The most solid relationship I ever had is the one with my Dentist, Dr. Schröder. We met '99, I was 8 3/4 and enjoyed ice cream for 50 pfennig in my new found home called Hamburg, Germany. Dr. Schröder must have been around 40, he never complained about me eating ice cream and the feedback I got on my mouth hygiene was better than any feedback I ever got in school or university after. The icecream-windowstore was btw. directly under his office – what a smart symbiosis…
Now I am 33 and Dr. Schröder... still looks the same. I look up on him from the dentists chair, passing by the bright light into his glancing eyes behind the filigree glasses with the thin framing. They seem like jumping off the nose, but never do... He looks always happy, either because enjoying the job or because he has the rare business where you might keep your clients from birth to death… BUT…
Last year I had a big shooting at the Dental21-office in Mainz - a huge Russian speaking crew came over to Germany for portraying the business and booked me for interviewing the staff. I couldn't resist - working with teams from Eastern Europe is always fun tho not well paid and the quality they go for is amazing. And I always enjoy doing interviews and do it way too rarely.
Dental21 is part of the startup Patient21 and is modernizing the medical service approach outside the clinics. Opening up chains with same quality standards, dazzling white, super modern equipment and full digitalization, they for example have your medical data all over the offices – so living in Munich, but getting dental pain in Berlin, there is no issue – you go wherever you like and they have the data in the cloud. While for Estonians this may sound boring, for Germany this is like flying to Mars.
The sad part of my story:
As Dr. Schröder never changed (which is good), neither did his office or equipment – the white furniture got a yellow touch – like teeth. And so I might finally break up now – it seems, old love rusts…