A Dentist's Scarlett O'Hara Moment

or  Why a dentist booked a place on our recent course, almost at the last moment.

On Mon. 9th Feb. we ran our 42nd one-day course in Inhalation Sedation at Henry Schein Dental, Marble Arch, London.

Intense concentration

Delegates in learning mode

It takes about 90 minutes for two of us to set up the equipment, the lecture room and audio-visuals so it has to be done the evening before. Sunday was not an option. So we travelled to London on Saturday afternoon, to set up as a dental nurse training session in impression taking was finishing.

Onwards to spend the evening and next day with our daughter in East London. Around 6.45pm on Saturday evening, as we settled down to a well earned meal, I received an e-mail: 

Do you have any places left for the course on Monday!To be honest that is the latest request we had ever had for a place, since we started running courses in 2003. So I spent time Saturday evening and Sunday morning doing all of the necessary admin (yes and ensuring the fees were paid by BACS) to provide the same pre-course material other delegates had received. I won't identify the dentist without her permission but she was not local to the venue.

Her story though was interesting. 

On Friday afternoon of 6th Feb, it so happened, that she had two bookings for child patients which turned out to be very difficult for all concerned. Like the famous line from Scarlett O'Hara, in Gone with the Wind, when she says, "As god is my witness I'll never go hungry again",  this dentist  must have had a similar revelation and there and then decided that she would never go through the stress and upset she had just experienced again.  In fact she decided to move herself away from the pain of that negative experience and towards the pleasure of being able to treat such patients in a totally different and indeed much better way.

She decided that (maybe at long last), she needed to get trained to be able to offer the patients who needed it Inhalation Sedation. She took immediate action. She went to the SAAD website, requested their list of mentors, found my name, visited my website, saw we were running a course 36 hours later and duly contacted me, which brought her to central London by 8.30am on Monday to take part in the course. 

I have not discovered (yet) whether she had to cancel a clinic or not that day but in any event I believe that she was inspired by what she saw, heard and learned and I do expect that once she has recovered from all of that activity, she will go ahead and make it all happen at the practice.  I really hope so.

Chris Charon RDN in action

If you too feel that "enough is enough" when it comes to trying to treat very anxious patients - then take action - e-mail me: richard@the-ra-coach.co.uk. We can have a conversation about your situation and how I might be able to help.

Richard Charon BDS (V.U. Manc.1975)

SAAD and DSTG listed mentor.