Full Moon Fever

What I am writing about today has nothing to do with dentistry, endodontics or root canals but it has everything to do with what happens in our office during full moon lunar cycles.

Being a “light sensitive” sleeper, I notice when any unusual light creeps into my bedroom at night. I happen to have a window that unfortunately (for me) is placed in such a manner that when it is a full moon I get it right in the face around 3:30am. My sleep over the last two nights has been seriously disturbed by what feels like a spotlight in my face. So I KNOW when a full moon occurs.

That being said, I can always count on unusual occurrences with our normal office flow during these times. Yesterday was no exception. The modern endodontic practice is emergency based and our staff is very used to changes in our daily schedule. “Send the patient right over” is our office mantra – we are very adaptable and are quite flexible when it comes to meeting the needs of the business.

Yesterday (full moon) was a day for the record books. In addition to our normal flow of patients, we had 5 emergency calls – actually 6 calls and we were only able to accomodate 5 in our office yesterday. Highly unusual for sure. As one with any analytical mind, I want to know a reason for the unusual pattern. It’s easy for all of us to assign responsibility to it being a “full moon”, but apparantly there is no scientific connection to lunar cycles and human behavior.

I am just resigned to believe that whenever the spotlight shines on my face @ 3:30am then we are going to be busy the next few days at the practice. I see it as a blessing that we see extra patients and a curse that I lose two nights of sleep during these cycles….