Guelder Rose

Not sure whether this is just something in my area or whether it applies to all of the US ... but every single dentist I have visited here is open plan! Being from the UK, I am used to being examined/treated in a private room with a door that is closed, and I can't deal with being drilled while everyone in the waiting room can hear everything that is going on ... in some places I have been to, the people in the waiting room can actually see the people being examined. I also drove by a dentist that had huge glass windows ... I couldn't quite believe it, seeing all those people being examined in full view of the general public passing by ... maybe I'm just a bit too sensitive or just too used to the way things are done in the UK?

Oh, and the beauty salons ... all those people having a pedicure, all sitting beside each other ... no privacy from the other customers or the passing public. Again, in the UK, you would be taken to a private room with your therapist, where you could then spend the next hour having a good old gossip (if you knew your therapist well, that is).

Anyone else noticed the lack of privacy here ... or is it just me?

peacelover

I have noticed exactly the same thing, infact I walked out of a dental surgery for that very same reason. A dental nurse/assistant or whatever they are over here came out to get me and you would have thought I was going in for a major op. She was in scrubs and face mask with a visor.
I was then told to sit in a chair and if I glanced to the left or right side there were other people getting their teeth done. I couldn't feel comfortable at all, also because of the accent I was getting even more attention all round than I really wanted.
I miss the amount of consideration and total privacy of the UK.

I am now searching out a dentist with only one chair in the room but it is not an easy thing to find. I have asked people and they just give me that vacant look as if to say what is the matter with you!

Russ&Jayne

I've been to 3 different dentists here in the past year and they've all had private consultation rooms. The ortho, on the other hand has a huge communal room with 6 chairs I feel a right charlie sittin there with sniffling 12 year olds.

My NHS dentist back home had a private room but the receptionist would always be wandering in with records and leaving the door open for all the waiting room to see

woodsey

yep, its why I haven't been yet, I hate dentists so much I've been known to almost cry in the waiting room, I'd rather fly than go to the dentist and that's saying something. My childhood dentist was an evil evil man *shudders*
My daughters ortho has an open office with rows of goofy teenagers all getting their teeth done and downstairs is the dentist with huge windows, you can see right up people's noses when you walk past..
I also noticed that where I go for my nails doing there are 2 massage tables in the room where they take you to be waxed and you have to walk through it to go to the loo, won't be going there for a bikini line wax I can tell you..

Eskimo

There is a financial reason for this - in the UK "assistants" cannot work in the mouth so a chair has an assistant and a dentist. In the US the assistant can work in the mouth so a dentist can work multiple chairs (and therefore have greater through-put) at once but to "get around" he needs one open plan work space. If you go to an Orthodontist its even more prevalent - I'm in that business and we have Dr's that work 10 chairs at once :scared:

Bob

It's weird, it's not quite open plan at my dentist, but they have floating rooms, basically you plop down in a cubicle, there's no doors...and the dentist will get around to you when ever, or the hygenist person...all very slightly weird....especially for the money.

NC Penguin

I'm on my second dentist in the US (in three years). I left the first one because of the way he'd disappear to work on other patients (as many as three others) and leave me for as long as half an hour with no-one popping in during that time to check on me. I didn't care if he was really, really experienced and a professor of dentistry (and still teaching).

Bottom line was that service at this practice was poor.

There were individual rooms but no doors so anyone passing by could see the patient or the dentist at work. However, one had to pass through a door to get to the practice area so those in the waiting room cannot see or hear the dentist at work.

My concern about privacy is more HIPAA related. I notice in my current dentist, all the patients records are stored on open shelves in the office. They're not in file cabinets...



NC Penguin

AdobePinon

HIPAA! HIPAAaaaaah! HIPAA! Run for your lives!

dbj1000

Doctors and Dentists over here now occupy that very special place in my heart previously reserved for Estate Agents...

...blood-sucking leaches on the backside of society, prepared to extract money from a corpse!

...or in my case to needlessly extract four wisdom teeth from me at enormous expense.

Vermin, I tell you

AdobePinon

He didn't try to pull all eight of your wisdoms, eh?

BritGuyTN

I actually think doctors/dentists are a lot worse than estate agents actually.

actual fees for estate agents in the Uk and realtors over here are very straightforward and upfront - even if you may feel they are high you know what you are getting into - unlike medical stuff here

snorkmaiden

We've just started going to a new dentist and thank goodness, you get your own room and it's all very high tech indeed.

They take your x-rays and then photographs of the problem areas and then go through it all with you on the computer screen so he can actually show you each problem.

They've only recently opened and he asked us if someone had recommended them, as they are getting a lot of British people apparently. I wonder if it's because we all want our own room

Jabba1

Actually, I've always preferred the open rooms of my dentist. I can't stand the clausterphobic feel of those closed in rooms, especially when I'm having my teeth drilled.

You know the old saying "misery loves company"? When I'm going through the horrendous amount of drilling involved in having a crown fitted, it's always comforting to know that others near by are having just as much excuciating work done, if not more.

And the ability to glance out of a window once in a while, puts my mind right at ease.

Silly me

AdobePinon

Hehe! I don't trust dentists enough to be in a room alone with them. They spend too much time telling me all about the classes they failed on college...

Rete

Not sure what an open plan is. In my 57 years, I have always seen dentists that use separate rooms for each patient. While the door is never closed, believe it should not be as it helps cut down on sexual abuse by the dentist of a patient, I can only be viewed by either other patients enroute to or from another examining room and/or office personnel. Since it is only my mouth that is open, why would I want the privacy of a sealed room?

I don't consider the person doing my pedicure to be a therapist. He/she is a technican. As for wanting to hide my toes from viewing, again I can't see where the need for privacy is an issue. If I am having a pedicure it is because I wish to wear open toed shoes. If I'm willing to bare my toes to strangers on the street, why the need to hide them from other customers?

Also I am not one to gossip with my technican and other than the need to explain what I want done and an exchange concerning the weather, there is nothing that is said that cannot be heard by everyone. My conversion is far less private than those who talk incessantly on cell phones on trains, hallways, elevators, etc. where they oft times discuss their sexual adventures, marital problems and exploits of their bosses.

Why the need for so much privacy? Just curious, is all.