March 16th, 2006
A working Friday with a lot of work ahead. I have quite a few dental procedures today. It sometimes amazes me how much of my daily effort goes into dentistry. I’ve had to acquire a taste for it—I’ve had no choice, really. One of my colleagues at my hospital is a dentistry freak. He performs root canals, installs crowns, and chastises the other two of us whenever we fail to aggressively and meticulously care for each tooth as if it were its own separate patient. We used to roll our eyes but we’ve learned to actually think like this.
Naturally, the work is tedious, time-consuming, and, consequently, expensive. However, I now enjoy it tremendously. It’s amazing to me how much of a difference a clean, healthy mouth makes in the comfort and longevity of a pet. What’s hard is convincing people of this—especially when extractions, done properly, can be very expensive. It’s hard for people to understand why I charge $150 to remove a tooth when the vet down the street charges $20. It’s an uphill battle but, so far, it’s been worth it.
