Today I went to the dentist in Constanta. But that word 'dentist' doesn't do it justice. I felt that I had actually stepped into a dentist equipment suppliers showroom at a worldwide dental exhibition. I'd had toothache for a few weeks and put off a visit to the dentist in the UK for a while, pending return from holiday. Finally, with pain and a swollen gum, I visited my collegues dentist wife in Cernavoda. She identified root canal infection which I suspected so, after an x-ray at the plant medical centre (cost: £1.80) she decided it was too complicated and got me a referral to the place in Constanta.
This dentist had everything. Fancy lights, music, x-ray machine, computers, other machines which looked impressive but had unknown function..it still hurt a bit though!
A far cry from dear Mr. ******.
In the UK, dentists are called Mr... or Mrs..., not Dr. Mr. ****** was an 'old school' dentist. Failed to graduate from dentist charm school. My early visits were terrifying. He wasn't too far away from Sir Lawrence Olivier as the Nazi dentist in Marathon Man. He used an old steel hypodermic syringe which looked absolutely frightening (however I think anesthetic was still rationed during those visits...) I can hear him now bellowing at me: "Open your eyes, boy! I need to know how you're feeling". Ha! The screwed up eyes should have told him everything.
Time passed, and on to different dentists. One of the best was a chap in Cumbria who had had a patient die on him. Always easy to get an appointment with him, strangely.
We moved to the US in 1993 - the motherland of dentistry. This was 180 degrees off Mr. ****** - soft music, assistants mopping up the slobber from your chin, so much anesthetic you still felt it 2 days later. Still, we all had good (and gentle) dental work there - paying out thousands for orthodontic work for the kids (sadly some undone some years later when Emily dived into a pool which wasn't as deep as expected....but more of that soon).
Next was Bulgaria. Kozloduy was a small village in the north west, close to the Danube. But, I had very good, cheap dental work there. Sometimes, the language was a barrier but other times, like when a nerve was hit, not. Once prior to a wisdom tooth extraction, she thought I was a bit tense so fed me this homeopathic relaxant. I am 99% sure it did me no good at all but it seemed to help her. Or maybe it was the hefty assistant who wiped my mouth with what appeared to be an old flannel which kept me quiet...
So now, Romania. This surgery in Constanta is very, very impressive. They even had a machine which went 'ping' (ref: Monty Python). I'll see how it goes but today was pretty good, nice music, pretty girls. Even the bill was OK but that's before the crown. I'll let you know.
As for Emily - she is working in India and has just had her teeth completely fixed and whitened. And very nice too. And cheap.
So, the message appears to be this: consider dental tourism for a holiday this year. Don't stick with your UK dentist - you'd be surprised about where you can get better treatment, at a fraction of the price. We recently left our private practice plan in the UK. For its cost, you could get a load of things sorted out somewhere else!
