dogpoo

Ahh do you remember your absinthe fueled night and setting your pretty sunburst guitar afire?  Oh memories...

 

I'm just boring, teeth as day job, to pay for sanity travels haha.  What are you up to these days?

 

Never really thought I'd spend most of my day mucking around in blood and saliva trying to help / helping people while being hated for it.
There is some special sort of reward to what I do I guess.

Remove the outrageous mark-up on the price and people will hate you less.

 

 

I'm more surprised at things I haven't done yet, like die in some pathetic fashion or other.

 

What outrageous mark up? Tell the supply companies to drop their prices! I wish I earnt as much as people seem to think we do. Don't get me wrong I earn plenty but I also work an average of 48 hours a week including saturdays.

Edit: and I do plenty of cut price work, believe me. I don't work in a really high end practice because someone has to help the patients I see. Just because someone can't afford ideal treatment doesn't mean they don't deserve the best work possible that they can afford. I find ethics in dentistry really messed up sometimes but you can only do what allows you to sleep at night. Just wish people appreciated it more.

Em, fluoridated water works. I'm far far too tired to get into this right now, but I can tell you the amount of decay in non-fluoridated areas is vastly more than in fluoridated areas. NZ is a prime example, ie Chch vs Dunedin decay rates, and QLD here as well. Insane numbers in comparison, esp in QLD from before and after they started fluoridating the water (only in recent years) it's so obvious it works on a population level. It's a public health measure that is of so much benefit and some people, usually the priviledged where it wouldn't affect their decay rates necessarily as they are educated and are able to afford a better diet etc,, spoil it for all the lower socioeconomic groups who need all the help they can get. There's lots of studies and evidence as well but that's boring stuff to you lot probably. Yes too much fluoride is bad, but it's extremely tightly controlled amounts.

 

People don't realise that either way dentists win. Fluoridated water means better teeth and happy dentists, non-fluoridated water means worse teeth and more work. There's a reason most of us want water fluoridation, and that's because seeing terrible teeth and having to pull every single tooth in a 2yo is just bloody depressing (and I have done this on multiple occasions, as well as pulling adult teeth out of 12yo kids). It doesn't get rid of the problem, but it sure helps.

NAME: Jess
STUDYING: Interior design
DAY JOB: Dentist
PREFERRED CAREER: Hmm...
NOTES: I seem to have rediscovered GTU, except there's not much going on here these days

Glad to hear it worked, yay for good oral hygiene techniques! Still go and see your dentist though okay?

 

I'm good, moved back to Melbourne, still fixing teeth, doing an interior design course for fun. Drill fill and bill works pretty well (although "drill" includes a lot of "pulling teeth out"), nowhere near as good as the glory days - alas! before my time - but can't complain I suppose. Also I don't fix facial bones anymore I miss head surgery rather a lot but not enough to go back and study another ten years. Still haven't figured out how one has a job and meets new quality people as well though. Especially when established circle of friends is extremely small and within a specific field. Ah, the trials of moving around.

 

Because I'm chilling out here - and activity is close to zero on these forums now, I must be old, I remember when I would sit and hit refresh for new posts and there would be 8+ in the last 30 seconds - here's a list of answers to dentist FAQs:

1. No most dentists don't take sadistic pleasure in causing patients pain no matter how much of a PITA they are
2. No I have never had to stick my knee into a patients chest to pull a tooth out and I'm not sure how that would actually work
3. No I don't drive a fancy car / you didn't pay for my last holiday / we don't print money although I wish that last part was true and legal tender
4. Yes, when you say you hate the dentist, there is a part of us inside that goes "we hate you too!"
5. Yes, when your gums bleed, it means they are dirty and you should keep brushing them, not the opposite
6. A soft toothbrush is what dentists recommend
7. Coke really is that bad for your teeth, both forms of it
8. Appreciation and thank you cards go a long long way to making the job worth it. Ultimately we really do just muck around in saliva, bacteria and blood all day, it's a disgusting job and rather thankless, be nice to your dentist, make their day! it's hard being almost universally disliked 

PS sorry for the thread hijack but ahh, thread hijacking, it used to be a thing!

While we're on the random female GTUers coming back here thing... hi and how've you all been doing? *little wave*

(this is the part where people go "who are you again?")

Could I please have a compliment?

This version is much better:



"The dark side of Friday".

Excitement, it's a good assessment! I don't hold the bad part against you, I'm used to being hated for my choice of career and I take pleasure and changing people's minds on that. Dentists are lovely really .

Derfeh is surprisingly good for serious conversations .

Oooh assess me *prepares to cry in the corner*

Get my degree, get published, get married, maybe get my clinical doctorate, have a bunch of awesome kids, die happy