Goodbye to Mohler and Choo, D.D.S. – hello to my new dentist!

I am a person who resists forced change in my life. If have something that works for me, I will hold onto it for as long as possible.

But a while back, I had to cut my dental team, known on this blog as Drs. Mohler and Choo, D.D.S., out of my life. And trust me, I didn’t want to do that. I liked them.

But they moved their practice out of downtown Albany – which was convenient for me – to somewhere else, which was NOT convenient. And they stopped offering early morning appointments, which I preferred – it makes it easier to get a cleaning BEFORE going to the day job.

A few weeks ago, however, I found a new dentist. Right here in the Town and Village.

And I must tell you … this is as different as night and day. It’s like someone handed me a 5G BlackBerry cell phone and said, “Chuck, I’m here for whatever you need.”

The first thing I noticed was that my new dentist – who for HIPAA reasons I’m calling Dr. Colgate – has weekend appointments. What medical practice out there offers weekend appointments? Wow, next thing you’ll tell me, there’s still doctors who make house calls.

But yeah. Appointment at 2:00 on a Saturday.

I showed up. Paperwork all completed. And right off the bat, it was a totally different vibe than any other dental practice I’ve visited in my life.

Dr. Colgate was friendly, charming, calming and intelligent. She checked over my teeth, showed me pictures of my teeth (not just X-rays, but real honest to god macro photos), and explained that everything’s going fine, I just need to replace an old metal filling (holy crap, I had that filling since I was 8 years old and it’s lasted that long?).

Then came the cleaning. And she said, “What music would you like to hear?”

Wait, you mean I don’t have to put up with the Barry Manilow / Ray Conniff Singers / 101 Strings grocery store muzak of your average dental practice? Okay, let’s test this out.

“How about some 70’s R&B?”

“Oh, you want the old classics. I can cover that.”

Next thing I know, she’s got a Spotify playlist blazing out Earth Wind & Fire, Marvin Gaye, the Spinners, Bobby Caldwell, the Dramatics – seriously, the Dramatics – while she’s cleaning my teeth. Totally painless and easy.

Holy crap. I am NOT used to this. This can seriously work for me.

So after the cleaning – and man, my teeth feel awesome – I set up another appointment, this time to replace that ancient filling. It’s an appointment on a Sunday. Because, yeah, Dr. Colgate takes appointments on Sunday, as well.

Trust me, I am not used to this. A dentist who actually treats you like a person and not like an insurance claim? I like this. And weekend appointments? I like this as well.

So, yeah. Everything feels good all around. And I’m glad for that.