My team could do a Master Class on connecting with people, creating a warm environment, and letting scared patients know they have a friend.
Only 50% of the U.S. population has a happy dental home. And, seemingly every day, the connection between oral and general health becomes stronger. I often wonder how many years of life are surrendered to fear.
I’ve never experienced dental fear, even when a fellow dental student was delivering local anesthetic for the first time to me, someone who’d never before experienced an injection from a dentist (much less a nervous rookie student.)
And my team may have generated the top 2015 restorative Invisalign case in North America but it’s not close to being what we do best.
Last week, I had successful surgery over at Kaiser, Baldwin Park. And yeah, hospitals scare me more than a cigarette, a blindfold, and a ticket to the Big Shot at the Stratosphere in Sin City.
My team could do a Master Class on connecting with people, creating a warm, safe environment, and letting scared patients know they have a friend.
And if yesterday you’d told me my team had presented some humankind training for Kaiser, I would’ve just responded, “Thought so.”
My vitals at Pre-op were probably exactly what they’d be if I climbed Everest without Oxygen. On the outside, I’d like to think I was Kool & the Gang; but on the inside, I was a big bowl of quivering jelly.
Team members Dani and Dalila were there to hold my hand and they fit right in with the Kaiser Doctors, nurses, and auxiliary personnel who were experts at listening, smiling, being positive and reassuring while confidently conveying the sure-fire reality that I was way more friends and family than I was a number.
I didn’t think I could ever appreciate my TCDC team more than I already did before April 8, 2016. I was wrong.
Love you guys.
