A doctor on our call had a patient walk in on a Monday with a broken front tooth. Not a new problem. She had bonded that lateral before. More than once. His canine was crashing into it every time he closed. So the bonding kept coming off, and this time the tooth itself fractured. He is 82. She gave him two options. She could crown the lower tooth that was doing the damage, and warned him that might turn into a root canal. Or she could move it out of the way with aligners and make room for the...

A dentist I know crowned a molar. Routine case. Nothing eventful. The patient came back a week later with her husband. She was furious. She said there was a gap between her two front teeth. She said his crown caused it. He could have argued. He could have explained why a crown on a back tooth cannot open a diastema in the front. Instead he pulled up her scan from before he touched her. The gap was right there. She looked at the screen. She said, "Oh." Her husband looked at her. He had taken...

A doctor on our call kept sharpening her script. She explains wear. She explains recession. She shows old scans next to new ones. She asks what the patient wants for their teeth in ten years. Patients nod. Then they defer. She thought her communication was the problem. Then she told me how her office collects. Cases are about four thousand dollars. Half up front. The rest inside two or three months. No monthly option. That is not a communication problem. I asked her a question. Someone offers...