Imagine being a receptionist. You’d be more understanding of what other receptionists have to deal with than most people, which might make you a little bit too considerate of another receptionist’s feelings. If you didn’t think another receptionist at a doctor’s office was answering your questions well enough, would you be polite and walk away or would you demand to get the answers you need?

In this story, one receptionist goes to the dentist and finds out she needs a root canal and a crown. She wants to know how much she will need to pay out of pocket, but the receptionist doesn’t seem capable of giving her a straight answer about this question. Now, she has another issue because she desperately needs pain medication and realizes she has no choice but to speak up for herself.

Yet, being a receptionist herself, she doesn’t want to make a fuss by asking for a supervisor even though she realizes she might have to do that.

Let’s read the whole story.

AITAH for calling to speak to a supervisor at the dentist’s office?

I work in reception in a large clinic and I’m always so worried about being a jerk to receptionists or whatever, that it makes me forget when to put my foot down. I’m especially anxious because this was my first dentist visit in 12 years.

I have the teeth of a recovering addict with severe depression (I am exactly that) and they look okay when I smile, but I have a tooth in the back that’s been causing a lot of pain for a while now. It’s gotten worse recently, but I keep putting off going to the dentist because I knew it wasn’t gonna be great.

Yesterday, I finally called to book, and they said that they could see me in the next hour about my painful tooth if I wanted.

OP needed some work done.

I got there and the assessment/visit cost.me nothing with insurance, but they said I needed a root canal, and that a spot just opened up for one.

I mentioned talking about price and they just kinda said “We’re submitting to your insurance right now” and I was anxious and acted feeble and just went and got in the chair.

The infection/inflammation were so bad that they could only do half of the root canal, they put a temp filling in, and I have to come back in a month to do the other half and get my crown.

I again began to ask for cost breakdowns because I don’t make much money and need to plan.

It seemed hard to get a straight answer.

I was brought back up to the front desk, where one lady was saying she was having a hard time getting on my insurance’s website.

The other lady that I was mostly speaking with, couldn’t give me a straight answer.

I understand now that this is partly due to not being able to get on my insurance’s website, so I tried to be patient about it. I asked what I was paying for today.

She said “Well you have to pay this much, and that’s a third, and then your $50 deductible makes $418.

You’d think the receptionist would be able to answer these questions.

I asked, “A third of what? Is that the deal with my insurance or is this the first of three payments I’ll be making?”

She couldn’t tell me, she looked absolutely confused and did a whole bunch of “Well, ummm… I don’t really know…” Then she mentioned me owing $420 next time.

I asked if this was covering my root canal procedures AND my crown or if things were being paid separately.

She again said that she didn’t really know.

This really doesn’t seem like an acceptable answer.

The two older women behind the desk were just kind of watching everything and not offering either of us help when we tried asking what they knew.

This girl repeated multiple times, “I really can’t explain it to you.” She KEPT saying she couldn’t explain it to me.

I was so frustrated but I was being so kind and patient because again, I work her same job. But like, what the hell? I also can’t imagine THAT being an answer I gave a patient at my job.

I asked if someone else could.

Eventually, she got a little bit more of an update.

She said something about “Let us just get this through to your insurance and I’ll let you know something.”

Two hours later, she texted me to tell me that my insurance “should” cover 80% of the crown and 50% of the root canal or whatever.

I said, “Great! What’s my total out of pocket cost I should prepare for?”

No answer, just automated appointment reminder texts from here on out.

This dentist seems incompetent.

The dentist also sent me home like root canal recovery is no big deal.

I spent about 4 hours sobbing in pain last night, and none of my headache meds or anything would TOUCH on that pain.

None of my friends could believe that I hadn’t been prescribed at least some rx strength naproxen or whatever, apparently no one leaves a root canal without something for pain management.

But this guy just said, “Eh you’ll be a little sore later but nothing crazy.”

Yikes!

WRONG. Dead wrong.

I’m so freaking miserable.

He also said using my electric toothbrush would be just fine, but it was not. It send me right back into painful sobbing when I had finally finished doing all that.

OP wants answers and meds!

So, I called the dentist office just now on my lunch, but of course, they’re all on lunch, too. So now I wait.

But I really just want to speak to a supervisor who CAN tell me my costs or know why it was so damn difficult for anyone to tell me anything.

And I want to ask if they are this nonchalant with all of their root canal recovery, and if the doctor could send me a script to make me less miserable. I’m not looking for narcotics, I just want something to make this stop.

AITAH for making this phone call? I swear I won’t yell or cuss 😅 I never call to complain ever so I’m nervous and overthinking, but my gut tells me this is a good time to speak up for myself.

That’s awful! I definitely think speaking up is the right thing to do. A prescription for some pain killers sounds vital at this point.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee whose dietary restrictions caused the whole office to turn against her.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

This person shares what happened when they had a root canal.

Another person just had a root canal.

Someone in the UK weighs in.

This might be the best way of handling it.

I can understand wanting to know how much you’re going to have to pay and what the payment is for. That definitely doesn’t seem like too much to ask.

Considering several people in the comments said they didn’t get a prescription after getting a root canal, it could be that she needs to go back to the dentist since she shouldn’t really be in this much pain.

She definitely needs to stand up for herself.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a thrift store employee who refused to play “guess the price” without seeing the item in question.