We took braces off a patient today and he was so happy he brought us a big box of doughnuts and the rather unusual additional gift of a few lottery tickets.
Obviously it would be nice to win, but it’s probably going to be a HR nightmare if we do.
It’s very nice to receive a present from a patient after we finish their orthodontic treatment but really they don’t have to – after all, they paid us to actually do this treatment. But the nature of what we do is a bit different to regular dentistry not least because it goes on a lot longer and there’s a bit of a bond developing between the patient and the orthodontic team and - believe it or not - often the actual treatment itself, but also because the treatment we do and results we get make patients genuinely happy at the difference we made for how they face the world and sometimes feel moved to get us a gift at the end of the process.
I don’t know what the best present is, but we’ve had a few memorable ones over the years. We certainly end up eating a few extra grams of sugar as a result of the biscuits and sweets and chocolates and doughnuts, which is sort of ironic as we spent the last couple of years telling that patient to lay off the sugar.
Occasionally there’s wine or other adult beverages, particularly as Christmas gets nearer. As a student I was surprised to get a litre of vodka from a patient who I made a couple of bridges for.
A few years ago we got a jar of honey made from a patient’s own beehive, which was very personal and touching.
We had a couple of pictures painted by one patient.
But everyday I open the cupboard in the practice kitchen I see the Vincent VanGogh cup set that a patient gave us and think about whether I’ll have my tea from the Sunflowers or Starry Night one.
The most special one, that looks at us all the time for many years now in Swords Orthodontics is a cactus called Robert. I’m not entirely sure if the cactus knows that it’s called Robert (it never answers when I call to it), but the lady that gave it to us was very clear that was what we should call it in celebration of Robert Plant the Led Zeppelin singer who featured in many chats while I adjusted her son’s braces.