Patient Maxine!

It takes all types of people to make the world spin. Therefore that includes dealing with many different personalities.  Generally we all want to be in contact with people who are pleasant and kind hearted but the reality is that isn’t always possible.  I had a very memorable experience with a patient, who I’ll just call Maxine that really put in perspective that everyone isn’t always so easy going. 

After setting up my operatory I was on my way to the waiting area to call back my patient.

“MAXINE”

She gets up and makes her way over to me. Sticking my hand out to shake hers and introduce myself.

“Hi! I’m Gi…”

“You pronounced my name wrong …..It’s MAXine!”

With no hand shake in return and apologizing about mispronouncing her name I proceeded to lead her to the chair trying to make small talk along the way.  I was unsuccessful due to the fact that she was complaining about the amount of people that were in the waiting area.  Finally we arrived back in the dental hygiene clinic I was able to get her seated and explain to her that to start the appointment we would need to verify her medical history.

“HA! I’M JUST GONNA TELL YOU EVERYTHING YOU WANT TO HEAR” she stated. 

Following this statement I had to explain to her the significance of telling me the truth about her medical history in order to ensure her safety during treatment.  She stated that she understood but I could tell that she still was nonchalant about the whole appointment was just ready to be done with everything.  I want on to ask her questions such as do you smoke or use tobacco and she replied yes.  Therefore I asked her had she ever considered quitting. 

“NO! I DON’T WANT TO QUIT, I ENJOY IT!”

Replying with a simple ok (which may not have been the right thing to say) I finished up her medical history and continued to move along through the appointment.  The next issue came when I had to probe her sulcus depths.

“I HATE THAT THING! DO YOU HAVE TO USE THAT?”

I explained to her that I indeed had to use it to insure that her gingiva was healthy and to assess for any potential issues that I found intraorally.  I offered her the option of me taking breaks so that I was not continuously probing her gums but she had her own way of getting me to get out of her mouth. Every time I tried to probe an area she would make her lips cover her teeth forcing the probe to slide out of the area.  This made getting her probe depths twice as difficult and twice as long.  Therefore in this appointment I was able to finish all of her assessments but I had to get her to return to the clinic for a second appointment.  When she returned for the second appointment she seemed a little more pleasant than the first but I could still sense that she would have rather been doing something else than attending this appointment.  To complete the second appointment I just had to gave her a cleaning, some fluoride, and provide her with oral hygiene instructions.  During the cleaning she put up the same lip fight with all of the instruments and was very nonchalant about OHI. 

“YEA, WHATEVER YOU SAY!” was her reply about any oral hygiene instructions that I had for her. 

FINALLY I had completed her treatment and was able to walk her out to the front desk for payment.   Upon paying, Maxine and the receptionist were talking about different things when the subject of Maxine’s daughter came up.  She had previously mentioned to me that her daughter had CP but she didn’t talk about it any further than that.  I think she felt more comfort discussing the matter with the receptionist because they were close in age and both had children.  In listening to the two women talk it became very clear to me that Maxine had so many other issues to deal with.  I realized that it wasn’t me personally that was the reason for her attitude, but other significant factors that she has endured that has made her develop her cold demeanor.  In this moment I was able to let go of any hard feelings that I was harboring, and realize that Maxine’s personality was a mixture of emotions and traits that I will have to understand and accept.