I suppose the woman I spoke to at the VA dental clinic doesn't know about veterans writing their senators. Soon she will know.
Yesterday I saw the VA dental clinic about having a crown glued back on a molar. This doesn't happen much, but it's not a first time for me. I waited a week for an appointment, and crazy me, I thought I would be going home with the crown glued back on. It's a molar, and I haven't been able to chew food during that time. I tried using my undamaged side, but this caused temporal mandibular pain. So when I saw the dentist I told her that I needed my crown reattached, and mentioned that my TMJ hurt from the cockeyed overuse.
Blizzards of X-rays were taken. The crown I complained about was ignored. Maybe I needed a dental device to wear at night for TMJ. Let's focus on that..... How long has that hurt? "It's hurt since last week when my crown came off forcing me to chew exclusively on the right side." And to 200 miles of travel later, absolutely nothing was done to address my crown. They decided to refer me to a different clinic. Fine. The new clinic will not be getting my brand new X-rays. They will be starting over from scratch. They will see me in three weeks to evaluate my teeth.
I am puzzled about the way they are handling this. I suppose they aren't used to seeing a patient with a full mouth of good teeth. Except for one, the loss of which occurred exactly the way this tra la la is going. I complained about a crown not being on correctly. They ignored it. Food found its way under the crown. No more molar. That was my only toothache in my life, until last week.
And so, I decided to go to Houston, Texas and see a real dentist. I called the VA clinic and asked them to forward my X-rays to a Sugar Land, Texas dental clinic, Sugar Land being a suburb of Houston. Millie said, smugly, "There is no VA dental clinic in Sugar Land, Texas." ***Correction. There is a VA dental clinic in Sugar Land, Texas.*** I was speaking of a private clinic called Smile Texas in Sugar Land, Texas, however, and never called it a VA dental clinic. So I started over with my explanation. Okay. That didn't communicate the issue to her. So I started over again. And again. Then she was infuriated and told me she was going to hang up on me. I suppose she thinks receptionists are supposed to pour vitriol over the phone lines. "You might as well," I said, since this was not working and she was being more and more insulting. Click.
I called again, thinking that if I could just speak to Orianna, my dental tech from yesterday, I could get things resolved...maybe. Millie answered again, and instead of the standard, "VA dental clinic," she said, "Is this you again?" I actually was astonished at her incredible behavior. It is the first time I've been treated so contemptuously when calling a business or government office. I was not able to connect to Orianna.
According to the VA dental clinic yesterday, I need four crowns replaced, because of cavities. I'm envisioning years of not being able to chew again. I doubt that the assessment of my teeth was accurate. The dentist seemed to believe that since I had not been to that particular office since 2011, I had not been to any dentist at all. She told me to start flossing my teeth. "I do floss my teeth." "Floss them better." ?? Around here, when a new crown is ordered there is a two the three month wait. In Sugar Land, there is a two the three day wait.
And so, seeing that no dental emergency can or will be addressed by the VA, I decided to write my US Senator. I have an idea that Millie will be spoken to about her phone etiquette. This will absolutely amaze her. And hopefully, other efforts on my dental behalf will happen. But probably by then my issues will have been addressed in Texas, where the beautiful people go. The biggest problem is that I will have to put Mom in a nursing home until I return in one to two weeks. These experts at the VA dental clinic will be all up in arms when the Senator calls. It is really surprising how much of an impression it makes when a Senator gets involved. I guess they didn't know that I know that.
It's days later and I still can't figure out how the receptionist at the VA dental clinic concluded that I needed a tongue lashing and mind numbingly rude treatment. I wasn't even rude to her. Thinking it over, I suppose saying "Sugar Land, TX" didn't convey to her a suburb of the fourth largest city in the US with a population of 2.4 million people. All by itself, even without Houston, Sugar Land is a much larger city than she lives in. But she is uneducated about it supposing it's a little pasture somewhere with 50 people or so. Therefore she's talking to a yokel. Not that that makes her freaky behavior on the phone understandable or acceptable. It convinces me the more I think it over that I really have no other option than go to the Smile Texas clinic if I want to save my molar. Well, it's good to have made the decision. Now I just need to make the arrangements.
Why does the bizarro behavior of the VA dental clinic surprise me? Have I never been to the VA before? I'm just lucky to have escaped with my life, much less my molar.
No comments:
Post a Comment