Results of My Experiment

[blackhole2]

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I thought I'd try this out. In the last hour I called up 8 OD offices and 8 DDS offices in Bloomington, IN and found out the nearest possible appointment for a non emergency eye exam/teeth cleaning for a new patient. This is what I found:

3/8 ODs could see me within 2 days. The other five it'd be at least a seven day wait.

Zero dentists could see me within 2 days (no surprise there). One office had about a four month wait. The other few dental offices I called were even closed for their lunch break while all of the ODs offices were open. I felt really bad hanging up on the secretaries. 🙁

Tip of the hat to you, DDSs.

 

[loveoforganic]

So.... People take better care of their teeth than eyes, be it for personal or insurance reasons or whatever.

 

[Jay12]

I thought I'd try this out. In the last hour I called up 8 OD offices and 8 DDS offices in Bloomington, IN and found out the nearest possible appointment for a non emergency eye exam/teeth cleaning for a new patient. This is what I found:

3/8 ODs could see me within 2 days. The other five it'd be at least a seven day wait.

Zero dentists could see me within 2 days (no surprise there). One office had about a four month wait. The other few dental offices I called were even closed for their lunch break while all of the ODs offices were open. I felt really bad hanging up on the secretaries. 🙁

Tip of the hat to you, DDSs.

Thank you for your meaningless experiment 🙄

 

[blackhole2]

It wasn't meaningless. Some posters are always saying on here to call up ten different OD offices and ten different DDS offices and see how quickly you can get a non emergent eye exam. They made it seem like the oversupply problem was really, really bad.

 

[traveljunky]

How is it that you can compare two different modes of practice and expect the results to be anything but biased???

Have you ever been to the dentist??? The visit will take longer simply because the procedure takes longer..... Now does that make the dentist any more important than the optometrist?... ABSOLUTELY NOT! because one profession cannot be compared to the other.

I really think your "experiment" is biased and skewd, but nice try...

 

[thecgrblue]

How is it that you can compare two different modes of practice and expect the results to be anything but biased???

Have you ever been to the dentist??? The visit will take longer simply because the procedure takes longer..... Now does that make the dentist any more important than the optometrist?... ABSOLUTELY NOT! because one profession cannot be compared to the other.

I really think your "experiment" is biased and skewd, but nice try...

He's a pre-Optometrist you big baby.

 

[traveljunky]

ahem, ahem 😉.

 

[Meibomian SxN]

It wasn't meaningless. Some posters are always saying on here to call up ten different OD offices and ten different DDS offices and see how quickly you can get a non emergent eye exam. They made it seem like the oversupply problem was really, really bad.

I agree this was pointless. The oversupply problem has more to do with the job market than scheduling issues.

 

[ABaverage]

Wow, come here and praise the DDSs. Lovely.

But let's compare the emergencies here. Ocular emergencies could be visually debilitating.. and last a life time. Dental emergency... eh.

 

[KHE]

I thought I'd try this out. In the last hour I called up 8 OD offices and 8 DDS offices in Bloomington, IN and found out the nearest possible appointment for a non emergency eye exam/teeth cleaning for a new patient. This is what I found:

3/8 ODs could see me within 2 days. The other five it'd be at least a seven day wait.

Zero dentists could see me within 2 days (no surprise there). One office had about a four month wait. The other few dental offices I called were even closed for their lunch break while all of the ODs offices were open. I felt really bad hanging up on the secretaries. 🙁

Tip of the hat to you, DDSs.

lol

Good job! I'm actually surprised it was only 3/8.

Maybe that's actually good news because that's in Bloomington which has an actual school. So they should be saturated.

Try that same experiment in Pierre South Dakota, and Las Crucas New Mexico and see what happens.

 

[eyestrain]

lol

Good job! I'm actually surprised it was only 3/8.

Maybe that's actually good news because that's in Bloomington which has an actual school. So they should be saturated.

Try that same experiment in Pierre South Dakota, and Las Crucas New Mexico and see what happens.

Haha, that's what I thought too.

 

[blackhole2]

KHE to be quite honest I was surprised, too. I thought it'd be more. Btw I wasn't trying to belittle the profession in this post.

 

[Ryan_eyeball]

KHE to be quite honest I was surprised, too. I thought it'd be more. Btw I wasn't trying to belittle the profession in this post.

This is someone that is being proactive in research and finding out what exactly a $200k education is going to get them. Are they going to have a full schedule every day, and how far booked out can one realistic be?

3/8 wasn't as bad as I would have thought, and I'm glad Indiana might have this statistic. One possible variable that the original poster didn't add was Saturday availability.

I really enjoy the ocular examination,and hate some aspects of Optometry. But I wouldn't want to look at teeth all day.

 

[socal2014]

Dentists have the highest suicide rate, I think. (lol: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100523222310AAxF5vm)

Plus, working with teeth? Not my cup of tea!

 

[blackhole2]

This is someone that is being proactive in research and finding out what exactly a $200k education is going to get them. Are they going to have a full schedule every day, and how far booked out can one realistic be?

3/8 wasn't as bad as I would have thought, and I'm glad Indiana might have this statistic. One possible variable that the original poster didn't add was Saturday availability.

I really enjoy the ocular examination,and hate some aspects of Optometry. But I wouldn't want to look at teeth all day.

Ryan, I probably should have mentioned that. When I looked in the phonebook while no one advertised "Walk-Ins" welcome or anything like that, there were advertisements for Saturday and evening hours.

 

[thecgrblue]

Dentists have the highest suicide rate, I think. (lol: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100523222310AAxF5vm)

Plus, working with teeth? Not my cup of tea!

Did you really just try to cite yahoo answers as a source?

 

[outsidechance]

Did you really just try to cite yahoo answers as a source?

yeah thats pretty weak, considering its acutally an urban myth. When I took abnormal psych my text stated that was in fact inaccurate and plain wrong. However, I can totally understand why the OP would think that as thats what I thought until I was educated otherwise.

 

[ABaverage]

Did you really just try to cite yahoo answers as a source?

LOL! I noticed that too.. 🙄

 

[Oogilily]

Comparing apples to oranges. What if the ODs had more than one doctor in the office? They could be seeing twice as many patients as other places but not be booked out as far. Not too smart to be booked out 4 months in advance though. But you can't take your hat off to the DDSs based just on that.

 

[socal2014]

yeah thats pretty weak, considering its acutally an urban myth. When I took abnormal psych my text stated that was in fact inaccurate and plain wrong. However, I can totally understand why the OP would think that as thats what I thought until I was educated otherwise.

Yeah, because there are legitimate sources stating dentists hate their jobs and are having suicidal thoughts because of their job, right?

No dentist is going to admit that, unless its strictly anonymous. Yahoo answers + other online services provide such anonymity to explicitly ask/state what one could not in the real world.

 

[thecgrblue]

Yeah, because there are legitimate sources stating dentists hate their jobs and are having suicidal thoughts because of their job, right?

No dentist is going to admit that, unless its strictly anonymous. Yahoo answers + other online services provide such anonymity to explicitly ask/state what one could not in the real world.

*facepalm*

 

[odieoh]

Yeah, because there are legitimate sources stating dentists hate their jobs and are having suicidal thoughts because of their job, right?

No dentist is going to admit that, unless its strictly anonymous. Yahoo answers + other online services provide such anonymity to explicitly ask/state what one could not in the real world.

+10, yeah yahoo answers is the definitive source for statistically significant healthcare information. Pretty much if its on the internet it has to be true, they wouldn't let them put it on there otherwise right? Such as these other related and releveant stories:

http://www.theonion.com/articles/us-dentists-cant-make-nations-teeth-any-damn-white,164/

http://www.theonion.com/articles/4-out-of-5-texas-dentists-advocate-the-death-penal,4551/

 

[eyestrain]

Comparing apples to oranges. What if the ODs had more than one doctor in the office? They could be seeing twice as many patients as other places but not be booked out as far. Not too smart to be booked out 4 months in advance though. But you can't take your hat off to the DDSs based just on that.

Um, yes you can.

 

[Oogilily]

Um, yes you can.

I was just saying I don't think that is the whole story. But, I guess I can't argue that they have patients in their chairs, which is the bottom line.

 

[ABaverage]

Every time I go to the dentist it takes me something like 3 hours. I go on my school breaks, so I really have nothing else to do.. but DDSs are just so... well, time consuming! They just take longer per patient than I believe ODs take with their patients. I thought it relevant since there isn't any "space" for the dentists, but there is for optometrists. Optometrists do exams in say.. 20 minutes? Patients are usually there for about 1, 1.5 hrs at most.

 

[blackhole2]

Every time I go to the dentist it takes me something like 3 hours. I go on my school breaks, so I really have nothing else to do.. but DDSs are just so... well, time consuming! They just take longer per patient than I believe ODs take with their patients. I thought it relevant since there isn't any "space" for the dentists, but there is for optometrists. Optometrists do exams in say.. 20 minutes? Patients are usually there for about 1, 1.5 hrs at most.

THREE hours? Are you going in there for something other than standard teeth cleanings? I go to the dentist on my school breaks as well and I'm usually out in a little over half of an hour.

 

[ABaverage]

I go there to see the dentist, not the hygienist! When I see the hygienist it only takes 1-1.5 hours LOL!!!!

Really, I'm not happy with how long it takes and I must be in the minority when it takes 3 hours to do something that requires the dentist. I'm not talking temporomandibular surgery here, either. Standard things like I dunno.. fillings, onlays, inlays, whatever. I've had it all done, unfortunately. All I know is that it's a different temperature outside and the sky is a different color when I finally leave the place with a sore mouth and pockets empty.

THREE hours? Are you going in there for something other than standard teeth cleanings? I go to the dentist on my school breaks as well and I'm usually out in a little over half of an hour.

 

[Mewcakes]

Holy crap, 1-1.5 hrs for a cleaning?! Are you just sitting there for 3/4 of that time waiting for the dentist to look at your xrays? That's a ridiculous amount of time for a ridiculous amount of non-work.

Even when I get crown done and have to take multiple impressions (the tray is always too big and my impressions come out sloppy. So I always have to redo them. 😛) It STILL only takes me like...1.5 hrs. 2 if it's like...a big 'ol molar.