Chiang Rai - Dentist, Ice Plant & FUN

We had a fun trip to the dentist in Chiang Rai, about 60 Km south of our home here in Mae Sai.  Why does "Fun" and "Dentist" not seem to go together correctly?

We left around 11:30 AM and stopped at the chicken place by our friend Peter's house.  Peter is from Australia and has retired here in Northern Thailand.  It is good for both of us to talk in English as there are only a few folks around this part of Thailand that can understand us.

We picked up the bar-be-cued chicken along with some stick rice and vegetables and eat together in Peter's patio.  Peter mentioned the new ice factory just a little ways from him.  It was a coincidental as Daeng's son, Boonreang, has stopped going to school about three weeks ago and is working part time at an ice factory.

After we said our goodbyes to Peter we drove around the corner and stopped at the new ice factory.  They are still building it but the lady knew of Daeng and showed us around a little.  From what I'm told Boonreang works on a team that provides ice for large events like marriages and funerals. 

They come in the late afternoon, get everything ready for the next day, sleep in a little house in front and then leave very early in the morning and set up the coolers and ice for the event.   The coolers are huge.  You can see the blue one behind Daeng in the picture above. After the event is over they clear everything, load it on the truck and bring it back.  It makes for a long, hard day but with a fun crew.

I'm happy that he is doing something constructive as I was very worried about him dropping out of school.  I explained to him that I did not like school when I was his age so I stopped going after High School and did okay working for a living.  We hope he can find a career that he likes.  I have found that if people like what they are doing they do well.

We also stopped at the little house in the front which Daeng kept calling the "Gift Shop".  I thought it was a shop you could buy gifts but what it really is a "Gift Shop"; that is a shop that makes gifts.  They make them here but don't sell anything retail.

The big project that was going on was the "bottle girls" were recycling small, glass bottles to be reused.  What they do is for several days they soak the bottles in big concrete tubs and then they, in an assemble line style, remove the labels and clean the bottles sparkly clean. 

I don't know what was going back into the bottles but they were all laughing and having fun.

After we said: "Good-Bye" we drove the rest of the way to Chiang Rai and checked into the Diamond Park Inn Hotel, right in town.  It is a nice hotel with plenty of safe, well lite parking and is close to the Night Bazaar and the dentist's office.

We took a little nap, showered and drove over to the dentist's office for Daeng's 6:00 PM appointment; yep, 6:00 PM on a Friday night.  For the last month or two, Daeng some times has been having a little pain from her back tooth.  She had some periodontal work done in this area a few years ago by this same dentist.

When the dentist came out to get her we all laughed because on Tuesday she sat next to Daeng on the plane from Bangkok but we did not recogniser her.  She said she laughed, inside, at us as Daeng and I were kidding about things in English and she speaks and understands English.  It is a small world!

After an x-ray and exam she stated that Daeng needs "Root Planning" on her back tooth.   We said okay and she gave Daeng a shot so she would not have any pain and proceeded to treat her.  I watched and it was a lot of work.  She also showed me part of what she removed. Daeng was in the chair for over 45 minutes to do the root planning.

When she was finished she showed us a book with some pictures to let us know exactly what she had done.  The pictures made everything understandable.

By the way, the total charge was 1,700 Thai Baht (about $56.00 US Dollars).  I'm very happy that Daeng could wait until we got here as I am sure it would have been hundreds of dollars in California.

Daeng felt pretty good so we went to the "Night Bazaar", eat some Thai food and split a home made ice cream, banana split.  By the way, here they just call "Thai Food" by the name of "food".

After a good nights sleep we met our Canadian friend, Charlie, at Jan's Coffee Shop. We had coffee and brought each other up to current speed with all our lives.  Jan is Charlie's girlfriend, as well.

We had a good drive back to Mae Sai and Daeng is playing Bingo with the neighborhood ladies while I'm writing this blog.

Life is Good!

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.