Although I've never had a cavity, I am not proud to say that I haven't been to the dentist in over 3 years. Coupled with no insurance, I never had any reason to go. Now that I'll be returning to my home country and paying for dental appointments out of pocket, I decided it would be a good educational and financial decision to give the Korean dentist a try.
Aside from the price there is quality and quantity. It seems that every student's dream job is to be either a doctor or dentist and I think at least half grow up to be one. There are dentist offices everywhere. The one I chose was owned by the father of one of my past students. I made an appt. through a friend of mine and showed up at 9 AM on Saturday morning.
The office was what I expected from Korea. Shiny chrome, marble, and white. All of the dental assistants wore high heels and pencil mini skirts and giggled frequently. The waiting room was unnecessary as the assistants whisked us away one after the other. First I sat down at the front desk and had my blood pressure taken. I wasn't sure why and I should add here that Stephanie was going to have 2 wisdom teeth pulled at the same time as my cleaning. I started to fantasize about awful mix-up scenarios.
Shortly after my blood pressure screening I was taken to one side of the office. I was a upset I didn't get the other side as it overlooked the snow covered city street through huge glass windows. Mine wasn't too shabby though. The equipment looked standard, aside from a Samsung flat screen TV monitor attached to the chair. They took pictures with a hi-tech camera of sorts and brought them out to me on an iPad. The dentist discussed that he would be scaling my teeth (not pulling) and it would take 15 minutes and cost $60.
The scaling was a routine cleaning. Everything was typical except for the beginning and end. As the chair reclined into a horizontal position the dental hygienist covered my face with what looked like a donut for hemorrhoids sufferers. A hole in the middle surrounded my mouth as the rest of it blocked out any eye contact. I closed my eyes and imagined what a toilet bowl felt like watching someone put the seat down. But it was quick and painless. Afterwards she propped up her Korean to English dictionary and showed me a model of perfect teeth, asking me to demonstrate how I brushed. I held the over-sized toothbrush and put on a clinic of my own. She nodded in approval then held my hand and went over some new techniques to add to my arsenal. It was awkward because I'm 27 and she was teaching me how to brush my teeth.
Then we were done. I complimented her English and she my Korean. I was honest and she a liar. When I went to pay there was more giggling from the assistants huddled together. The price was $10 less than the Dr. told me, so I thanked them and left. The no cavity streak continues and I can tell people what dentist offices are like in Korea. Win win.
Dentist, check
