06 Aug A funny thing happened at the Dentist’s last night …
5 Funny Dental Stories from the Surgery
(by Cary Cray-Webb)
Like many dental professionals, I’ve managed to make a fool of myself in surgery more than once.
One ‘classic’ involved a set of dentures. Working with a dentist who was adjusting a denture, I realised that our patient was covered in fragments of acrylic. Brandishing my suction tube, I asked the [male] patient; “Would you like me to suck you off?”.
The patient replied; “Is that for NHS or just private patients?”
In search of wisdom
We also unearthed a couple of other funny dental stories through the ‘Dental Nurse & Advice Forum’ on Facebook.
One nurse from Hertfordshire recalled a sweet story about a patient that she once had, a young man in his early 20’s. He asked if he could have wisdom teeth implanted as he didn’t have any, and wanted to become wiser.
As she said; “I don’t think he actually knew what implants were, he just wanted the wisdom that comes with wisdom teeth”.
Not something you see every day in the surgery (except maybe on Halloween). Photo courtesy of Costume Works
Seen and heard it all
Another nurse (we’ll call her Maxine) who has worked in dentistry for 40 years, claims to have ‘seen and heard it all’.
Like the dentist who, prior to taking an X-ray, asked a Nun in full habit if she may be pregnant.
On another occasion, Maxine was working with a young dentist, and again it involved an X-ray. The dentist, clearly without thinking, said to a woman patient; “I’m going to put something in your mouth and it may feel quite big”.
As she put it; “I couldn’t contain myself”.
Don’t stand so close to me
Of course, it’s not always the dental professionals who cause embarrassment. On one occasion my dentist was performing a scaling on a female patient. She was what you might call a big lady – in every direction – and somewhat spilt over the edges of the chair.
Cary Cray-Webb – registered dental nurse and director of Precision PR Ltd
As it happens, I’m only 5’1″ at best, so I was having to stretch across her to perform suction, and I had to lean against her to reach. I apologised to her for invading her space. She replied; “Oh, you can invade my space any time Darling”, at which point to she put her arm around me, pulled me tight to her and squeezed my bum!
Fortunately, the dentist I was working with is a personal friend, so he finished up her scaling very quickly after that. I’m not quite sure what he’d have done if she’d squeezed his bum too!
If you have any funny dental stories that you’d like to share, please email me at cary@precisionpr.co.uk. If we get a few good ones we’ll write another blog on the same subject in a couple of months time.
For more information on Pearl Dental Software, please call on 0116 275 9995 or email us. We can’t promise that our system won’t prevent you from saying embarrassing things to your patients, but we guarantee an easy-to-use software system that delivers a well managed patient journey.
