u/AdZealousideal2958

Hey guys, i had SMILE surgery done on both eyes on 7/21/26. I had a high prescription (my contacts were -6.00 but the office told me my glasses were like -7.25). Everything seemed to be going great, first few days my far vision was amazing, however I did notice my left eye was weaker than my right, was told that it was part of normal healing, but with both eyes, I could see amazing at a distance.

Now at week 3, im having a problem with my vision becoming much blurrier as the day goes on. I know because I wake up in the mornings with clear crisp vision, but then by noon time, its like I can barely read any signs on the road. My eyes are also a lot more sensitive to light in the daytime. My eyes dont feel particularly dry, but I put the lubricating drops which don’t even help. Doc told me to use the prednisone drops 2x a day.

Anyone who had SMILE had this experience?? Does it ever get better?

Context: office is 18 ops: 6 hygeine
Was originally a 4 doc practice with each running 2-3 columns but one left now the 3 of us (all new grads) are stuck handling 2-3 columns of our own + checking 6 hygeinists. Ive been here 1 year and one month.

The kicker is in the ONE YEAR I HAVE BEEN HERE, FOURTEEN of our staff (front desk, hyg, assistants) have left/gotten fired and just about all of our seasoned assistants (the ones who can consistently scan, take impressions, make good temporaries) are gone. The bar is in hell with these new assistants, you got the new hire training the even new hire. Nobody really knows how to consistently scan, make temps, take impressions, set up properly. I find myself just making them after they spent 1.5 hrs trying knowing dam well i got another pt in my 2nd column.

Theyre getting on my damn nerves, NO ONE is getting a lunch, people staying well past 5, hygeinists complaining about checks. Im SO tempted to quit just one week after the other doctor quit, just hate to be an A-hole and leave my other dentist colleagues to deal with the mess. How effed up is it to me to think that this is NOT my damn practice, it’s NOT on me, nor other assistants to be having to train assistants who have been here for 3+ months and this office can literally go out of business for all i care.

The only pro of this job is that its 4 days a week and its 10 min away from my house. The cons is literally just about everything else. Am i being overdramatic or is this office just a lost cause?! I literally can’t take it anymore, i love the assistants as people but this whole office is just ghetto af

Hey guys, i’m a 27 F dentist and been working at a DSO with 6 hygenists and 3 doctors. Each doctor sees about 2-3 columns of patients for their own treatment. Our turnover rate has been so high that every single one of our experienced assistants left and we have new hires who arent as skilled. I find myself in an upset mood a lot because running behind, etc.

Lately, hygienists are still complaining about running behind because of checks, and there have been times i step out of the room to have 6 hygenists all in line for me to check. Yet for some reason, the complaint is always on ME. There have been times a hygenist was waiting 20-30 min for a check and no one came except me as soon as I was done with a procedure. So the solution was to assign 2 hygienists to each doctor. This works well for me because I do interrupted exams once I see their x rays are taken, so then they can finish the cleaning and get the pt walked out. The hygenists themselves have said they love this. Yet they only praise the other 2 docs for doing it even tho i do it as well. Sometimes they do have to walk into my office and im there right away. I check before and after i see my own patients, sometimes right after i numb if a hygenist says they are ready for me, because i know once i start tx its gonna be another 20-30 min before i get up.

Even before the whole hygenist assignment, i finished my patient and hygeine checks by around 11:30 and 4:40 (lunch is at 12 and we close at 5) and just went home. NOW, the assistants are still upset and one hygenist got offended that I appeared to ‘’roll my eyes and was on my phone’’ when she asked for a check so she’s never going to ask me for a check again cuz i’m ‘’disrespectful’’ and would only be asking the other docs from now on

I genuinely dont recall what shes talking about hygiene just isn’t my fav thing to do but i’m still trying to be proactive doing exams??? And im allowed to use my phone when i dont have a patient??? Also, they pulled up the records for amount of hygiene checks this month, i was only about 10 exams behind, not accounting for the fact that i took an entire week off for surgery. Im genuinely just so confused on what exactly these hygenists are looking for

Hey guys, im an associate 1 year out at a DSO. When i started my job, all the assistants (\~6-7) were pretty well- seasoned with knowing how to scan, take impressions, make temporaries, packing cord, adjusting partials etc, doing notes, x rays etc.

Well fast forward to a year later and only 2 of those original assistants remain and im really struggling with training these new assistants. They don’t know how to put in the right codes so im having to stand over them, they take forever to make temps and theyre always high with huge open margins, they cant take good impressions/scans etc and i’m finding myself doing both mine and their job and it increases my appointment times drastically and affects my production.

I try to be as clear and straightfoward as possible, but they still keep making the same mistakes over and over. For example, i keep saying that the long needle is only for if im working on a bottom molar and need to give a block, and short needle for everything else. Should be easy to understand. Yet im still finding her loading a long needle when im working on like a #8. Everytime she makes a temporary she always makes me come back and i have to fix it. My colleague is also running into this issue too.

In another instance one of them left bloody gauze on the floor and shoved a used toffelmier matrix back into the sterile drawers.
Im wondering if theres any tips to get them to the level where they make my life easier and not more difficult??

Im an new grad associate dentist at a DSO and my assistant is pushing 60 and is way too friendly with patients. Shes been an assistant for several decades. Building rapport is one thing but i saw her phone unlocked once and i saw her text messages. It was all from patients saying things like ‘’good morning sunshine’’ and just random unnecessary texting about topics unrelated to work (the patients will be sending patients of their trips/kids, etc)
Several instances where a patient bought her flowers on her bday (male) or a patient (male) bought her accessories
She hugs up on woman patients and tells them she loves them and kisses them

My office manager has had several talks about this but she wont stop unecessarily talking to patients and thinks that its her way of ‘’making sure patients come back’’ today i was sitting next to her at a staff bonding event and i kept seeing phone calls coming in from patients.

I dont care if all the patients love her this all seems extremely unprofessional to me and it makes me extremely uncomfortable.

The only pros as of now is that since shes been assisting for so long she usually does all the impression taking/scans/temps, etc. if she gets fired ill be stuck with a new assistant who has no clue how to do these things. Best course of action in this scenario?!