A DENTIST, A SECRETARY, A BOY, AND A KITTEN

The good news to report from last weekend is that, yes, after driving to all three dental offices again in the Coronado area, I did find a dentist open last Saturday to fix my tooth!  She is located right on the InterAmerican Highway in Bejuco.  The good news is also that she did, in the mere ninety minutes that it took her to rebuild the tooth (exhaustion and sarcasm there), a really nice job putting me back together again before our trip to Contadora.  She spoke very good English.  She wore a mask, gloves and magnification glasses.  And more good news is that it cost a mere fifty dollars (a four surface composite, aka white filling, at the office I retired from would be $150-200).

There really wasn't any bad from that dental appointment.  Well, the bad would be the condition of the office, esthetics of the reception area, and the unpunctual arrival time of the dentist. The man sitting there when we arrived at 8:15 had an 8:00 appointment.  She, living at the back of the office, arrived closer to 8:30.  I was at this dental office for two hours and fifteen minutes on a Saturday morning.  I know, what else do I have to do on a Saturday morning.  Or that there was a woman begging for money at the office door.  I told her I didn't speak Spanish, so she asked for money in English.  The dentist gave her some dollar bills.  How about that the air conditioning was broken, but the fan actually worked quite well.  Then there was the secretary, as the dentist calls her, showing up an hour late.  With her twelve year old son.  And let me not forget about the man that had an appointment had to sit there and wait for me, the walk in patient, while the dentist built up the tooth one light layer at a time, drilled, sanded, cured the filling with the light, and repeated these steps a hundred more times to finally finish up the job.  Worst part was Ray had to sit there in a reception room with a kitten, the secretary's son, the man waiting, the begging lady begging, and Spanish cartoons playing on the television.

No I have never been in a reception room that looks like this before.  I  have been in "unmodernized" rooms, but not in this state.

This is not the chair I sat in, and the dentist's home is behind that door.

Gold Christmas paper on entrance door.

I was one of two walk ins allowed, and closed on January 9 (the day before).

Yes, the kitten was super sweet, clean and entered the operatory a few times.  

Office fees and hours of operation

The secretary's desk.

Same handpiece, burs, gauze, polishing wheels, etc

Hand developer, xray machine, lab--all looked the same.  And the secretary sitting there with us.  

While having my tooth filled, the dentist did discuss her broken AC unit with the repairman on the phone (she took her gloves off).  She also chatted a bit with her secretary (who's desk is in the room with the dental chair).  I was able to close my mouth three times in that ninety minutes.  I only had water run down my chin and neck a few times, since the suction wasn't the best, and the kitten couldn't assist her.  The secretary told the man waiting with an appointment that I was a walk in patient, and the dentist was very slow.  But the dentist didn't recommend a crown immediately for the tooth, but I have already made an appointment with my dentist.  There is only so much that can be done with composite material.  The best part of this whole experience I feel is that I was never really concerned that the dentist didn't know what she was doing, since I knew everything she was doing--it all made sense.  And she took her time and gave a lot of care to my tooth.  And it was all normal to me (as far as the procedure, this is).

After the appointment, we were driving by my dental office, and I saw people entering the office.  What?  I went upstairs to at least make an appointment for a crown to be done, and the receptionist (speaks English) seemed confused that I knew what I needed to schedule.  My dentist happened to call in (seems only the receptionist and a dental assistant were in the office catching up on paperwork perhaps or lab work), he spoke directly to me, asked me to stay for an impression and told me he remembered my tooth and my case.  I assured him I was fine after swallowing my veneer.  I sent a message to Ray (he was waiting in the car) that I would be getting an impression done then.  This would save time at my next appointment (which should be one hour, and this makes sense).  While I was in my second dental chair of the morning, Ray was busy watching a woman park her car in the space next to where he had parked our SUV.  He was sitting in the drivers seat.  The woman wanted to get a little closer, so she backed up and pulled in again only this time she bumped into the driver's side.  Instead of stopping, she just kept pulling forward scraping the car along the way.  Her husband did get out of the car and, in Spanish, he explained to Ray that his wife was a very bad driver.

Glad our car is silver.  This did buff out a bit, and there is just a slight dent.  The first scratch is  the hardest.

The best part of the day was, well, I had a tooth again, and after buying a pineapple pie at a farmer's market, we met Greg and Thea at Coronado Cafe and had a really good lunch!  We had to figure out a vacation plans for the next week.  Oh, my order was screwed up, but it was fixed really quickly.  And then, Ray and I decided to just end the day.  We tucked ourselves into Casa 40 for the rest of the day.  Too much traffic with the long holiday weekend, the morning was too long, laundry had to be done (even in retirement), packing was in order, because we had a great upcoming trip to Contadora Island.  We needed to be relaxed, and most importantly rested for our next big adventure in this thing called retirement.