I went to an acquaitance who happens to be a dentist to have wisdom teeth pulled and asked a few things about the current situation.
Q. Are dentists not participating in the protest?
A. Medical school expansion and dental school are separate. Initially, there was an impression that dentistry was already saturated, but they seem to have it easy over there.
Q. So, you're unaffected by the current situation?
A. Not really.
Q. What do you think about the medical association?
A. It's too large an organization to reflect individual doctors well. It seems a bit outdated. Dentists, being relatively few in number, can be more flexible among ourselves if we face similar public opinion backlash, like 'let's not fight among ourselves,' but they seem not to have that. They're terrible at public relations.
Q. What do you think about installing CCTV?
A. At least in dentistry, I don't think there would be much opposition. I don't know how common the problem of doctors delegating surgeries to others is, but in dentistry, it's rare to have general anesthesia, and most of the time it's technical work like using handpieces. We can't just ask anyone to do it. If I can't do it, I refer the patient to another dentist.
Q. But are dentists really doctors?
A. For f*ck's sake, at least I've done full-body dissections.
Q. If there's a medical emergency on a plane and the flight attendants ask if there's a doctor, do you step up to help?
A. I can provide basic emergency care. Even nurses or oriental medicine doctors learn that much.
Q. Can you pronounce someone dead?
A. Do you want me to pronounce your death?
Q. But if there were to be a strike, how would it be done?
A. They'd hold patients hostage, but we could maybe hold wisdom teeth hostage at best.
Q. What if there's a patient dying from a fatal tooth disease?
A. Just fucking extract it.
Q. Do you have any advice for the general public?
A. Scaling is covered by insurance now, but many people don't know. Get it done.
-Wisdom teeth are really annoying, but suddenly being held hostage there makes them feel preciousㅋㅋㅋ
-I'll go to the dentist often.
-Scaling covered by insurance once a year.
-Where is this dentist? I suddenly want to visit, it's the first time I've felt this way about a dentistㅋㅋㅋ
-Dentists might be expensive, but at least they provide cosmetic treatments and don't refuse regular patients, there aren't any jerks like thatㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-I still have two wisdom teeth leftㄷㄷㄷ
-Are dentists naturally funny???
-But seriously, when dentists feel like they can't handle something, they quickly refer you to another hospital haha. I was also referred to another dental clinic because I had an impacted wisdom tooth.
