Friday, June 27, 2008

Idiot patient #24981

Typical conversation at the dentist's:

Dentist (D): Ok, sir, you have a minor swelling around your molar. You need to take some medicine for a few days to help ease the pain and also to reduce the swelling before I can go in and do a root canal treatment.

Patient (P) : Ok. So will I feel pain?

D: You have to finish the 5-day antibiotics course that I am going to prescribe for you. Then the swelling will go down, and you will not feel pain when I do the treatment on that tooth. But you must finish taking the medicine accordingly first.

P: Yes. Ok. So will I feel pain after doing the treatment?

D: No, after we have performed the root canal treatment, your tooth is essentially 'dead' and therefore you will no longer feel pain from that particular molar tooth. But you must first take the medicine that I have prescribed for you, complete the whole course, and THEN come in for the treatment. Ok?

P: Ok. (Thinks a while...) Ok, So if I take the medicine and tomorrow I don't feel the pain, I can come to do it tomorrow?

D: No. You need to finish the entire course of the antibiotics I have prescribed for you first because the swelling may not have subsided adequately by tomorrow even if you don't feel the pain. So, you may still feel pain while I am performing the procedure if we do it tomorrow.

P: The root canal will be painful? I thought you said it won't be painful....

D: I said.... You need to take the medicine as instructed, whch means taking the antibiotics three times a day for five days, by which time you will finish the entire course of the medicine, and THEN when I do the procedure for you, you will not feel the pain.

P: Oh so no pain lah?

D: Yes, finish the medicine, then swelling goes down, then no pain.

A week later....

P: Doc, you said no pain, how come I still feel the pain? What kind of lousy medicine did you give me?

D: Hmmm.... (examines the tooth and finds residual swelling)... have you finished the medication that I prescribed for you?

P: Erm.... no, I didn't.

D: Why not?

P: I stopped after taking it for one day. I thought no pain already, so no need to take anymore.

D: [Speechless]

Honest, this happens all the time. And people wonder why my hair is falling out.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

aw..what the heck! if these kind of morons are paying you..ahahaha! let them torture themselves!

Anonymous said...

Next time if I need to get a root canal can I go see you?

Josh said...

aiyo... why they like that one?

By the way, balding men are cute also u know.

Anonymous said...

Hey doc! how come you put our conversation in your blog ah?

anyway, my tooth still got pain!

JamesOsani said...

You have the patience of a saint.