Oh Dear! My Filling has Fallen Out!

I was in a severe state of nervousness,  I'd lost a filling and a piece from one of my front teeth.   I was not at all keen to receive dental treatment in a developing country.

Vanessa  kindly offered to take me to her family dentist in Tela this morning.   The dentist doesn't make appointments and it was best to get there by 8am. The trip didn't start off well, I'd put the piece of paper with Vanessa's new phone number and the address of the clinic in the bottom of my school bag and couldn't find it when we were due to go out the door a 5 to 8.  I had no other way of contacting Vanessa or finding the clinic.   Fortunately a more thorough search of the bag retrieved the details.  

Glenn and I caught the next cab into Tela and with a few more phone calls later the cab driver managed to stop outside an electrical shop with the same name as the dental clinic.   We were right next door  to the dentist and I was very pleased to find Vanessa. waiting there for us.   Bless her heart, she'd driven in to meet us on her motor scooter. 

The dentist hadn't arrived at 8.15am so we sat in his waiting room while Vanessa and I fended off the maurading mosquitoes.  Vanessa was the first to be bitten and I was still untouched.   In comes the dentist aged in his mid-fifties in his white coat and white trousers.  He owns a restaurant as well as being a dentist and had to look after that before he came to the clinic.   He told to sit in a rather old dentist's chair which reminded me of dentist visits in the 1950's in Australia.   The room was basic, painted white, with one fan directed at me which worked very efficiently.  For once, I wasn't sweating, probably because the temperature was only in the high 20's at 8.30am and that was a good start for the day.

Vanessa complained bitterly to the dentist about the itchiness of the insect bite on her leg and the dentist directed her into the nearby toilet cubicle where she sprayed her legs with alcohol. I was the next to be bitten.  The dentist looked closely at the spot on my leg, rubbed it a bit and sprayed some of the same alcohol on that as well.   He then prodded Vanessa's stomach telling her disapprovingly that she'd lost weight and then got down to the matter of my tooth.   After looking closely into my mouth he muttered some  Spanish words into my eyes, pointing at both my top and bottom teeth.  I understood the words 'orthodontist' and 'palette' and noticed by his chewing actions that he was referring to my habit of grinding my teeth at night.   I think he was telling me I needed a mouth guard to stop me grinding my teeth at night. Vanessa interpreted a little for me and told me the dentist could speak perfect English.

I was starting to feel quite confident and enjoying the chatter going on between Vanessa and the dentist.  I  could see he knew what to do with the tooth and it wasn't going to be a major operation.    The dentist prepared his own amalgam, filled up the cup for washing out my mouth, answered his phone and still did a good job with my filling.  For the first time in years, I didn't receive an injection in the gums and  there was no pain in the whole procedure.  He kept asking me if there was any pain and I'm sure he would have stopped drilling if there was.

We were completely finished in less than half an hour and the total cost was $30!  The last time I'd had a filling in Hobart it had cost $160 and I'd only got a slight rebate from my health insurance.

It's now hours later and the filling seems to be perfect.  Perhaps all the modern dentistry we have at home is all a con to make us pay more for treatment.  I wish I'd known about this dentist when I had tooth-ache in Honduras five years ago.  I waited until I got home to Hobart, lost the tooth and still have an ugly gap in the side of my mouth.

Vanessa told me the dentist has a nice big house and a flashy car but is certainly not a millionaire.     I will not hesitate to have any more dental treatment if I need it in Honduras.   

Thanks so much, Vanessa for being so helpful and taking me to an excellent dentist in her free time and making us so content to live in her beautiful country.