Monday - First Visit to the Dentist

Monday morning - 9:00 AM and we're in the dentist's waiting room. Contrary to what we've been told - Costa Rican nationals do use the same dentists as the medical vacationers -- there were locals, an American or two, a German and a few others waiting.

Fairly quickly Doug was whisked away for x-rays and an initial exam - including upper and lower impressions. Within 20 minutes or so we were seated in the impressive office of the dentist. Dr. Marco sat behind a massive desk surrounded by diplomas, awards, and loaded bookshelves.

He began talking to us about Doug's current situation and turned a computer screen toward us which showed his x-rays. Dr. Marco said that he had a fundamental issue with pulling perfectly good teeth and thought that it would be wiser to keep the front teeth and place implants in the molar areas only.

He discussed bone density with visual aids provided by whatever tricky little program was on his computer -- Doug's bone density in most of his upper and lower jaw was great. There were, however, two spots of some concern (which had not been addressed or even noted stateside). One of his canine teeth had been given a root canal by a specialist in FL last year. The dentist broke through the bottom of the tooth which caused 3 or 4 abcesses over the next year. Dr. Marco showed us a large dark area -- which was where the infection had eaten away the jawbone (oh man, oh geez, oh pete - even I know THAT can't be good). Then he showed us a similar black, empty spot on the lower jaw, caused by the same issue with another tooth.

Things were changing and changing quickly -- and NOT in a good way.

Dr. Marco, bless his heart, spent well over an hour going over everything - options, answering my questions (like, where do you get the bone material from - cadavers, human cadavers -- he purchases from the same US labs that US dentists do). Time frames, what happens IF he needs grafts, all of them. He exhibited patience and humor and made us both feel comfortable.

By the time we walked out we had a tenative treatment plan. 7 - 8 implants, possibly 2 extractions (those teeth that caused the bone damage), 2 definite extractions (the broken root tips where the last two crowns broke off in the lower quadrant) and possibly 1 or 2 bone grafts - upper and lower. Estimated cost you must be wondering? I know I was. Are ya ready? $6,600. Earlier on we had gotten estimates of about 50,000 for this work -- here's another kicker -- it didn't include the cost of bone grafts - which run about 4,000 each stateside - so the cost for this work in the US would be about 58,000. Quite a difference, huh. Oh, I can hear you now - well, are they going to use substandard implants -- nope, they all get them from the same place --- Titanium is Titanium is Titanium. Heck, Dr. Marco has been in trade publications for these implants - it's true - it's no joke.

Did I mention the office itself?? Clean, totally clean, spotless - personnel were constantly - I mean constanty cleaning, mopping, polishing and sanitizing every surface. They have their lab on site -- nothing gets sent away for a couple of weeks - it's all done there.

Work starts Tuesday morning - 9:00AM. Doug wants to back to the Italian restaurant, with the ground meat. Let me tell you about that -- we ordered lasagne and the flavor was, well, unique. It didn't taste like beef nor pork or spicy sausage - almost like a veal. We called our waiter over and he said yes, it is veal. My face must have made a small, horrified comment that my brain was not aware of because he quickly said "no, not a baby cow -- it was, well, a teen-aged cow." I don't even want to think about it. We ordered different meals and just like the first time, it was lovely - civilized, classy, nice - really nice.