aibu and racist to want to change dentist?

[iloveknitting]

aibu and racist to want health care professionals (doctors, dentists, nurses etc)
to speak english well enough for me to understand what they are saying, i know its not easy learning and speaking a new language but i feel that in this line of work good communication is essential.

i went to a new dentist yesterday and i could barely understand what he was saying to me his accent was so strong, i felt too embarrassed to ask him to keep repeating himself so i just sat there nodding, i left not really knowing if i need root canal or not or what state the rest of my teeth are in.

ive had the same with the doctor, i couldn't understand a word he was saying and it took me ages to figure out that he was asking if my bowels were moving properly

is it unreasonable to change dentist/doctor for this reason?

speak to the practice manager to let them know htere is a communication issue affecting patient care, then it can be dealt with , rather than people leaving and the HCPs not knowing why

Agree with Voodoolulu

(love the name btw)

My dh is from NZ and has problems with identifying and sometimes understanding regional accents here - he usually can guess a Scottish accent but most of the time he gets it wrong (and he will insist on guessing rather than asking me/the person talking)

I don't think you are being unreasonable to expect a health professional to be understood by his/her patients.

This has happened to me a few times - when DD was a baby she was having seizures all the time so we took her to hospital and one or two of the doctors were very hard to understand - this particular one was asking questions to which I replied Pardon several times to which he was getting very irate.

In the end I was just nodding yes - he could have been saying anything - bit worrying isn't it??

As for the race thing the same would apply to someone with a very thick regional accent. I remember sitting next to a Glaswegian guy on the plane and could not understand one word he was saying.

I don't think you are. My dentist is Asian-born and an absolutely brilliant communicator. I would not want to change, and imagine you wouldn't in a similar situation. But, I have worked with a lot of Indian-born and trained HCPs so the accent doesn't bother me any more.

I don't think yabu. I had a similar problem with a dentist, I'm not sure where he was from but I really couldn't understand him at all. Problem was solved when I forgot to go for a checkup and was struck off their register

One of the TU reps at work had such a strong Norfolk accent and spoke so quickly I really couldn't understand him either.

when I was in hospital having dd1 we had 2 Indian paediatricians

one was understandable

one was not

the latter once said to be: 'Baby is not hungry. Baby is starving"

I don't think just changing is the right thing straightaway but I think it is okay to ask. I mean I think about dd1, her cerebral palsy affects her speech but she is as bright as any other 7 year old. And I do see people feeling uncomfortable about asking her to repeat things; I wouldn't want her to be unable to advance in her job because people were too chicken to say 'eh?'

surely if you keep going at people who are obviously trying to communicate and need to improve it can only help them to understand how to be better understood for their other patients?

LOL profyaffle, ive lived in norfolk for 20 years and still can't understand what people are saying half the time especially the older generation.

think i will change dentist though, he almost took xrays even though i said i was preggers luckily the nurse heard what i said and bought a protective apron thing, don't have much confidence in him now. it was 1st time id been to that dentist so never being seen again won't cause any raised eyebrows.

MB, the sheltered housing bunion referral

YANBU i changed dentists for this very reason, my previous dentist was greek and i couldn't understand a word he said and it made me very nervous not undersdtanding what was happening to me. i changed to another practice and now have a super dupa lovely dentist (and she is asian btw) and i have no probs understanding her and she is really good at her job - esp with nervous people like me

so just change!

I have been thinking of changing dentist for this reason.

My lovely dentist left and the surgery is now full of young Spanish girls.

Have had a few problems recently culminating in a possibly mis-diagnosed root canal which took of three of them to look at - was drilled, and then re-filled without root being removed! All the time they were discussing me in Spanish and I didn't have a clue what they were talking about and their English wasn't really good enough for me to find out exactly what was going on.

So a mixture of not understanding them but also not really having much faith in their abilities after last time.

lol at mb's story....

and to op...no I don't think you are being unreasnable to actually want to be able to communicate with your HC proffessional...