Is NOBODY wrong in the post ? POST : So to set the background, after 4 decades of having jacked teeth and being that guy who only does closed lipped smiles, I decided to get InvisAlign this year (for those who don’t know what that is, it’s clear “plates” that are put over your teeth and switched out every few weeks - They do the work of braces but are nearly invisible).  I’m paying for this out of pocket, as my dental insurance won’t cover it, but I have an opportunity to do so, and luckily I have the means this year to get it done.

I went in last week for my initial appointment, where they use this giant pen device to take a 3D model of your teeth for creating the plates. The first hygienist (we’ll call her H1) takes your typical oral x-rays, before leading me into a chair where I’ll get this scan done.

Hygienist 2 (H2), is in there and starts going doing my scan, with H1 looking over her shoulder. During this scan (which takes a while as they’re going through each tooth, H2 is asking a lot of questions of H1, such as “How do you get the angle for that tooth?” And “So, when the color is green, what does that mean? And what about red?”.  In the meantime, I’m just laying back and listening with my mouth wide open.

Next, H1 asks H2 “Yeah, I’m really supposed to learn how to do this.  Hey, do you mind if I do the upper quadrants?” H2 proceeds to say “Sure!” and continues work on the bottom row. Now, during this whole exchange, no one has said a damn word to me to ask if I’m OK being the guinea pig, or if there’s any risk the plates might come out wrong, etc either costing me time, money, pain, or all three.

So we get to the upper set and H2 is ready to pass the baton, at which point I mention I’m not so sure I’m comfortable with it. Again, it seemed from my layman’s position in the chair listening in, that H1 (who seems extremely nice, mind you), may not even know how to turn the damn thing on from her questions never mind operate it properly.

H2 tells me not to worry about and continues, as does H1 but she seems a bit pissed and mentions she’s been a hygienist for decades. Now I’m starting to feel a bit guilty - Is this brain dead simple and foolproof and I’m being overly cautious? I mentioned (trying to help) that if someone explained how it couldn’t “mess up” and/ or asked me first I probably would have been OK, but that didn’t seem to matter.

I’m torn in being a bit pissed that I’m paying (a lot of) cash and that’s not to provide on-the-job training, but I wonder also if I was simply nervous and being overly cautious.  Am I the asshole here?