What to Check for to Avoid Unnecessary Embarassment

Well, it’s a bit later than I intended to be writing this, but I feel I must write about the incident yesterday.  There are not many dull moments in our busy dental practice and this was certainly far from it.  We see all different kinds of people because we are located in downtown…keep this in mind as I relate the following.

A sometimes great and sometimes not great thing about our office is it’s openness.  We have five rooms separated by three-quarter walls.  Sound travels and usually all five chairs are filled.  Yesterday started fairly routinely, but quickly became entertaining as we all began to listen to chair #3.  

You may wonder what caused us to begin listening…at first, it was the very loud explanation of what the problem was with her teeth.  After that, it was the singing.  Yes, it was like an American Idol audition in the middle of the office…and not a very good one.  I actually got up to see what was going on and there she was by herself, listening to a cd or radio, singing loudly and be-bopping in the chair.  She seemed oblivious to those around and evidently was waiting for the dentist to come in.  I laughed and returned to working on my patient.  She then came out of the room and loudly asked me if she could go to the restroom…I said sure, and asked if she knew where it was.  She said again loudly, “Yes, I’ve already been there this morning.”  Okay, TMI.  I smiled and went back to my responsibilities.  She returned, but before too long she announced she needed to be excused again and headed to the restroom.  This time when she returned to the chair, I saw something flowing behind her…

To my horror, I realized it was about 2 ft. of toilet paper stuck in her waistband.  Two other assistants also saw this rather comical sight and laughed until they cried….we all did.  I looked at one of them and said amidst giggles, “You have to tell her.  You can’t let her leave with that there.”  She replied, “I know,” and burst out laughing again (she was actually sitting on the floor laughing, which added to the hilarity).   A good 20 minutes later, I finally hear my co-worker say with a straight face, “Ma’am, you have some toilet paper stuck...”  The patient, seemingly unembarrassed, began searching for it (mind you it’s 2 ft. – we can’t figure out how she didn’t know it was there).  She said, “I can’t find it.”   “Oh, it’s there,” my co-worker assured her!

So, please be careful when you exit the stall…make sure you have nothing trailing behind.