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| - The true way to tell if a doctor (or periodontist) is great is the way they handle mistakes. I went in to have my stitches removed after a gum graft and, while the first seven were removed quickly and painlessly, the last two were very hung up. From the very beginning the dental assistant was telling me "this is going to be uncomfortable" instead of reassuring me that she knew what she was doing and it was no big deal. When she started to pull down on my lower lip, the graft tissue became incredibly tender and she made it worse by trying to pull on the stitches so that she could make more cuts to remove them. I began to cry and get excessively nervous, so she brought in Dr. Waring. He was in the room for a total of about 30 seconds, said nothing to me, watched me cry, and walked out when my dad finally came in to calm me down (after I asked the assistant to get him about four times). The initial assistant left with Waring and sent in another assistant that immediately told me that I needed to control myself or she was not going to talk to me. After a few attempts to remove the remaining stitches, one still felt very hung up. Of course I was still panicked and crying because of the tender, still healing, new tissues that were being pulled and poked at when I asked her how long the last stitch was. She immediately responded with "I'm not going to talk to you when you talk to me like I'm your mom or your dad" then offered me a topical numbing solution. While the solution did help, the last stitch was very painful coming out. After it was done, the assistant realized that she had been pulling at the loose end, and the knot had gone straight through my fresh tissue. Although she apologized, I was shaken and my dad was appalled at the lack of compassion and rudeness of the staff.
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