Gracious Dental Care

I haven’t had very good success with dentists recently, until now.

Of my previous two dentists, the furthest back I got kicked out of by the receptionist when my cell phone dropped her call and I showed up at the office thinking I had given her my number and wondering why she hadn’t called me back, and she wondered why I hadn’t called her back to give her my number. To her I was obviously at fault, and this was an offense worth calling the police if I didn’t leave the office right away. Even if I was only sitting quietly in a waiting room chair.

Of the most recent previous dentists, I had been sitting in the dental chair for 45 minutes, first appointment of their day, waiting to be seen, when I had a medical emergency, and while under medical duress asked for help for another 20 minutes before painfully getting out of my chair and walking two miles to let my hearth arrythmia settle. When I got back to the office for my appointment, I was told “sorry, you left so you have to reschedule.”

So after those experiences, it was a pleasure and a deep contrast to find a dental office that showed compassion and care toward their patients and each other.

My experience with Kansas City Care Clinic Dental office at the Research Center off Prospect and Meyer Boulevards has been a positive one. I realized from the beginning that the staff was always pleasant to the patients, and also pleasant to one another. But it was my most recent experience under the dentist’s drill that I realized how GRACIOUS the exchange between the dentist and dental assistant was, and how that permeated the exchanges between me and them, between all exchanges among the staff. It was inconceivable to be possible in an office situation, inconceivable in the most positive of ways.

My hygienist, Heather, made me feel at ease from the very beginning, and I came in with severe dental distrust and fear after my two previous dental office encounters.

Truth in advertising requires me to admit there was one negative experience. After my first dental cleaning with Heather, I told the dentist that checked my teeth about my previous medical distress episode from the other dental office. But instead of hearing “don’t worry, if you have a medical emergency here, we will see you get medical attention”, that dentist said “if you get out of your chair here, you will also lose your appointment slot.”

I called their business office to say I could never see that Dentist again. And was told it was the dentist’s last month at the practice. I never saw that person again. And Dr. Medlin who followed, and is my lead dentist, let me waste more than enough of his time unwinding from my dental distress to show compassion and graciousness toward me.

Now when I say all, I mean all the staff there shows graciousness, from the reception desk staff (whose names I keep forgetting but whose welcoming faces have always been a blessing), to the back office staff I haven’t seen, to every dentist, hygienist, assistant, and dental student (and any other position I don’t know to list by category).

So, thank you, Kansas City Care Clinic Dental Office Staff, and May God Bless You, Every One.