Dental cleaning for the first time

[tonado]

My wife had her cleaning done today for the first time. She had too much pain and will have go back twice again (with novocaine). In China, cleaning is not common. Also, she has many cavities. The dentist recommended whitener for her but it will cost over $550 per treatment.

[Dave G.]

I remember the DDSs on the street corner in Chengdu. Pre-made dentures??? I once told JM that her teeth are so straight and lovely. She laughed and said the ones in back are not very good. Of course, I told all this to my DDS. He looked like http://smilies.sofrayt.com/%5E/4/eekdrool.gif when I finished the story. I wonder if he went shopping for his new BMW after I left his office.........

 

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[Robert S.]

Tony, I hope she will tough it out and go all the way through with the program. It sure would be great if she could get all squared away, that would be so good for her.

 

Dave, did you take her to the dentist in China? If you did and you were within hearing distance when they were working on her I hope you were able to just harden your heart and trust to the process, as I did when Ping and I went home to her city.

 

She had been needing dental work in Abu Dhabi, and I had been going to a good dentist there, a Swede, and wanted to send her to the Swedish Dental Clinic, but she wanted to wait and go in China. On the first or second day in Dalian I pressed the issue and we took a taxi to a clinic she had heard was good. The dental practitioners there looked good in their uniforms and I agreed to pay the estimated price and they put her in the chair. As much as I wanted to stand there and hold her hand I knew that would not help and I'd be in the way anyway so I went to the far end of the long room with about 12 dentist chairs and sat on the couch waiting for them to take out the old rotten roots of a back molar. They used anesthetic but I did not see them inject it. Near the end they actually pulled out the hammer and chisel and I could hear the bonk! bonk! way across the room, though I could not bear to watch. She only complained about pain for 2-3 days but later was happy that I had forced her to go ahead and have the dental work, and I say forced because it took all the moral fervor I could muster to make her go through with her promise to have it taken care of -- after they made the estimate and I agreed I looked at Ping and she was putting her two hands together begging me to relent, but if you need dental work there is no substitute for going to the dentist.

[MoonCarolCafe]

Ewww, that's something I'm going to have to discuss with my honeybun after she has had a few drinks.

 

I'll take her to my dentist, and then go drive far away... I'm also going to have to make sure she is getting enough calcium.

[Dave G.]

Dave, did you take her to the dentist in China?  If you did and you were within hearing distance when they were working on her I hope you were able to just harden your heart and trust to the process, as I did when Ping and I went home to her city.  

 

Nope....never had that pleasure. http://smilies.sofrayt.com/%5E/r/biggrinclarifils.gif

 

BUT....sorry....another story.....

 

When I was 14, I had the chance to travel down the length of the Amazon River. A physician (GP - general practice) planned it all. We got to a remote village (all the gals were naked) and we were warmly greeted. Well, the GP offered to perform dental work. One young girl -- 13 years old and the daughter of the Chief -- had an impacted wisdom tooth. The GP said, "No problem. I'll pull it." Long story short, he used no anesthetic ("They know how to block pain.") and the gal screamed for her life. That is, of course, until she went into cardiac arrest! Now, rather than pull teeth, the 65 year old doctor was doing CPR on this young, naked native. The Chief's daughter! After she was revived, they put her on a boat for the three hour trip to the hospital. The Chief seemed okay with it and asked if we wanted a tour of the jungle. Sure, why not? Well, the deeper we got into it, the faster he walked. Seemed he wanted to lose us in the thicket. Payback for his daughter? We figured it out and got safely back.....but that warm welcome had turned cold. We were very, very lucky to get out of there.

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[tonado]

Tomorrow we will get the Xray results. We are hoping the bridges and crowns she did in China are not causing the bleeding. If they are not done well, then she will need to remove them and get new ones.

[Robert S.]

I believe the work she had done in China is going to be found to be okay. I was certainly impressed with the dentists and technicians that worked on my wife -- ha! now I remember! -- at the time they seemed so competent that I asked the English-speaking cashier lady to ask them if there was anything else they saw that needed to be done, wishing to take care of more problems but they said she was okay. Now she needs periodontics but she is planning to go home to China for the work.

 

Tony, good luck to your wife. She will be so proud of her smile when the work is all finished.

[keelec]

I think you can use some kind of a topical anestetic that will help a bit with the pain (but use the real thing before yanking on the wisdom teeth).

 

I have heard too many stories about the standard treatment for toothaches in Russia being EXTRACTION.

 

Shortly after Irina and I started dating, I suggested that she go to the dentist to get her teeth cleaned and checked..... She came back with a mouth full of braces!!!! Oh, well, they must be cheaper in Russia than the USA, and she will have finished half the course of treatment by the time our visa is finally straightened out!!!!

 

Oh, I told her that I didn't want to kiss a mouth full of metal She almost didn't get the braces

 

Yes, preventative dentistry can be painful. But the alternative is MUCH MORE PAIN (I've heard that toothaches are no fun), and ending up with only 3 teeth in the whole mouth when she gets older!!!!

 

Best Wishes,

Clifford

[MoonCarolCafe]

I have heard too many stories about the standard treatment for toothaches in Russia being EXTRACTION.

 

Ah, the Civil War field surgeon school of dentistry!

[Mick]

My first year in China I accompanied Li to the dentist in Hefei. They did a filling with no pain medicine of any kind. Just hammered and drilled, hammered and drilled. It was absolutely barbaric. To make matters worse, they botched the job and had to do it a second time. Again, they messed it up. She refused to return a third time for the torture and I don't blame her. She had dental work done after we got to the States and was amazed at the fact that she suffered no pain and that it was so fast.

 

Once while living in China I had to have a wax blockage moved from one of my ears. I won't go into all the gory details but suffice to say it was like a visit to the Little Chamber of Horrors.

[tonado]

My wife said flossing is non-existent in China. That is why she has 10 cavities now.