Three weeks ago, I wrote about why people hate the dentist. I promised a second installment that includes my other theory as to why people hate the dentist. In order to get the point across, I want to share a story about shopping for a new pillow. Bear with me, I hope it will make sense!
Let’s say your pillow is worn out and you want to buy a new one. You head on over to your local store and ask for a pillow. The salesman comes up to you and says:
“Well, son. I’ve got this pillow over here. It won’t be as comfortable as your old pillow. In fact, there’s a good chance it will hurt you when you buy it and it might hurt you while you sleep for the first few nights.
“And I’ve got to be honest with you, it won’t last nearly as long as your old pillow, but your old pillow is history – you can’t use it anymore so just forget about it.
“Oh yeah, and that pillow insurance you paid a lot of money for a few years ago that was supposed to pay for your pillows for the rest of your life? It’s only going to pay for half of this pillow, so you’ve got to come up with some cash.”
You probably wouldn’t want to buy the pillow. Think about it though: A similar thing happens when you go to the dentist to get a filling. If you’d like, go ahead and re-read the above story replacing the “pillow” with a dental filling.
Why People Hate the Dentist: Another Theory
My first theory on why people hate the dentist boiled down to the fact that the only sensation that teeth feel is pain. The second part of my theory can be boiled down to the following:
Dentists can’t create teeth that are better than your natural teeth.
Let’s say you go to the dentist to have some decay removed and to get a new synthetic piece of tooth to replace your old damaged piece of tooth. The dentist may or may not tell you the following information:
1 – It might hurt when you get it.
2 – It might hurt for the first few days.
3 – It won’t last nearly as long as your original tooth would have lasted had it stayed healthy.
4 – Your dental insurance may not cover all of it.
So you end up hating your dentist. Not only do your teeth only feel pain, but on top of that, the dentist can’t even repair your teeth to be as good as they once were and you have to pay for something that’s not as good as what you originally had.
The best teeth are the ones that your body makes, not the ones that your dentist makes.
Please remember that as dentists, it’s not our fault that your tooth decayed. We’ll do our best to fix it, but please be aware that a dental restoration is never as good as the natural tooth that it replaced.
What do you think? Is this one of the reasons that people hate the dentist? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below. Thanks for reading!
first of all i enjoyed reading your article,and i think you are right of what you are telling especially that the artificial replacement of any part of oral cavity is not as quality as what god created.My professor told me that best artificial replacement only30% percent as natural in quality!
But i still believe that the main cause that people avoid dentist is fear from pain that created from injection of anesthesia and that scary sound of turbine hand piece.
thank you
first of all i enjoyed reading your article,and i think you are right of what you are telling especially that the artificial replacement of any part of oral cavity is not as quality as what god created.My professor told me that best artificial replacement only30% percent as natural in quality!
first of all i enjoyed reading your article,and i think you are right of what you are telling especially that the artificial replacement of any part of oral cavity is not as quality as what god created.
My professor told me that best artificial replacement only30% percent as natural in quality!My professor told me that best artificial replacement only30% percent as natural in quality!
But i still believe that the main cause that people avoid dentist is fear from pain that created from injection of anesthesia and that scary sound of turbine hand piece.
thank you