Just curious about others' experience at the dentist office. We have a new dentist (since we moved) and she is very nice and good at what she does, but likes to chit-chat with the receptionist/dental assistant, which I have witnessed every time we have been in there. I recently went in for an appt. and walked in and saw the dentist and receptionist sitting down having a conversation. Receptionist told me to take a seat and Dr. M would be right with me. I sat and started reading a magazine, assuming I was waiting for a patient to come out (they have availability for two patients at a time). Well, after a good 8-10 minutes, they both get up and announce they're ready for me now. I should mention that I was exactly on time, maybe 2 minutes late. I got the impression that I was waiting for their conversation to be over since there was no other patient in the room. Was that very professional?


Also, I find it kind of humorous that while they are working on me, I have found that the conversation continues. They talk about anything and everything. I am not necessarily offended, but have never had a dentist have a very casual conversation with the assistant while working on me. I guess I would like to hear others' experience with this.

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I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!

Oh, that would really aggravate me, to be kept waiting while they talk! If you really like her, I guess put up with it, but that would be enough to get me to start looking, I think.

Could you hear what they were saying? Was it business or patient related? Was it just idle chit chat?

If it wasn't business, I would start looking for someone new. That behavior is rude and unprofessional. If they don't care about you when you are sitting there on time and waiting, I wouldn't necessarily trust them to care about you when you have an emergency.

There are a lot of great dentists out there, and my time is valuable too.

You won't shop at a store that had customer service like that.

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Donna

Wouldn't bother me. I guess I have bigger things to worry about. And I enjoy my quiet time when no one is bugging me. I found I can't talk with the hygenist while she's working anyways, so someone else might as well have a chance to talk.

cj/

I've gone to several different dentists in my life and as far as I can remember, they have all chatted with the assitant while working on me (fillings, crowns, etc.). It's usually just random stuff (not about other patients or staff members) -- idle chit-chat. It really didn't bother me. I would have found it strange for them to be silent and they can't exactly chat with me since they are working on my mouth. My dentist has TVs at every chair, so usually I'm watching TV anyway.

My dentist is really busy, so I've never been there when I am the only patient. I would be kind of annoyed if I had to wait 10 minutes while they were chatting, but if you weren't right there listening, you don't know exactly what they were chatting about -- maybe the conversation changed to 'business'.

Sarah......mom to Jason & Devin

I think that keeping you waiting was completely uncalled for if they weren't talking about work related things, but even if they were, it certainly isn't appropriate to keep someone waiting. They knew they had an appointment, they should be prepared. The idle chatting during procedures is pretty normal I think though.

When my docter delivered my daughter via C-Section, he and his associates had a great conversation about the stock market during the delivery. I think I had to ask if I delivered a boy or girl. Such is life!

Chatting while doing treatment is no big deal to me....I do it all the time I'm a Dental Asst. I work at a prison, so you don't exactly carry on coversations about your personal life, but we talk about things that come across the news, radio, etc. I would go stir crazy if I had to stand there quiet during the entire procedure.

As far as keeping you waiting, like another poster said, it depends on what they were talking about. I don't mind waiting if I'm the patient. Maybe they just finished a hour long root canal treatment and needed a breather before starting another patient, maybe they were discussing a patient, maybe that was the first time they had a break OR maybe they were just shooting the breeze. Like I said though, it doesn't bother me much to wait.

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Michelle
*Mom to McKenna and Tanyn ~ Nov. 2000 Twins*