Mad about something at the dentist today...

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I went to the dentist today for a routine cleaning. It's been about a year since I was there.

The hygienists and dentists wear disposable gloves when they do their work. Of course that's how it should be. When they take X-rays now, they don't get the film developed like they used to. The apparatus they put in your mouth to bite down on is attached to a cord and the images are near instant on a screen. In addition to this new technology, they also have computers to log your chart and add to it as necessary. No more paper charts. That's fine.

As I was having my teeth cleaned, periodically the hygienist would stop what he was doing and he'd tap away on a computer keyboard behind my head and out of my view and would click, click, click with a computer mouse. He said he was updating and entering things in my periodontal chart. Fine.

Then toward the end I got to thinking: "I wonder if the keyboard that he's using and the mouse that he's clicking on have some sort of disposable plastic covering on them that the change, much like the do with the suction straw they put in your mouth. When I get up to leave I'm going to make a point to look at the computer and mouse to see.".............

It took about ten minutes after my teeth were cleaned before the dentist came in and in that time, I turned my head around to look at the computer and mouse. Not any film over either one of them. Just as bare as a PC or mouse at a home or office.

That started to irk me like crazy. I started thinking about how he's sticking his gloved fingers in my mouth, tapping with the same gloved fingers on the keyboard and mouse and going back and forth doing that while keeping the same gloves on. Granted, he's changing his gloves between patients, but think about that: Every person before me, he's typed and clicked with their mouth saliva and potentially their blood (bleeding gums) on that same keyboard and mouse. I'm no doctor nor am I a dentist, but that's common sense to me that he should either:

1) Changing to a fresh pair of gloves after every time he touches that keyboard and mouse.
2) Waiting until he's done with the cleaning before touching those things.
3) Putting some sort of disposable plastic film on the keyboard and on the mouse and swapping those out between patients.

I don't expect the world to be perfect. I know it's not. I don't expect someone to wash their hands before a handshake (I wash my hands after a handshake, but that's my decision, I'm not putting it on the other person).

I don't think I'm being irrational with this. It's more of an issue than the thought being gross. It's possible that such an oversight could lead to the transmission of diseases.

I want to find another dentist and ask beforehand if they do that same thing.

That’s definitely unhygienic. I’ve never had a hygienist or dentist type on the computer while they were cleaning or checking my teeth. Weird!

It's kind of awkward to ask them to change gloves

They could refuse or get angry

But it is kind of dirty

Especially for a dentist

i try to get appointments first in the morning, i found the dentist keeps the gloves on from one person to the other,
apparently its his protection, not ours


i tried another dentist but they thought it was bootcamp,
the sergeant-dentist confused me with her commanding techniques

The dental facility at the health center I go to does some kinda gum test for each tooth & it all gets entered into computer. The hygienist or whoever wears a headset & says the number for each tooth & a number for the gum for each. Last time I was there the headset wasn't working so she got another one which also wouldn't work(musta been some kinda computer or network error with em but other offices were not noticing that issue) so she got a person to type it in manually while she called it out like she would if she was on the headset. I had to wait around abit for someone to be available to do it but I much rather the wait than have her do it herself without her changing her gloves after typing each thing.