Guess, I told you before: I work as a dental assistant. My job brings opportunities to have small talk with patients sometimes.
I am responsible for setting the room for treatment. It also includes helping the patient and the dentist during the procedures.
Sometimes we get nervous patients. Other times, the person comes with an apology "Nothing personal, but I don't like dentists and dental offices". Wow! It will be an excellent complement for the dentist, right? My standard response will be, " I understand. You are not the only person like that. But, I am an assistant. So, I am sure you have no problem with me". Then the person smiles usually.
On this particular day, I got an anxious patient. He is supposed to get a cavity filled on a lower back tooth. From the conversation between the doctor and patient, I gathered he got the dental anxiety only recently. After giving the local anaesthetic, the dentist left the room. We usually wait a few minutes for the drug to "marinate".
Since the patient was anxious, I started talking with him. I wanted to make him engaged in speaking to deviate from his thoughts about the procedure. After talking about the kind of hobbies and current Covid situation, I wanted to know about his line of work. He studied Geography and teaches Geography. I started asking more about Geography and jobs. I didn't realise there were so many things to do with Geography.
Geographists study about earth's environment. That is all I thought about it. He explained that he collects geographical data to analyse human nature and culture. The collected data can help to predict where a business should start to thrive.
I was thinking, geographers, make maps. They teach people to learn about geography. He told me many people don't know the jobs in his field. He said geographers actually can work as city planners, environment consultants, conservation officers, etc. He also told e with geographical data, he can predict where to even start a dental office to have a busy and thriving practice. The owners of those offices might have used the service of a geographer!!! Think of those "smile makeovers" on Instagram?
What comes to mind when you hear about geography and geographer?
Bindu
I had no idea about geographers too. I was just at the dentist earlier this week. Actually, I love my dentist and hygienist. I have a traveling hygienist who comes in once a week apparently. I always ask for him because he is SUPER thorough cleaning my teeth and explains every step. My dentist is always friendly and she makes me feel comfortable. Granted I still keep my fingers crossed that I won’t have to get any actual work done.
ReplyDeleteA timely post, Bindu, as I also had a dental appointment last week and so can well understand how others feel about such visits, nothing personal against yourself. Thanks to your talk with this patient, I now know more about what geographers do other than teach the subject of geography.
ReplyDeleteI was a geographer and teacher, but of course, I am way out of touch with the very latest applications, much of which would also be in postgrad work.
ReplyDeleteThank you for visiting my blog!
ReplyDeleteYou did well helping the client. I used to be deeply afraid of needles.
My daughter is a hydrogeologist, and it is interesting work.
The daughter of the woman who cut my hair in Maryland study geography in college. She got a job making maps which of course is all done on the computer now. I had to take a geography course to qualify to teach elementary school. It was fun to read maps and such but there is more to it than that.
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