The Dental Process

We arrived for my 11:00 appointment almost an hour early but they took us right in. Chris (office manager, translator, money manager, etc) came in the room to get my information. I told him I was unhappy with how I was treated by Sani Dental and gave him a brief explanation of the work they had done so far. Dr. Jesus Quintero came in and Chris brought him up to date in Spanish. They told me the doctor would do a complete exam with several X-rays and then Chris would come back in to tell me what the doctor recommended.

The exam took some time and then he called Chris who brought Norma in with him and he and the doctor went through the X-rays and photos of each tooth one at a time, explaining what was wrong with each tooth and what they recommended. After explaining everything in great detail, leaving time as we went for our many questions he said if I wanted them to treat me, it would be $4,715. This was far less than half of what Sani wanted and unlike Sani, included no implants. He said there was no point in pulling teeth with good, healthy roots and installing implants. He said there was much more money for the dentist in implants than in bridge and crown work but that was not how they worked. Norma and I looked at each other and agreed immediately. We asked when they could start and they said, "right now"! He leaned the chair back and Norma headed out to get the required $1,000 deposit from the ATM. There is a whole other post on this subject as the local ATM has a $400 limit so we could only raised $815 but they understood!

He removed a few failed/failing caps and bridges, pulled two teeth that could not be saved and called in the root canal specialist from Brazil. He spent a great deal of time on my three root canals and then Dr. Jesus came back in to form the teeth to receive the crowns and to thoroughly clean all the teeth that were staying. The cleaning was actually the most painful part of the whole process. The extractions and root canals I did not feel.

They then called in a woman to do impressions. This is not painful but is very uncomfortable! I felt like I was choking many times and they had a hard time getting good impressions, having to repeat the process several times. I was very happy when it was over!

They then fitted me with temporaries until my crowns and new bridges are ready on Thursday and I was done. It was almost 6:00 PM, I had been in the chair for well over seven hours but it was done! Norma got me a bowl of tomato soup for dinner and I went to bed very early.

Today we drove to Yuma, AZ to get cash and tomorrow I go in for the final fitting of all my teeth. We are staying in the hotel for one more day just to make sure everything fits well. That's it! I will be perfect again!