The Dentist

Do you remember the Steve Martin & Bill Murray scene in Little Shop of Horrors where Martin is the dentist who enjoys inflicting pain (as they most seem to do) as he sings "I am a dentist," and Murray is the patient who enjoys the inflicted pain (as most of us seem not to do)? 

Well, my story's nowhere nearly as good as that one. But I did go to the dentist in Japan for the first time yesterday. First time as a patient, that is. Some years back I did take my wife to a dentist in Japan; she had an abscess when we were visiting relatives and received excellent care from a young dentist way out in the country.

So, anyway, it was Thursday, later afternoon and I was having a bite of steak for dinner when something went crunch and my tooth began to hurt. Of course I don't know exactly where there's a dentist though I've seen shops around. And I have no clue which is any good. So I went to Google and found three near my apartment.

The nearest one, a Dr. Kobayashi, is closed on Thursdays. I couldn't find Dr. Nishida, who's name suggests he could be a distant relative, though probably isn't. It was raining a bit, but not enough for an umbrella, so I had my glasses in my pocket which didn't help. But I went back and forth a bit before giving up on him (her?) and went on down to a dental practice near the nearest train station. This one I found (second pass), and it was open. Note that this sort of office is often on a higher floor of a building and might not have a large obvious sign. Indeed, this one wasn't large, but possibly should have been obvious.

I don't know the doctor's name because the practice was named for the part of town, rather than for the doctor. She might have told me her name, but I didn't catch it. I thought she might be a dental assistant until she began drilling on my tooth, with an actual assistant's help. At that point I rather suspected, and hoped, that she was a dentist. She didn't sing a catchy tune like Steve Martin, which would have given her away in a hurry.

Anyway, an older filling had failed. Probably the one my Texas dentist has been keeping an eye on, saying it's not looking good, but he's not going to dig it out while it seems to be working for me (unlike Martin for sure).

She drilled it out and patched me up with cement and said as long as it's not still hurting when I return on Tuesday she'll make a mold. She also asked my choice of materials. Between that and the mold I asked her if this meant she was going to put a crown on it. But she said no, it will be a filling. So, I'll report later on how that works out. I've never had a mold for a filling before. 

By the way, when they took the x-ray they had me stand under a machine and bite on a gizmo while the machine spun around my head. Even though my Texas dentist's a bit of a gadget junkie, I'd never had this done before. When I told my wife about it, she said she'd had that done at an endodontist in Texas, but never at our regular dentist. So, I'm thinking, if this lady has a whirly x-ray machine, she can probably  be trusted with a filling, even if it does require a mold, and even if, possibly, she is a dental assistant.

By the way, the whirly x-ray cost me $40. (I'm paying cash for now, and will submit all to insurance later.) Let's see you beat that in Texas. And Texas is the cheapest place I know of in the US. Food for thought, but don't bite down too hard.