Thailand dentist visit
Margot and I are currently in Thailand. Today is Wednesday 3rd February 2020. We arrived here in Bangkok on Monday night at 11.30pm. We had a fairly uneventful trip really. A 3 hour layover in Singapore gave us time to have something to eat, which in itself was not worth writing about, except to say that as a guy that only eats fish and chicken meats and avoids chilli, Asian food generally does not seem to give me many choices. I'll write about why and how I changed my diet another time. That's not what I intended to write about this morning.
We are staying at the Mini R Hotel on Ratchadaphisek Rd in Bangkok. Right next door to us is the Bangkok International Dental Centre. Yesterday I spent 2 hours in the morning getting prepared to have work started on 4 crowns in the afternoon. I need 1 bottom and 3 top teeth crowned. Then in the afternoon I ended up spending 4 hours in the chair! So 6 hours in total in one day "at the dentist"! It's not a way that I would normally like to spend my time!
We started the day together doing a Tai Chi session. We are trying to make this a regular part of our lives. As we get older we find it helps us maintain a degree of flexibility that makes life a bit more comfortable. There's a subject for another post.
After breakfast we were at the dentist by 10.15am. Registration at Reception was followed by a quick health check and then we were sent upstairs to the 6th floor to see the prosthodontist that I had booked in to see, Dr. Vichulada Phunthikaphadr DDS., MSc. After a brief discussion with her, she asked me to follow on of here assistants dxown to the 4th floor for x-ray. The equipment there looked very similar to the equipment at Lake Imaging back in Geelong.
After imaging, she worked on a very thorough clean and inspection of my teeth. She found a couple of extra spots of decay to fix, in addition to the 4 teeth to be crowned. So in all, I didn't really spend 2 hours in the chair. It was probably more like about 1 hour. After checking her availability and what she was doing with some other patients, she asked me to return at 2 o'clock, which gave us time to get some lunch.
Leaving the dental clinic and getting some lunch meant a short walk past what may well be the largest brothel in the world. We'd already walked through the car park a couple of times on our way to the shopping centre, but today I told Margot of my suspicions about the place, and that was the last time we walked through that car park!
Margot is the most selfless person I know. She decided that lunch was to be my choice, as I probably wouldn’t feel like eating too much this evening after being at the dentist for the afternoon. So off we went to the Foodland Supermarket, to by oats and walnut, mixed berries and drinking yoghurt, and a bowl, so I could have a very non-Asian lunch.
While I was eating, Margot fell asleep on the bed. At 2 o’clock I snuck out to go back to Dr. Vichulada. Her intention was that this afternoon I would have one bottom tooth prepared for crowning and at 6 o’clock I would see another dentist who would take care of some decay in another tooth. Because of someone else cancelling their appointment, I ended up having all four teeth prepared for crowning. I was sitting in the waiting area after having my one bottom tooth prepared, and the receptionist called me back in to the treatment room to tell me that I had the option of getting the top teeth done now. Seeing that I was already numb and uncomfortable on my bottom had, I said “Yep, let’s go!”
Certainly the bottom tooth was the worst one. The top three were smaller teeth that didn’t take so long, but it was 6 o’clock before I walked out of there, with my lips not working to well, but well enough to fill Margot in on the afternoon activities. Longest day at the dentist ever, for me anyway!
Back to the shopping centre for some very traditional and cheap Thai food. I narrowly avoided eating congealed pigs blood, and by the end of the evening I was keen to get back to our room to have some painkillers. The local anaesthetic was wearing off and I was getting uncomfortable, as predicted by Dr Vichulada. Time for bed.
We are staying at the Mini R Hotel on Ratchadaphisek Rd in Bangkok. Right next door to us is the Bangkok International Dental Centre. Yesterday I spent 2 hours in the morning getting prepared to have work started on 4 crowns in the afternoon. I need 1 bottom and 3 top teeth crowned. Then in the afternoon I ended up spending 4 hours in the chair! So 6 hours in total in one day "at the dentist"! It's not a way that I would normally like to spend my time!
We started the day together doing a Tai Chi session. We are trying to make this a regular part of our lives. As we get older we find it helps us maintain a degree of flexibility that makes life a bit more comfortable. There's a subject for another post.
After breakfast we were at the dentist by 10.15am. Registration at Reception was followed by a quick health check and then we were sent upstairs to the 6th floor to see the prosthodontist that I had booked in to see, Dr. Vichulada Phunthikaphadr DDS., MSc. After a brief discussion with her, she asked me to follow on of here assistants dxown to the 4th floor for x-ray. The equipment there looked very similar to the equipment at Lake Imaging back in Geelong.
After imaging, she worked on a very thorough clean and inspection of my teeth. She found a couple of extra spots of decay to fix, in addition to the 4 teeth to be crowned. So in all, I didn't really spend 2 hours in the chair. It was probably more like about 1 hour. After checking her availability and what she was doing with some other patients, she asked me to return at 2 o'clock, which gave us time to get some lunch.
Leaving the dental clinic and getting some lunch meant a short walk past what may well be the largest brothel in the world. We'd already walked through the car park a couple of times on our way to the shopping centre, but today I told Margot of my suspicions about the place, and that was the last time we walked through that car park!
Margot is the most selfless person I know. She decided that lunch was to be my choice, as I probably wouldn’t feel like eating too much this evening after being at the dentist for the afternoon. So off we went to the Foodland Supermarket, to by oats and walnut, mixed berries and drinking yoghurt, and a bowl, so I could have a very non-Asian lunch.
While I was eating, Margot fell asleep on the bed. At 2 o’clock I snuck out to go back to Dr. Vichulada. Her intention was that this afternoon I would have one bottom tooth prepared for crowning and at 6 o’clock I would see another dentist who would take care of some decay in another tooth. Because of someone else cancelling their appointment, I ended up having all four teeth prepared for crowning. I was sitting in the waiting area after having my one bottom tooth prepared, and the receptionist called me back in to the treatment room to tell me that I had the option of getting the top teeth done now. Seeing that I was already numb and uncomfortable on my bottom had, I said “Yep, let’s go!”
Certainly the bottom tooth was the worst one. The top three were smaller teeth that didn’t take so long, but it was 6 o’clock before I walked out of there, with my lips not working to well, but well enough to fill Margot in on the afternoon activities. Longest day at the dentist ever, for me anyway!
Back to the shopping centre for some very traditional and cheap Thai food. I narrowly avoided eating congealed pigs blood, and by the end of the evening I was keen to get back to our room to have some painkillers. The local anaesthetic was wearing off and I was getting uncomfortable, as predicted by Dr Vichulada. Time for bed.
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