I had to have a root canal on one of my back teeth this past week. They cost huge amounts of money, require large amounts of Novocaine to anesthetize you from your scalp to collar bone, leave you with chapped lips from drooling all over yourself for three hours and require that you are okay with listening to a grown professional sing, in its entirety, Killing Me Softly and other oldies hits while they work.The most amusing thing though is that I learned that the highest praise that can be given to a dentist by another dentist is to be called "conservative." Apparently these guys are loath to be considered a cowboy, a risk taker, a living on the razor's edge kinda' guy.
My regular dentist recommended a specialist to do my root canal with the words..."he is a great guy, really conservative." Knowing my dentist's politics I figured I would be in the hands of a very competent Republican. Later in the week I asked a good client, also a dentist, for the reputation of my root canal specialist (Endodontics for those of you in the know). He concurred with my original dentist...."he is very good, very conservative."
I always wondered how words get shanghaied by professions and become code for something that the rest of us don't always understand.
6 comments:
"Conservative" generally means that the dentist will do only what you need and not try to push value-added services. In the case of the Endodontist, it probably means that he would only do treatment if necessary. And then only the treatment that is necessary.
With dentistry being a health profession, but also a business, you'll sometimes find that there's a razor's edge between professionalism and entrepreneurship within it.
I am EXTREMELY curious how a professional found a lousy little posting on my blog regarding a moronic but mildly traumatic event in my life.
Ummmm....can you explain dentists' nearly universal love of soft rock?
Found the post via an alert I have set up on google blogsearch.
Soft rock works well as familiar music for patients because heavier stuff can raise anxiety levels, quieter stuff doesn't drown out drill noise well enough.
OMG - Not only dentists, but ob-gyns!
That particular musical delight is one I haven't been subjected to.
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