7 Absurd Things That Have Happened in Dental Offices

Dental practices may not produce as many wild stories as the ER, but every so often, a unique patient comes right out of left field to make a dentist’s day a little more interesting. We compiled a list of stories that demonstrate just how strange patients can be. Keep reading for stories that will make you scratch your head and — more importantly — laugh out loud.

1. Partially Impacted Brain

“I had a mom with her daughter complaining of a partially impacted wisdom tooth on the bottom right. I took an X-ray and showed the mom how the tooth was lying horizontally and up against her second molar. As it happens, they could only afford to take care of the one tooth, so 20 minutes later, I was done, and the teenager asked if she could have the tooth. After cleaning it off, I wrapped it in a two-by-two gauze, placed it in a zip lock bag moved on to the next patient. It wasn't 10 minutes before my office manager motioned me out of that next operatory to tell me that the mom is saying I took out the wrong tooth. My response was, 'Lower right third molar, no. 32?' That is what we did, so I just had her put the mom and her daughter in the next room and scooted over there to see what this was all about. There is the mom, holding the tooth, and sure enough, she is convinced I have removed the wrong tooth. She is holding the tooth between her fingers in an upright position as she says, 'The tooth on the x-ray was laying down. This one is standing up.' I took the tooth, rotated it 90 degrees and told her she was just holding it wrong. I couldn't make up things like this.”

“The president of our local bank called after a surgical appointment with nausea from the pain meds we had prescribed. I said no problem and just called in a suppository for the nausea. The banker picked up the prescription and tried to follow the directions for its use. The directions said, 'Insert one suppository every 4-6 hours for nausea.' I get a call an hour later asking if he should take off the foil covering. I kind of laughed and said, 'Of course, you need to remove the covering.' It wasn't 10 minutes later that he said the medicine was just too large. Laughing again, I suggested that he just cut it in half and that should work just fine. Fifteen minutes later, I got the last call, and he said, 'Mike, I am sorry, but there is no way that I can swallow this pill.'”

3. Felt Up During Filling

“There was a patient who was a younger girl, like 17 or 18, and she just needed a filling. The dentist I was shadowing didn't usually practice at that office and he was only there for that one day, so he had never met the patient before. As the procedure went on, she started lifting her arms up and feeling around the dentist’s legs and waist. Her pupils were dilated, her eyes kept rolling back into her head and she was slurring her words. But every time we asked if she was ok, she said yes. We even took a few breaks and sit her up because we were worried. Eventually, it was pretty clear she was on drugs, but they had already started the procedure, so he just moved out of the way when she got close or gently pushed her arms down and finished the procedure.

After she left, the dentist, assistant and I all looked at each other just baffled. I asked them if the girl had any mental illnesses listed in her medical history. They said no and looked at her chart. It showed that she had a history of anxiety during dental procedures, so we were all in agreement that she was definitely on drugs and updated her chart to caution the next doctor.”

“I had a patient come in for a procedure, and after it was done, the patient asked me if he could have his 'girlfriends' come see me. I thought I misheard him, but he said girlfriends, plural. They did eventually come in — they each had a small child by him about the same age, and they all lived together. To each their own!”

5. Stuck on You

"Once we had a patient who had come in to get his new crown. The crown had such a good fit that we had a hard time trying to get it off to then cemented in permanently. We had the patient slightly bite down on a juju bead, (you know, the jelly bead you soften). Well, he bit harder than we asked and for about fifteen minutes patient couldn't open his mouth!! It made it even harder because the three of us were laughing so hard! The patient was drooling because he was hysterical but unable to open his mouth!"

6. Bugging Out

"I was once assisting a dentist and holding the small pad with some composite on it while she was doing a filling. Out of nowhere, I see an ant on the pad. Looking around I can't see where it came from. Not wanting to cause a scene, I remove the top sheet and give her some fresh composite. After the patient left, I said to the dentist, 'Did you see that ant? I wonder where it came from?' She told me that the patient's beard was crawling with ants. I couldn't see this from where I was sitting. She also didn't want to say anything. Pretty sad but also weird."

"I saw a patient for the extraction of root tip no. 5. I started off the appointment with some small talk about Halloween and if she gave out candy, etc. Talked about her grandkids. She seemed like such a sweet old lady (late 70s or early 80s). After two minutes or so of luxating the root tip with my proximator, she turns to me and asks, 'IS THE SON OF A B***H OUT YET?' My D.A and I laughed so hard."