How Dr. Do-Over changed my life

Aug 30, 2009

Editor's note: Jimmy Earll (not his real name) is a practicing dentist in California and a stand-up comic who performs all over North America. His column, Laughing Gas, appears regularly on the DrBicuspid.com advice and opinion page, Second Opinion.

He was the dental professor everyone stayed away from.

Being on the clinic floor for the first time and working on your very first patient was stressful enough, but to have Dr. X (first name Doug) check you off on your class II amalgam or crown prep was doubly stressful (I graduated in '93 -- we even did gold foil back then).

Dr. X was one of those professors who wouldn't check you off easily so you could proceed to the next step of your procedure. Instead, in front of the patient, he would say things like, "Would you do this work on your mother?" or "Did you attend class when they discussed class II amalgams?" and more often than not, "DO IT OVER!" (Prompting the seniors in a class years before mine to dub him "Dr. Douggie-Do-Over.")

It got so bad that the other professors on the clinic floor had lines of students waiting patiently for their turn to avoid Dr. X. He would just stay in his little cubicle reading a trade journal waiting for some unsuspecting student.

One cool, crisp fall morning, we had study club for the first block of clinic time. (Study club is where you do a difficult dental restorative procedure, and it is filmed later to be critiqued and made fun of in front of faculty and fellow students.) I had chosen a classic California-board class II amalgam. I needed the final checkoff to complete the procedure.

Three of the four professors had lines of students waiting for them. But out of the corner of my eye I saw Dr. Douggie-Do-Over. How bad could he be? I wondered.

I began to walk toward him, even as a little voice asked, "Are you insane?" and "You do want to graduate on time, don't you?" I soon realized it wasn't a voice in my head but my clinic neighbor. "Don't do it!!" he whispered.

But my legs kept moving. Sweat started to bead on my brow. And then I was standing in front of him. "Good morning, Dr. X," I stammered. "Can you check off my class II amalgam, please?"

He seemed bothered that I had interrupted his reading -- a typical dental trade article, "Finding Clinical Excellence in Today's Dental Schools." "Great!" I thought sarcastically.

He got positioned and looked in my patient's mouth. "Hmmm," he muttered. "Do you know what anatomy is?"

"Sure, Dr. X," I replied.

"Then why don't I see any of it on this?" And then those three dreaded words: "Do it over!"

But he filmed my filling before I could redo it. I then proceeded to remove all the initial material, which took an hour and 15 minutes, and refilled the tooth. I asked him to check it every step of the way. He taught me new techniques that made the job easier and shared tidbits of his expertise that I still use today. He later told the study club panel that my anatomy on the first try looked like I had put a Honda insignia on the patient's tooth, which brought a roar of laughter from the gallery.

Even so, I continued to go to Dr. X for help until I graduated -- and, yes, I graduated on time. It was tough and, sure, he made me do things over, but he in turn spent a lot of time with me and helped me become an excellent clinician.

The point of this story?

Don't be afraid to face the Douggie-Do-Overs in your life, because the line is always shorter and you just may be surprised!

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