Hi everyone,
I've been working at my current practice for 3 years, the job is great, the patients are lovely, and I get along with almost everyone here.
Except the dentist I nurse for. I've been working with him for 2 out of the 3 years I've been here, and to start with, we got along like a house on fire, he was the person I felt closest to here. However, lately I've noticed that he's got a habit of talking down to me, speaking to me as if I'm an idiot. He explains the most simple dental terminology to me as if I'm a patient, not a trained dental nurse. He explained what toothbrush wear was the other day, as if I didn't already know. He'll say stupid things like 'Light cure the disto-palatal, that's the back inside corner'. He speaks to me like this all day every day.
I don't know if the nurses he's had before me were a bit thick, but it's driving me crazy, being treated like a moron! He's been a dentist for over 40 years, and I know that nurses didn't need to be formally trained until recently, so I suppose nurses back in the 70s/80s needed simple things like that explained to them, so it could just be a habit. He's the practice owner and principal dentist, so I don't want to bring this up with him. He's very arrogant and pompous too, so I doubt he'd like a dental nurse who's younger than his own children pulling him up on this.
I know it's just part of the job for some of us, being treated as inferior by our dentists, but I don't know what to do, none of the other dentists here do it. I've contemplated asking to be put with another dentist in the practice, but the other 3 nurses here refuse to nurse for him. So no one would take my shifts. So I don't really have a choice. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
