Bob comes into the clinic as an emergency patient Monday morning citing ‘excruciating throbbing on his top left back tooth, pain scale 9/10.’ I have a brief opening in my schedule so I get him set up in an operatory, take a few radiographs, and am prepared to do some vitality testing and palliative treatment (#D0460/#D9110). Assuming he might have a ‘hot tooth’ and need NSRCT. To my surprise the tooth he’s claiming to be the culprit is previously endo-treated, has a FGC with great margins, and the xrays show no significant signs of PAP or other findings. I go through an entire round of vitality testing and nothing, I mean NOTHING, is causing Bob any of the so-called ‘9/10 pain’ that he’s claiming he’s had the entire weekend. Confused and dumbfounded I begin to talk to him, trying to better understand this pain he’s in. Well long story short, apparently Bob had a late night out with his buddies celebrating the GOAT #TB12’s 7th Super Bowl Victory and wasn’t prepared to go into work yet. So…he decided to come to dental, claim to have tooth pain, totally waste my time, and delay the start to his work day a couple of hours. Thanks Bob, I appreciate how much you appreciate my time.
