Dentist Update

Well, I survived it.

Dr Rivera doesn't speak a lot of English and neighbour D is fluent in Spanish so we arranged to have our appointments together. She went first and I took my relaxant then, since her appointment would be an hour long and he had recommended taking it an hour prior to my appointment. Oh my. It affected me much more this time. I could feel a bit of a buzz happening and when I stood up for my turn, my knees were pretty wobbly. Good grief. I was stoned!

I had asked D to tell him not to diddle around with just one freezing, hoping it would be enough, and to please just give me 3 right off the bat. So he did. But it still wasn't enough and he had to give me one more. The pain of the drilling had totally cut through my buzz and now I was "sober". So as I'm lying in the chair, waiting for the 4th freezing to settle in, I'm giving myself a pep talk.

"Ok, Barb. Relax. He said freezing takes better if the patient is relaxed. And you know that once the freezing takes hold, you won't feel anything. Relax. Turn your head the other way to unkink the muscle on that side so it doesn't block the freezing. Relax. Do some deep breathing. Relax."

The 4th freezing did the trick but that didn't stop me from holding my hands on my tummy, fingers entwined in a white knuckle death squeeze. Finally I was done. And when I went to stand up off the chair, my legs were wobbly again. From the relaxant? From the relief of being done? I have no idea. But it made me and Dr Rivera chuckle.

A small piece of my tooth had broken off and caused a cavity beneath an old filling. Dr Rivera drilled out the cavity and replaced the old metal filling with a white one. My cost was 1700 pesos, or $140 CDN. I don't know what the cost would be back home but just a cleaning costs more than that.

D had the secretary write me out a receipt to submit to our insurance company but I didn't realize, until we got home, that it doesn't specify exactly what he did. It just says "Dental Treatment" and the amount paid. I have my doubts that that'll be good enough so I'll have to get another one. I'll also have to get a translation. Sr B doesn't think the insurance company is going to accept it, even with the procedure and translation. Even if they don't, what I paid is probably in the neighbourhood of our co-pay, anyways. All we can do is submit it and hope for the best. And I was in pain. It wasn't like I could wait until we got back to Canada. Even if we don't get reimbursed anything, it was still money well spent.

Dr Rivera is a very nice gentleman. Soft spoken and with very gentle hands. I would have no reservations about seeing him again.