Trip to the Dentist

This has been the week for dental work. Daeng had a few cavities filled on Friday and started the process of replacing a missing tooth with a three tooth bridge. I was having slight pain from one of my back teeth so I visited the dentist on Monday.

The dentist told me I had an old age problem, like I did not know I was getting old already. She showed me in the x-ray how the bone was shrinking and there was a space between the root and the tooth. Since it is an area that can't be reached with the tooth brush or flossing periodontitis develops in that area.

She gave me the name of the closest dentist that does this type of dental work. The periodontist is in the City of Chiang Rai, about 60 KM south of us.

On Wednesday we packed up and headed to the City of Chiang Rai. We stopped at Tun and Hlong's, Daeng's brother and sister-in-law, and had a great breakfast. The fare was everything from fired bamboo worms to something I had never had before. Hlong had roasted peanuts and chili peppers together. It made the red chili peppers not as hot as usual but made the peanuts RED HOT. They were really delicious.

We headed south on route #1. We were stopped at the first check point south of Mae Sai. We expected that due to the high volume of drugs that are being moved out of Myanmar (Burma).

If you would like more about the drug movement just read a few days back to October 10th in this blog.

The officer in charge spoke with us for a couple of minutes and told us, with a smile, to get out of there. I got him to smile but he would not laugh even though another office laughed at us.

We drove to Chiang Rai, checked into the Jamson Guest House and headed over to the dental clinic.

The Clinic opened at 5:00 PM and we were the first in line. I met the dentist and she looked at x-ray and checked my tooth.

She told us that I should have the tooth roots cleaned, "planed" was the term she used for the deep cleaning. Then should keep taking the antibiotics the other dentist gave me and come back to see her for reevaluation a month from now. She told me the cost would be 900 Thai Baht ($27.00 USD).

I felt comfortable with the Clinic and the dentist so I ask when it could be done. She said, right now and we did it. After the work she put a gum like mixture around the tooth and the gums. She said the antibiotic-containing gel would stay on for about 5-7 days.

She also gave me some pain medication and more antibiotics but told me she did not think I would have much pain. That was an additional 150 TB ($4.50 USD).

She also told me that she was very positive in what she thought the outcome would be.

I felt very good about the trip and the dentist.