ALAN CARLTON
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Dear Alan 3

29/5/2016

0 Comments

 
​Dear Alan,
 
I recently had a patient who was the living embodiment of two of the seven deadly sins (sloth and gluttony). Things were going well until I tried to raise the chair. The chair failed to budge. The obese patient was left stranded like a beached whale with arms flailing searching for something to grab onto. He could still be there but my assistant managed to push him onto the floor whereby he grabbed hold of the chair and pulled himself up. My question is. Do they make bigger chairs for today’s bigger patients?”
 
Regards,
 
The chair I have can lift 175kgs. There are people who weigh more than this but it is more likely the motor in the chair was failing. Don’t blame some poor victim of the marketing arm of multinational food conglomerates when all he is doing is telling you the motor in your chair is starting to fail.
 
Dear Alan,
 
I have recently moved to Sydney.  How do I decide which orthodontist to refer my patients to?
 
Orthodontists are different. I mean they are all different from each other. I don’t mean they are different from normal people. They differ in personality; the way they run their practices and in their area of interest. To find out you need to start referring to the local orthodontists and looking at their patient management. The other way is to go and visit then in their surgeries. Spend time talking to them and watching them work. 
 
As you have a variety of patients with a variety of needs you should refer to several different orthodontists. There are multiple benefits in doing this. Different patients should be referred to different orthodontists based on the idea that each patient should go to the best orthodontists for that particular patient.
 
The other way to do it is to refer to the guy you went to Uni with. Not as stupid as it sounds. You need someone you can communicate with. It is easier to ring and discuss a patient if you share memories of a noisy, smoky room full of drunken testosterone charged students; late night souvlaki in Carlton and a hatred of certain Cons demonstrators. It is called bonding and has nothing to with phosphoric acid.
 
Dear Alan,
 
I have a cute patient, with a relaxed smile, who always thanks me and brightens the surgery. I’d love to do a few more fissure sealants, but my wife working in reception refuses to make her an appointment saying she takes months to pay her bill. How do I get to see her?
 
Regards Powerless.
 
Answer: Ring her up and tell her you need to meet to discuss her oral hygiene. Suggest somewhere a little less clinical. Maybe a local coffee shop or pub. Sounds like you might have to pay the bill. 
 
Dear Alan,
 
A patient rings up and says, “The filling you have just placed has just fallen out?”
What do I say?
 
Regards,
 
Answer: There are three possibilities.
 
An unrelated filling on the other side of the mouth has fallen out.  Not directly your fault. But it is possible you indirectly precipitated the loss. When you filled the aforementioned tooth you ground the occlusion and put the force elsewhere and bingo.
 
A scrap piece of amalgam or composite has hidden itself and resurfaced later.
 
The tooth is sensitive and will settle down. A reasonable assumption that sensitivity is caused by something falling out.
 
There is the fourth possibility that the filling you just placed has fallen out. I know what you’re thinking. Nup never happens but it is possible and in fact it did happen to me once. I had to fess up and redo the filling. Before redoing the filling stop, think and work out why the filling came out. No point putting back exactly the same filling.

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    Author

    This blog is the fictional story of a dentist.  The dentist  works with Jessica and Beryl in a town a lot like Hobart.   The blog tells the story of what these people get up to and the work that they do.  If you feel that you recognize yourself in one of the stories please remember it is fictional and the characters and stories are all fictional. Though  all the stories are based on my time as a dentist in Hobart and  are based on things which actually did happen.  
    ​Writing these stories I often had to think about what is true and what is fictional.

    Categories

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    A Day In The Life
    An Old Lady Goes To The Dentist
    A Small Sad Lonely Death Notice
    A Teenage Girl Anxious And Stressed
    Back In Control
    Black Sheep
    Cementing A Single Veneer
    Dear Alan


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  • Home
  • Photos
    • photos >
      • All Saints Church
      • Anglesea Barracks
      • Art Mob
      • Boer War
      • Botanical Gardens
      • Brooke Street Pier
      • Brunswick Hotel
      • Campbell Street
      • Castray Esplanade
      • Cenotaph
      • Constitution Dock
      • St David's Cathedral
    • photos >
      • St David's Park
      • Elizabeth St Mall
      • Elizabeth St Pier
      • Franklin Square
      • Hadley's Hotel
      • Hobart GPO
      • Hobart Congregational Church
      • Hobart Rivulet
      • Hobart Town Hall
      • Holy Trinity Church
      • Heading South Sculpture
      • Hutchins Old School
    • photos >
      • Kunanyi / Mt Wellington
      • MacQuarie Street Primary School
      • Maritime Museum
      • MacQuarie Wharf
      • Parliament House
      • Penitentary
      • Railway Roundabout
      • Regatta
      • RHH
      • Royal Visits 1868 1901 1920 1927 1934
      • Royal visit 1954
      • Salamanca Place
    • photos >
      • Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race
      • Theatre Royal
      • Victoria Dock
      • Saint David's Cathedral
      • Saint David's Park
      • St George Anglican Church
    • Street art: photos >
      • Bidencope Lane
      • Criterion Collins Liverpool Streets
      • Elizabeth Street North Hobart​
      • Kemp Despard Streets
    • Streets: photos >
      • Argyle Street
      • Barrack Street
      • Bathurst Street
      • Brisbane Street
      • Brooker Highway
      • Campbell Street
      • Collins Street
    • Streets: photos >
      • Davey Street
      • Elizabeth Street
      • Goulburn Street
      • Harrington Street
      • Hunter Street
      • Liverpool Street
      • Macquarie Street
      • Murray Street
  • Places
    • Places >
      • All Saint's Church
      • Anglesea Barracks
      • Atheneum Club
      • Baha’i Centre
      • Boer War Memorial
      • Brook Street Pier
      • Brunswick Hotel
      • Boats in the docks
      • Constitution Dock
      • The Drunken Admiral
      • Franklin Square
      • Gas Works
    • Places >
      • Hadley's Hotel
      • Heading South Sculpture
      • Hobart GPO
      • Hobart Synagogue
      • Hobart Town Hall
      • Holy Trinity Church
      • Hunter Street
      • Ingle Hall
      • Old Wool Factory
      • Ordnance Stores
      • Parliament House
      • Penitentiary
      • Princes Park
    • Places >
      • Princes Wharf 1
      • Scots Memorial Church
      • Saint David's Cathedral
      • Saint David's Park
      • Saint George Anglican Church
      • St Michaels Collegiate School
      • Supreme Court
  • History
    • History >
      • Tasmanian Timeline
      • Early Tasmania
      • Mid Nineteenth Century
      • Late Nineteenth Century
      • 20th Century
      • Tasmania’s aborigines
      • Convicts
    • People >
      • John Lee Archer
      • William Bedford
      • Andrew Bent
      • Louis Bernacchi
      • James Blackburn
      • William Bunster
      • William Buckley
      • Thomas Bromfield
      • Luke Castray
      • William Champion
      • David Collins
    • People >
      • John Colvin
      • Charles Darwin
      • Governor Eadley
      • TT Flynn
      • John Franklin
      • Lady Jane Franklin
      • Charles Gaylor
      • Haig: Elizabeth and Andrew
      • Henry Jones
    • People >
      • James Kelly
      • Robert Knopwood
      • Lachlan Macquarie
      • Douglas Mawson
      • Charles McLachlan.
      • George Mure
      • Pearce: Henry and John
      • Robert Pitcairn
      • Poulett-Harris
      • Reid: Arthur and Alison
      • James Clark Ross
      • Ikey Solomon
      • Phillip Smith
      • Abel Tasman
      • Mark Twain
      • AJ White
      • Andrew and Elizabeth Haig
  • Community
    • Hobart Marathon Festival
    • Hadley's Hotel
    • history is not set in bronze
    • Wooden Boat Festival 2019
    • What do you think of Hobart?
    • Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race
    • The Mountain
  • Walking Tours
    • Dave's Walking Tour
    • The Tench Walking Tour
    • Botanical Gardens Circuit
    • ​Alfred’s feeling religious walk
    • Battery Point Sculpture Trail
    • Lachlan gets to the point
    • Street art: Luffy paints the town
  • Blog
    • healing through living
    • This website
    • about another website
    • Acknowledgement
    • Contact
  • The Full Complement
    • Alan Carlton
    • Daniel Frank
    • Paul Barrington
    • Jodi Sutton
    • Jodi Sutton talks about mistakes
    • Jodi Sutton: The phone
    • Ann Heath
    • Maddie Atkins
    • Karen Wong
    • Jo-Anne Cherry
    • Jo-Anne Cherry: Retirement
    • Errol Kilov
    • Garry Owen
    • Katherine Janney
    • Jacques Cawood
    • John Chung
    • Gordon Henry
  • Songs
    • Forty Years Ago
    • Tomorrow
    • Clouds in the River
    • I Woke Up
    • Hold My Hand
    • Cornelian Bay Boathouses
    • Dance on the Deck
    • Eucalyptus Globulus