The Convivial First Day..

I remember my first day at the workplace. Do you?

I was a student then. Bored stiff of my remaining year 5 clinical sessions in which I didn't have anything left to do except inventories and gossiping around I took up a part- time job or called locum sensationally by students. The word locum was not a sensational word as it has been widely used for many medical and dental practitioners. As a student we were prohibited from doing so in the name of professional integrity which of course I was fully aware of but yet the serious financial constraint had taken its toll on me on that particular time. Alas, economically.

The clinic was located at a residence in a leafy area of Sentul downtown. As I walked in to the first floor I saw a pretty tight collection of desks and chairs, lots of color-coded paper and stacks of medication-labeled boxes. An assorted group of women were behind the insurmountable waist height desks. One engrossed by a hand-phone lingered with fancy girlish tinglings , a pen hanging from her fingers. She looked up, a twinkle in her eye and a curl to her lip. There was another with a tea glass in her hand circling what I thought was coconut water. A whiff in the air told me it was creosote and a child screaming next door confirmed my pre-diagnosis. There was a cheerful elder lady greeting me at doorway as if we have been friends for years. The gang seemed bohemian, clever and fun. I was bitten but I was hooked to their sense of wit and openness and warmth.

After a brief introduction of my room and some other things whereabouts I managed to catch a few names of the staff; the hand-phone girl Asmah who later became Mek Semah, the tea glass girl Ida and remained as Ida and the bubbly elder lady Kak Sadiah-cum-dental-assistants-supervisor who later developed her underground name, Taliban (a discreet pact between Mek Semah and Ida) for her strong opinions about almost everything. The owner of the clinic was such an amiable lady. A BDS holder herself she had a scarce gait that made her a bit unique in a way. Well, I'm not going to elaborate more on that hence I'm sorry.

There it was, the clinic was quite spacious in size. The waiting place was as good as the other clinics who charged quixotically RM 100 for only consultation. Not that I say this clinic didn't charge for its consultation but it would rather more lesser than RM 100. Even though the seats for patients were adequate to keep every patient comfort while waiting to get drilled or jabbed but in any given school holidays or most Mondays one would not be able to even see the floor rugs! It was as if I was doing an out-patient in government clinic only locum required one to do most of the treatment stats.

The first time communicating to a real patient in clinic was still a vivid reverie for me. Being a wet-behind-the-ears fresh graduate made me a bit sluggish to bloviate facts that I so used to regurgitate in the form of essays during college time. Locum somehow taught me how I could communicate with patients in such a way that I couldn't get in government clinic. I could explain from ABC treatment options to rather more cutting edge technology all around. Yes, honestly I would be able to do the same thing in government clinic but what abstain me to abide were the times and the thought of worth doing it. The times were remained the major obstacle to deliver primary health promotion when one has got dozens of incoming cards (represented the patients awaiting ques number) to be finished before lunch time. Subsequently these would lead to another different entity that made every government dentists second guessing themselves whether or not some treatments to be given to the patients.

There are a lot of factors contribute to these kind of quintessential act and the critical part that are always undermined by government turns out to be the most essential one. The cost of some treatments in dentistry within government sector are surprisingly ludicrous. For instance, the ceiling cost for molar root canal treatment (RCT) is only RM 4 regardless of how much times and difficulties to put on such a delicate work. Not that I want you to imagine how hard it is to do RCT as not everybody is a dentist. What I'm trying to pull here is what the impact of these low cost treatments will do to patient's perception. The patients won't appreciate the value of the treatment and in fact will still be bigotry in a balloon of stale thinking that dental extraction are the biggest breakthrough in history of dentistry.

Believe it or not this trend will continue as a dim spotlight within a fire house, not enough to shine but simply cannot be vanished.

Perhaps the greener grass beckons?