My mother, who was 80 years old at the time, called and said she was in very serious pain. It had been a considerable amount of time since she had last seen a dentist for routine dental care. She is a heart patient who suffers the fate of many patients like her, that of delayed or neglected dental attention. Because of their medications that cause them to be bleeders (sometimes profuse), most dentists will not touch these patients. At most, the patients can get their teeth pulled. \r
So here I am with my mother in substantial pain-- I was new to Orlando, as was my mother and father. I called an emergency dental referral service, and sure enough, a dentist called me and said, ""well, its 6:30. If you can come now, I'll take a look at her"". He was brusque on the phone, but I felt I needed to get her to see him. We arrived to the building, all but his office locked up for the night, and we rolled (my mother is in a wheel chair) into his office. \r
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Dr. Oswick looked at her and saw the condition of her mouth. All of us (including her) knew she needed a tremendous amount of care. Once he found out she was a heart patient, he wouldn't do anything for her that night, but offered to see her in 3 days after she had been off her blood thinners for that time, and after he had talked to her heart doctor and family doctor and received permission and advice for treating her. We filled all the info that was needed for her past medical care and indeed returned in 3 days. Thus started a 10 month odyssey to pull the rotten teeth, to fill remaining teeth, and then to give her dentures. We have finished the process, and today my mother got her new teeth. Beautiful work.\r
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Dr. Oswick is a skilled craftsman. As I am an engineer, I will relate him to my world -- he is a classic lab rat. In the technical world, a lab rat is a person who has extraordinary skills in their craft -- they can go into a lab and diagnose a problem and fix the problem -- any problem. At first , they may appear rude, shy or unfriendly. But get to know them, and they very friendly. \r
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But let me say this -- he is a master at working on your mouth. As many health problems that plagued my mother, he could have done what all the other dentists that she tried to see over the last 10 years. He could have punted and sent her on her way. He didn't. He saw someone in great need and proceeded to work his way through all her problems. My mother never suffered one round of infection from any of the dental work. Not once. That's incredible. She never suffered from pain from any of the dental work. Not once. That's incredible. And I will say, that in his own way, he was extraordinarily kind to her. And there was plenty of opportunity for him to give up --many a time he had to stop in order to get her bleeding under control.\r
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I believe his desire to see previous records and speak to my mothers doctors was an effort on his part to know his risks and know what kinds of problems he might encounter. Its better to plan for success but prepare for problems. Again, this is a typical engineering approach to a problem. This is how a skilled craftsman approaches problems.\r
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So if you have health issues, and you need dental work performed by a master craftsman, I would recommend Dr. Oswick. But don't look at him to be your best friend or to provide warm and fuzzies. I have rarely seen the politician type of engineer who really took the time to learn his craft. The skilled craftsman is normally a shy and introverted technician--excellent with things, not people. I suspect its the same with Dentist.\r
I go to a dentist to have the best care, at an affordable price. If this is what you are looking for, go see Dr. Oswick. \r
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Debbie V.\r
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