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great dentist

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

I had a great experience with a visit to the dentist today. It was my first visit in four years, and my first in Japan, and I went because I'd developed a throbbing pain somewhere in the upper-left-rear teeth. It turns out that I had a very small cavity that required a fair bit of looking-for.

I guess I'm a lightweight when it comes to tooth pain if I was mewling over such a small cavity. But in my defense, I'll point out that an untreated cavity would only get bigger and that as a regular migraineur I frequently have pain in my teeth from the headaches and frequently get migraines when there's some other pain (for instance in my neck). So I wasn't going to mess about.

Anyway, I was in and out of the place in forty-five minutes, and that includes both a brief wait while the doctor finished up with the previous patient and even the time it took to pay the bill. That makes it about half an hour to find a small cavity, apply the anaesthetic, do a bit of drilling, and put in the filling. Not bad!

Also, it only cost ¥2450. That's about $30 Canadian. By comparison, in Canada I would have paid a couple of hundred dollars and then hope that my (private) insurance would come through. Also, I should point out that forty-five minutes in a Canadian dental office would only get you through your wait in the lounge.

The dentist speaks excellent English (I suspect he grew up in the States) and will step in on the phone if you tell the hygenist (in Japanese) that you don't speak very good Japanese (I told her "日本語上手にはなせませんごめんなさい。英語もいいですか？").

I was delighted with this dentist. The name of the place is the Smile Dental Care.