garbage, you’d be wise to check out the dump. If you’re looking trouble, a reliable blacklist should tell you who to contact if you relish a good fight. But almost nobody deliberately looks for garbage and trouble. Very often, these things look for us – in the form of alamak patients. So how do I tell if a patient may be difficult?
She walked in a couple of months ago with a broken molar tooth on which root canal has already been completed at a clinic at Mt E. I asked her why she didn’t have it crowned. She said that the dentist there refused to do the crown for her. The alarm bells should have rung loud enough for me to send her off, but I decided to be sympathetic and took over the case.
Probably feeling thankful that someone was willing to work on her case, she started asking for other root canals and even a bridge. I did the necessary root canals, extraction, temporary bridge and finally, this morning, I cemented her e.max bridge. She complained about sensitivity over 2 unrelated teeth, so I replaced the old fillings for her.
She walked out after the treatment, paid for the bridge (whew!), but refused to pay for the fillings. I explained that the two fillings were not a part of the initial treatment agreed upon. She got aggressive and accused me of spoiling her teeth with the bridge! She insisted that she never had this problem before the bridge was done, but the two teeth that were filled were not even part of the bridge.
My mind went back to her first visit when she told me that the dentist at Mt E had refused to do the crown for her. Why? Probably because she accused him/her or spoiling her tooth with the root canal to make sure that she would need to do a crown.
What did I do? I waived the additional charges and quietly told my assistant to give her excuses not to see her again if she ever called up. It’s never a good idea to work with someone who doesn’t trust you. Anyway, she’ll probably go to the next dentist and talk about this rotten guy at Lucky Plaza who refused to attend to her after doing her bridge. I hope that will ring the alarm bells for the next guy.
Oh no. Headahe dentistry all over again? Nah! Just the odd one every now and then. Working at Orchard only has been a lot less stressful. It would be good if we dentists can keep a blacklist like some of our colleagues in America. Then, we’ll know where to find trouble and how to avoid it.
Dewdrop Notes
Dr Chan's Kitchen