Study Club con't

So it is Tuesday.
Day of the Study Club.
The topic picked.
The venue set.
The members have been called.
The food is picked up.
The LCD projector has been obtained.
I put together my presentation.
I picked up my friend and we were off to this dudes office.
Remember there were special instructions about parking. Go to the third floor and go as you were going to the forth floor and then take a right.
The instructions said there will be someone to assist you when you get there.
Simple right?
NOT EXACTLY.
We were there about 15 minutes before 6pm (the club starts at 6pm but no one ever get there this early) so really this was very early.
We went to the third floor and proceeded to the forth floor and then we took a right. The parking garage was a freaking maze. We drove around looking for signs that weren't there. We went round and round.
We went by about 3 different elevators. By the third pass we finally found the person to assist us.
She said, "Hi, park right here" We got all the crap that I was bringing (we had to make two trips) and we went on our journey to find the elevator. It was not right there. It was up a ramp, through a door and to a set of elevators that you couldn't see. When we got into the elevators you needed a key to go up.
She took us up the the fourteenth floor.
We walked us into the office and OH MY GOSH the thing was beautiful. It was amazing. 50 inch plasma in the reception area, granite, beautiful pictures. His two main operatories overlooked downtown Orlando. All the best and warmest colors. It was fully automated. Paperless. Monitors on the same tracks as the lights above the patient. Everything.
WOW.
I have a nice office but this...WOW.
I had just forgotten what a mess the parking was.
Don't get me wrong, I love my office and what makes an office is not the pictures and monitors but the service and the people providing the service.
That being said, this was NICE.
OH and there was a balcony that you can go out on and just ponder your existence. Or jump off on a bad day (or when you realize how much this view is costing you).

Back to the parking. I took his lovely assistant back down with me to the car. We moved the car closer to the hidden elevators and she said she was going to stay.
Now you realize that the key to get up the elevators was the tricky part. Lets say someone somehow made it to the elevators without assistance they wouldn't be able to get the elevator to move upward.
So when I would see this woman up in the office I am thinking to myself someone is driving around aimlessly downstairs.
This next part is great...
At 6:45 the host dentist gets a phone call from home saying his daughter has broken both her bones in her forearm. He tells me he needs to leave.
WHAT!?!
He says John, I have to go. But don't worry two of my girls are staying and they will help you.
I say to myself, John take a deep breath, it is going to be okay.
He leaves.
The staff member (the one helping with parking) comes up and says, "that is probably it". I did kind of agree with her because it was 7pm. One hour after I told people to be there.
I was thinking man this is light crowd. I have food for 25 and there is 8 people here.
Next thing you know people strolling in, exhausted. I ask, "Did you find it okay?"
"NO!" they said.
We drove all around, stumbled across the elevator and then we couldn't get up. We had to find the parking attendant and then after the third degree he let us up.
Keep in mind the staff member told the parking people there is a possibility more dentist are going to be coming. If they by chance come let them up.
So when they did come he gives them a hard time.
When we finally did start there was 20 plus people there. That means more than half of them had to find the elevator and realize they couldn't get up without a key. Then find the parking attendant only to get the third degree from him before he would let them up.
We set up in the reception area.
This is a quaint little place with FOUR chairs. FOUR. (I don't know about you but I have I have 10 adult chairs and 4 children's chairs) No sweat, so we rolled in all the doctors chairs and brought in the chairs from the staff lounge and consultation room. Some people just had to stand.
I thought the presentation went pretty good. There was some good discussion with some dentists about the way they tick. Some good discussion on computers and bonding agents and such. There was some discussion on anesthetic that both the endo and oral surgeons were able to clear up for us dentists. Things like this. It was good.
But inevitably there is always things I regret not talking about.
I mean there was probably 7 specialists in the room.
I could have asked the endodontists about why they only put in one tiny cotton pellet in an access filling (and make me dig for about 15 minutes to find the bottom of the access).
I might ask the oral surgeon why they take pans on people that I have already sent a pan on.
In all seriousness (and I was serious about the two above but it might of seemed like joking) there were things that I wanted to know and forgot to ask.
Or I didn't ask people about if they are members of the AGD. Why and why not. Or what magazines do they subscribe to.
Or who does there implants the periodontist or the oral surgeon.
Or, or, or.
But all in all I think it went pretty good. I think it is important for dentists to not feel alone in what we do. You can't help feel like you are on an island most of the time. Am I the only one that feels this way. Am I the only one that has this problem. Am I the only one that feels like my head is spinning around.
The answer is always NO but if you never hear it from anyone else then you get those thoughts.

Hope you had a great weekend,
Do you remember the commercial with the Dunkin Doughnuts guy "Time to make the doughnuts"? (back in the 80's, if you don't look it up on YouTube, great stuff)
Sometimes I wake up and say, "Time to do the fillings." It makes me laugh.
Talk to you later,
john