Drilling down

As you can see from my profile picture to the right, a couple years of unemployment (read: no dental insurance) has left me with what my friends might refer to as a "jacked up grill".

So, as a public service to our readers, and those that get close enough to smell my doggy breath, I decided to visit a dentist here in Montevideo.

Now, visiting a dentist in the US, for me, as well as some others probably, is about one of the scariest things one can do....Just slightly scarier than milking a cobra, or flossing a great white.

One of my friends here recommended his dentist, so I decided to pay her a visit.

One more for the "you know you're old" file: you know you're old when ur dentist is obviously younger than you are!

Natali began the examination and asked all the typical "dentist" questions:

"how many times a day do you brush?
"do you have milkbones between meals?"
"how often do you floss?"
"do you eat hard or canned dog chow?"
"have you been catching frisbees in your teeth lately?"

I already knew that I had THREE cavities rotting away from a visit to a dentist in Concord California a couple of months ago. That dentist had quoted me 1200 to get my teeth fixed....on accident she had quoted me 1100, but once she realized I didn't have insurance (no bargaining power) she gave me the uninsured price of 1200.

I of course pointed out that that was absurd and that she'd get the money faster and with less paperwork from me, so i deserved a better price. She obliged by knocking down the price 10%.

My initial inspection visit with Natali was free -- and she found 4 cavaties (apparently I'd grown another -- I really gotta stop sleeping with that sugar cane mouthguard in!)

I decided to get a cleaning, 4 fillings done and Golden Lotus is getting a couple of fillings done too.

Natali quoted me $40/filling (composite) -- Golden Lotus is going for a "bulk discount" (how sad, huh?)

I had the worst of my cavaties done that day. It was an old USMC filling that another cavity had grown next to/under. She had very gentle hands and I'd have to say that her level of care was on par with or better than any I've had in the States.

(dog) ciao for now,
fB

p.s. i couldn't get the pictures of geant (the post below) to upload to the blog for some reason...but you didn't miss much...just go to any old walmart and multiply by 2x