Getting Drunk

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I always hear that dentists who own their own practice are "always on call"...so what happens when a dentist wants to get intoxicated (or even wants to do something that would put them out of contact) and a patient needs to see a dentist?

I understand that most of the stuff that dentists see are non-emergent but what happens to the occasional RCT if someones endodontist or GP decides they want to get hammered one night?

 

[Vapor1122]

The reason "take two aspirin and call me in the morning" became a household phrase 🙂

 

[ItsGavinC]

The average GP doesn't get after-hours calls that often. They are rarely of the emergent nature. As the above poster said, they can contact the office in the morning. A great thing to do is have your front desk receptionist or even lead assistant screen the emergency calls. That way only the true emergencies get through to you.

If you are going out of town you can always have a fellow local dentist cover call for you. We do that on a regular basis.

Many specialists will actually rotate call between several practices, which means they only have to take call once or twice a month. Many ways around it.

 

[Saddleshoes]

I always hear that dentists who own their own practice are "always on call"...so what happens when a dentist wants to get intoxicated (or even wants to do something that would put them out of contact) and a patient needs to see a dentist?

I understand that most of the stuff that dentists see are non-emergent but what happens to the occasional RCT if someones endodontist or GP decides they want to get hammered one night?

I have a friend that routinely tells patients that call him at night that he has had a few drinks. He claims that the "emergency" call soon becomes a non-issue once the patient knows about the drinking.
(--BTW--This guy rarely drinks.)

 

[Vapor1122]

A great thing to do is have your front desk receptionist or even lead assistant screen the emergency calls. That way only the true emergencies get through to you.

I've heard faculty talk about how this can be a liability issue, seeing as how receptionists aren't exactly qualified to diagnose problems over the phone. One story in particular I remember being told involved a patient calling the office with some pain after having RCT done a few days prior. The receptionist told the patient the pain was to be expected and to just pop some NSAIDs and tough it out. Turns out the dentist had missed a canal. Enter lawsuit.

 

[hopefullyadent]

yes...........................

 

[OceanDMD]

The average GP doesn't get after-hours calls that often. They are rarely of the emergent nature. As the above poster said, they can contact the office in the morning. A great thing to do is have your front desk receptionist or even lead assistant screen the emergency calls. That way only the true emergencies get through to you.

If you are going out of town you can always have a fellow local dentist cover call for you. We do that on a regular basis.

Many specialists will actually rotate call between several practices, which means they only have to take call once or twice a month. Many ways around it.

Since when do receptionists and assistants screen calls on Saturday and Sundays?

I agree, most "emergencies" can be put off till Monday. However, a busy practice will have consistent emergiencies. Temporaries fall off, patient is in pain, it is unethical to blow them off until monday. Pedo accident, regardless if they are an active patient or not, unethical to blow off. What pisses me off is all of the douchebag dentists that decide to not answer their emergencies, and thus they call my practice who does.

Think of it like this, a patient calls who is active with their entire family, and the 10 year old son has fallen and avulsed a tooth. You've been drinking and what do you do?

 

[LazurasDC]

Give intructions on how to store tooth -- HBSS, milk, saliva, etc. and go to urgent care center or ER. They will likely be seen more quickly due to possibility of head trauma, etc. I would imagine.

 

[dentaldawg32]

This thread makes me want a drink...too bad I'm still in lab

 

[OceanDMD]

Give intructions on how to store tooth -- HBSS, milk, saliva, etc. and go to urgent care center or ER. They will likely be seen more quickly due to possibility of head trauma, etc. I would imagine.

Fail. Tooth re-implanted within 60 minutes of avulsion improves prognosis significantly. Don't take my word, google it. When it comes to dental emergencies the ER has head up their arses. Urgent care even worse.

And I am drinking a bourbon as we speak. Hope not to get that 12am emergency call.....

 

[armorshell]

Fail. Tooth re-implanted within 60 minutes of avulsion improves prognosis significantly. Don't take my word, google it. When it comes to dental emergencies the ER has head up their arses. Urgent care even worse.

And I am drinking a bourbon as we speak. Hope not to get that 12am emergency call.....

If an avulsed tooth came into our ED they would. Spend 4 hours in the waiting room, get into a room and get fiddled with by various nurses and ED doctors for 90 minute. Then I'd finally get the page to come see them and wander down there to tell them the good news.

When I was externing at the program I'm at they did this exact thing and when the got there...didn't have the tooth. Complete avulsion, patient lost/swallowed. We're like "Okay, is there something you want US to do?"

 

[Kahr]

If an avulsed tooth came into our ED they would. Spend 4 hours in the waiting room, get into a room and get fiddled with by various nurses and ED doctors for 90 minute. Then I'd finally get the page to come see them and wander down there to tell them the good news.

When I was externing at the program I'm at they did this exact thing and when the got there...didn't have the tooth. Complete avulsion, patient lost/swallowed. We're like "Okay, is there something you want US to do?"

Wow, I can't believe they don't just page you right away in the first place...seems so absurd (I'd think the nurse checking people in would've done that, instead of having them see the other nurses/ED docs first), were you just really busy during that 90 minutes they were in the waiting room?

 

[K2 Dental]

Since when do receptionists and assistants screen calls on Saturday and Sundays?

I agree, most "emergencies" can be put off till Monday. However, a busy practice will have consistent emergiencies. Temporaries fall off, patient is in pain, it is unethical to blow them off until monday. Pedo accident, regardless if they are an active patient or not, unethical to blow off. What pisses me off is all of the douchebag dentists that decide to not answer their emergencies, and thus they call my practice who does.

Think of it like this, a patient calls who is active with their entire family, and the 10 year old son has fallen and avulsed a tooth. You've been drinking and what do you do?

My receptionist takes all after hour emergency calls. In the 3 years I have owned this practice I have not had one "true" emergency that required me to come in after hours. You are not expected be "on call" 24/7. That is a ridiculous claim. You need to live your life and leave work behind after the day is gone or you will go crazy. Of course there may be some random emergencies when Bobby falls off his skateboard, but those will be few and far between.

 

[cresophene]

I always hear that dentists who own their own practice are "always on call"...so what happens when a dentist wants to get intoxicated (or even wants to do something that would put them out of contact) and a patient needs to see a dentist?

I understand that most of the stuff that dentists see are non-emergent but what happens to the occasional RCT if someones endodontist or GP decides they want to get hammered one night?

First point, interesting username.
Secondly, if there's a true emergency I always send the patients to the Emergency room eg: massive facial swelling and let the Maxillofacial guys handle it. Always better to err on the side of caution.
Most patients will wait until the next day to seek treatment anyway, and no kid falls off their bike @ 2am.

 

[charlestweed]

If an avulsed tooth came into our ED they would. Spend 4 hours in the waiting room, get into a room and get fiddled with by various nurses and ED doctors for 90 minute. Then I'd finally get the page to come see them and wander down there to tell them the good news.

When I was externing at the program I'm at they did this exact thing and when the got there...didn't have the tooth. Complete avulsion, patient lost/swallowed. We're like "Okay, is there something you want US to do?"

No GPR residents at your hospital? When I did my GPR (before my ortho residency), the ER doctors usually called us first instead of calling the OMFS residents. I wished they called the OMFS first because it wasn’t fun waking up in the middle of the night to splint an advulsed tooth, to do extraction, or to do incision&drainage without an assistant. And yeah, the ER doctors usually made the patients wait 3-4 hours before they called me. These ER doctors didn’t know how to admin local anesthetic in the mouth….some of them started the IV line and gave the patient Morphine for an advulsed tooth or for a silly #3 with a broken ML cusp.

 

[OceanDMD]

I take my emergency calls. The patient calls my office, is prompted if its an emergency, and leaves a message. My phone is paged. I determine whether or not it is a dental emergency based on my training, not my receptionists or assistants. If a patient calls me on Saturday with a temporary out, I usually see them. This is a practice builder. Most other dentists in my area don't answer their phones on the weekend. We do. We have patients transfer to us because of this. Now, future dentists, you can decide whether you want to be available to your patients. Whether you want to personally respond to their concerns after hours, regardless if its a true emergency. The dental market is becoming more competitive everyday. As far as I'm concerned, making that little extra effort pays off. You would be surprised how impressed patients are with a phone call from their dentists after hours.
Don't get me wrong, I'm on call every other weekend, and probably average 2 to 3 pages per weekend. Maybe I need to see 10% of these patients. But, they respect the prompt call back for reassurance.

 

[USCbiograd]

I take my emergency calls. The patient calls my office, is prompted if its an emergency, and leaves a message. My phone is paged. I determine whether or not it is a dental emergency based on my training, not my receptionists or assistants. If a patient calls me on Saturday with a temporary out, I usually see them. This is a practice builder. Most other dentists in my area don't answer their phones on the weekend. We do. We have patients transfer to us because of this. Now, future dentists, you can decide whether you want to be available to your patients. Whether you want to personally respond to their concerns after hours, regardless if its a true emergency. The dental market is becoming more competitive everyday. As far as I'm concerned, making that little extra effort pays off. You would be surprised how impressed patients are with a phone call from their dentists after hours.
Don't get me wrong, I'm on call every other weekend, and probably average 2 to 3 pages per weekend. Maybe I need to see 10% of these patients. But, they respect the prompt call back for reassurance.

So, if a patient calls you on a Friday night and you have been drinking. Do you call them back and refer them to the ER or how would you handle this situation?

 

[DrJeff]

I take my emergency calls. The patient calls my office, is prompted if its an emergency, and leaves a message. My phone is paged. I determine whether or not it is a dental emergency based on my training, not my receptionists or assistants. If a patient calls me on Saturday with a temporary out, I usually see them. This is a practice builder. Most other dentists in my area don't answer their phones on the weekend. We do. We have patients transfer to us because of this. Now, future dentists, you can decide whether you want to be available to your patients. Whether you want to personally respond to their concerns after hours, regardless if its a true emergency. The dental market is becoming more competitive everyday. As far as I'm concerned, making that little extra effort pays off. You would be surprised how impressed patients are with a phone call from their dentists after hours.
Don't get me wrong, I'm on call every other weekend, and probably average 2 to 3 pages per weekend. Maybe I need to see 10% of these patients. But, they respect the prompt call back for reassurance.

Agree 100%.

The answering machine at my work has both my cell # and my business partner's cell # on it. Our message says that if this is an emergency, call us, if it's just a general question (appointments/billing/etc) leave a message and our staff will call you on the next business day.

True emergencies that require a trip to the office, atleast in my practice, are rare. I could count the number of times per year I encounter one of these on 1 hand and still have a few fingers left over. A conversation with the patient for some advice and/or a call to the pharmacy will take care of the vast majority of emergency calls.

If I'm going to be at an event where I think that I might have a decent # of drinks, well then ahead of time, I just talk with either my partner (or another local dentist - happened last year when one of our assistants got married and both me and my business partner were at the wedding/recpetion) and back up coverage was arranged without an issue.

My general rule of thumb is no more than a beer or 2 before 9PM, and then, if I want a couple of more, okay, since in over 10 years of private practice, 99.9% of emergency calls happen before 9PM