A mystery with some bite to it!

I made an alarming discovery recently: my dentist has disappeared.

Strike that: BOTH my dentists have disappeared!

It's true! I went to my 6-month dental check-up—after rescheduling it numerous times since last Spring for obvious reasons—and found the office now consists of 2 dentists I've never seen before supported by what appears to be an entirely new staff. True, in modern medicine practices change hands and that is to be expected,  but when this happened no one thought to update the practice's patients of the change.

"He's on the case!"

At first I didn't notice. I had a different tech doing my teeth cleaning, but I figured with a pandemic going on that in itself wasn't all that strange. When the tech asked me if I grind my teeth in my sleep and had ever considered getting a mouthguard to wear at night ... I informed them I did grind my teeth, and did have a mouthguard, and that it was created by their dental practice.

But hey, sometimes the tech doesn't read your history and that's also understandable. I keep the same doctors the same over the years for most of my healthcare needs because I want at last one person who's aware of my history to see me each time.

When the dentist came in and wasn't either of the people I've seen there in the past, I asked where they were and was told rather abruptly they were no longer with the practice. The new dentist poked around my mouth, conveyed a few notes to the tech, and said it was nice to meet me and left the room. When the tech asked if I wanted to schedule my next cleaning I said I'd wait. Then they asked when I wanted to schedule a filling for my cavity and I said, "Wait. What cavity?"

Apparently the new dentist had identified a cavity that needed filling but neglected to tell me about it. I said I'd call to schedule that later since it was news to me.

So, what happened?

The whole thing seemed hinky and after some anecdotal stories from friends I decided this situation was not on the up-and-up.

As I mentioned, the main reason I've used the same dental practice for over a decade is to track my oral health over time, and the main dentist was just the absolute best. One of those rare practitioners that blended down-home charm with wicked smarts. As time went on, I'd occasionally see a different dentist in the practice if mine was out, and that's how I discovered my second dentist, who was essentially a younger version of my main dentist. when it came to being up-to-date on the latest medical practices and still maintaining an excellent bedside manner.

And now both those dentists were gone. I have to do some digging and get some answers!

POTENTIAL SPOILER: In the interest of full transparency, I wrote this draft 2 weeks ago, just after the this alarming discovery came to my attention! Since then I have done some digging, and have gotten. a few answers, so this is a mystery that will have a conclusion. I'm not just yanking your collective chain with a quandary that will never yield answers! So ... stay tuned!

UPDATE 10/26/2020: All has been answered! And I have an appointment with my original dentist next week, and couldn't be happier.