A Non-Torturous Dental Adventure
Posted on May 23, 2009 - Filed Under Guatemala, Personal, Simple Life | 1 Comment
Anyone who has read my blog for a while knows that I hate dentists. And that I pretty much do anything to avoid them. After my last dental experience, I was determined to keep the rest of my teeth in my head, preferably without any further intervention from men with drills in their hands.
It didn`t happen. Yesterday, my head started to hurt and after a bit I realized it was coming from my tooth. The final first molar that didn`t already have a filling or was missing. sigh. So, I decided that despite my nerves, I was just going to go get this thing taken care of right away.
We got to the dentist and I was literally already sweating and really not looking forward to seeing him or his rather snippety wife who always snaps at me not to move if I choke on the tooth dust water or swallow or ANYTHING. Once we arrived, she gave me a look and said the dentist was no longer seeing anyone today. It was ten am. They open at nine.
I nearly chickened out right then and suggested we just go home and I`d let this one rot out of my head, too. After all, it`s really hard to find a dentist that doesn`t charge and arm and a leg around here when they see you`re a foreigner. But Irving had heard of someone and he started driving up adn down streets and through back alleys looking for this one dentist. I swear, we covered half of Antigua. And when we FINALLY found the place, they were closed. But handily, there was an orthodontist on the other side of the street! Who also does extractions and assorted other things.
We went in and asked. A consult was Q70, filling was Q150-200, depending on the tooth. That`s about $20 for a filling. I went in to see what they thought and the dentist was immediately far friendlier than my other guy. He took a look, asked me when the tooth started to hurt and told me that it would be fine with a small filling. So we started in.
First off, I have to say, the anesthetic didn`t even hurt going in. That was my first sign that this guy was good. He started drilling and a couple of minutes into it, he said, “Uh oh. This thing is WAY bigger than it looked from the outside.” He kept going. “Good grief. You sure you only felt pain yesterday? This should have been killing you ages ago!” He kept drilling. I swear he hollowed out the whole tooth. I was sure he was going to tell me that it was going to be a root canal.
Finally, he finished up and told me that this would have to be done in two parts. He`d put in a paste now and fill it in a week. I`m not really clear on what the paste does, but apparently without it, I would have pain after the filling. So now I have a tooth full of paste (which is more like plaster of paris) and am feeling GREAT! He didn`t hurt me once. He didn`t crack my jawbone and he was nice. AND his assistant actually suctioned out the water properly, made sure I was able to spit when I needed to and it was, overall, the best dental experience I`ve had in my life. Which isn`t saying it was fun, but it wasn`t pure torture. 
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One Response to “A Non-Torturous Dental Adventure”
Talk to Me, People!
I’m so proud of you. I’m glad it was a better experience…and bravo for Irving driving you all over Antigua to find him.
Kimmie
mama to 7
one homemade and 6 adopted