Recently a guy came in for an abscessed tooth. Painful, whatever. We don't pull teeth in the ER; it's not a dentists office.
I'm trying to explain this to the dood, who just can't seem to grasp that we don't have the capabilities to pull teeth and that he needs to see a dentist instead. I tell him again and again that we don't have the right equipment for dental work, or even a dental qualified doctor.
"But why can't you just pull it now? It's going to keep hurting if you dont!?"
Dood, it's going to keep hurting if you don't listen to me and get it pulled. Oh, and brush your teeth, it might have prevented this in the first place. If you can afford a blackberry, you can afford a toothbrush.
So we run around this same question and explanation for a full five minutes, and finally the guy gets fed up and goes, "well, can I at least just get a teeth cleaning while I'm here?"
Sigh.
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2 comments:
ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
This was a total joke. Right?! No one is that completely off their rocker, are they? I bet you see some pretty strange stuff in that hospital! LOL!
One of our local EDs pull teeth. I only know this b/c my partner one day had his crown come off his tooth and when we picked up our patient, he asked the nurse if he could have some topical anesthetic. She said no, not without being registered and whatnot, but she did say dental work such as pulling teeth is in her protocols...she has just never had to use it.
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