Everyone Hates The Dentist

Hey, Cadre family doctor Kerry here joining you from the patio at my apartment complex. I know this isn't fair. I know many of you are sitting in a snowstorm right now in the country. And I'm sorry, but I'm really enjoying the sunshine. We've had days and days of rain here in California, which is really uncommon, like roads, flooding. And I'm just loving the blue sky today. So I thought I'd take advantage of it and sit outside while I talk to you. So I hope the audio is okay. Let me know if you're joining me today.

The topic today is everyone hates the dentist. And I gotta be honest, my sister's a dentist, and my other sister texted me and said, what are you gonna be talking about? Like, is this a public shaming for your other sister? And I was like, no, no, no. This has nothing to do with that. But we are gonna talk a little bit about what the dentist experience is like. And this is not in reference to my sister. Okay, I'll put that out there. Disclaimer. Thanks, Frisa. So when you go to the dentist, first of all, I don't know a single person who actually enjoys that experience.

Right? Like, my sister used to be my dentist. Now I live in California, but I still didn't enjoy the experience. And why do we hate that experience? Because, number one, it's something we have to do that we have to, like, carve out time for. Carve out time of our work day. You have to go twice a year. Hopefully only twice a year. If there's issues, you go more often than that. And you go there and they inflict some pain usually, right? They scrape your teeth. They do all those things. I apparently have, like, no pain like receptors in my mouth.

I'm, like, a very odd candidate when I go to the dentist. I have never had. I've had novocaine once, but I've had other cavities drilled without novocaine. I had that water pick thing done recently, and I was like, didn't hurt at all. And everybody's like, oh, my gosh. I was crying. But, like, I don't know. Maybe I just don't have any pain receptors in my mouth. But, like, I don't think it's that painful to go to the dentist. Thankfully, I've never had any, like, serious issues besides cavities.

But usually it involves, like, a little bit of discomfort, right? Involves some pain. You've got people's hands, like, in your face, in your mouth. Like, you're sitting there in this uncomfortable position. With your neck craned up. And usually by the end of the appointment, they tell you some bad news, right? They tell you you don't brush enough, you don't floss enough. That's my. My guilty thing. I hate flossing. I hate it with a passion. I actually hate brushing my teeth. If we're going to go full on, like, disclosure moment here, I actually don't like the feeling of clean teeth.

I don't like that slimy feeling. So I'd rather not brush my teeth and floss. I know it's really odd. It's gross, but, like, I just don't like that. And so you go there and you get this, like, bad news of, like, well, you don't floss enough. You don't brush enough. Now we need you to come back in three months instead of six months, and they give you, like, this just bad report, basically, on how you're doing in life. And I just want you to think about that. Where else in the world do you willingly go somewhere to get bad news, to get told that you're doing a bad job at something, and to have pain inflicted upon you?

Nowhere else. Nowhere else. Like, nobody does that. The only place I can think of that's even similar to that is going to the gym. Like, you know, you're gonna be in, you know, not necessarily pain, but you're gonna be uncomfortable, but you're willingly going there. And usually you leave there with, like, some endorphin release, right, and, like, a good sweat, and you feel like you got the toxins out. But nowhere else in our life do we willingly go ask for bad feedback about our performance in life and how we're doing with our hygiene.

And so that's why the dentist is such an extreme experience for people. Like, very different from going to the doctor. You go to the doctor when you have a problem, you expect them to tell you maybe something's wrong. You know, check up. They're usually like, great job, keep doing it. But, like, the dentist just always leaves with bad news and bad results. And so I want you to think about that the next time you go into, like, your performance review. The next time you go somewhere that's gonna be a little bit uncomfortable, like, this can't possibly be as bad as the dentist, right?

Like, nowhere else in my life do I actually do that. But what an opportunity to actually invest in your personal development. If you were to think about this when you go to the dentist, if you were to think about, you know what? I'm really excited for them to tell me what I need to work on. Like, a lot of us, especially at Cadre, we love personal development. We read, you know, we read personal development books. I read a ton of them. I read, like, one a week, you know, like, I'm always looking for improvement.

I'm always looking for feedback on how I can be a better leader. I've got my Cadre family to tell me that. Like, they love giving me feedback because they know I like that. But then when I go to the dentist, I walk in with a different mindset. What if you walked into the dentist tomorrow with a different mindset and saying, you know, I'm really looking forward to this feedback on how I can do better in life and how I can do better at my oral hygiene? Because if we went into every single day with that mindset that we are open to feedback, we'd have a different experience in every environment we walk into.

Right? Thanks, Reese. I'm glad you're loving this, and I don't know why you like flossing. We'll have to talk about that later. Maybe you can enlighten me. But if you were to think about, like, if I go into every meeting, every encounter with people, every, every experience, and I walk in and I prepare myself for feedback, and sometimes that means, like, almost, like, putting on, like, some armor. Like, you need to kind of, like, armor up and be like, okay, I'm ready. I'm ready for the feedback.

Because I can tell you, I was never somebody who enjoyed feedback. Like, I hated getting advice from people. I hated feedback because it was a pride issue. Right? It hit my ego. It hits me when it's like, you're not doing a good enough job, and you're like, crap, I thought I was doing a really good job. And so it hits your ego when you get feedback, but if you walk into a situation, you're like, all right, I'm ready for the feedback. You're almost prepared for it. And it doesn't hit your ego as badly because, truth be told, we can all use feedback in every area of our life, including our oral hygiene.

And so I want to invite you to try walking into tomorrow, maybe, and each encounter you have with someone, ask them for that feedback. Ask them how I can be better. Ask them, what could I have done better in that phone call? What could I have done better in that meeting? How could I have showed up better today? Just give yourself one day of inviting that kind of feedback and see what happens. And I will let you know when I go to the dentist next week how that goes, because I'm going to walk in going, you know what?

Tell me how I can do better, because I actually made it a gall from the last time I went to the dentist. I bought one of those stupid electronic toothbrushes that I think are ridiculous. And they get your teeth so clean. I mean, just so ridiculously clean and slimy. And I've been flossing almost every day, so I'm excited for that feedback to come. And I'm walking to the dentist, asking them for that feedback. So I invite you to try this. And I thank you guys for joining me on this funny topic today.

And I hope you have a wonderful day. I hope the weather gets better wherever you are. And maybe it'll look like this in the next day for you. Just like a dozen. San Diego, thanks for tuning in. God bless.