My Mexican Dental Vacation 2009 :-)

I think this may be the first time I actually pulled my laptop out while on a plane..maybe not.  Anyway, I figure I can kill some time as I fly from Tucson to Houston.  It’s been a minute since I’ve had the chance to travel and boy am I glad that God blessed me with the opportunity to make this trip.  On August 18^th, my mom and I flew to Tucson for my “dental vacation.”   Last year shortly before I left Japan, I started to have some pain in one of my teeth.  I went to see the dentist in Japan who to make a long story short, did a terrible half-a$$ed job of a root canal on my tooth.  The tooth gave me trouble back when I got home so I went to my mother’s dentist.  Thankfully she didn’t charge me too much (I don’t have dental insurance) to check it and give me some antibiotics and pain killers.  She then referred me to an endodontist who also agreed that he had never seen such a poor partial root canal done.  He said that I would likely need to have that tooth pulled and since it was a molar in the back of my mouth (but between two other teeth), I would need an implant or a bridge.  He also said that the tooth behind it would likely need a root canal in the future.   When I called around to get quotes for the work I’d need done, it looked like I’d have to pay $3000 plus since I don’t have insurance.  As most of you know, I haven’t had a full time job since I moved back to Pittsburgh in August 2008.

Thanks to my girl D in Japan who I traveled to Thailand and Vietnam with, I became aware of people traveling to have medical/dental procedures done.  Feeling rather weary about Japanese doctors, she visited a few doctors in Thailand while we were vacationing.  SOOO when I found out how much my dental work would cost, I immediately thought I’d do some research to see how much it would cost to have it done in Canada.  I looked online and found that Canada pretty much costs the same but someone suggested going down to MEXICO!  I too was hesitant at first, like I’d be getting bootleg dental work from a dentist that could be a crook and so on. But then I did some more research and found that I could get the work done for almost half the price of what I’d have to pay in the states. 

I was not very familiar with Mexico’s geography and the only place that really came to mind was Tiajuana?, a place I didn’t think I’d want to go.  I looked up some more info and found that there was a city in Mexico, Nogales, about an hour from Tucson, Arizona!  GOOD NEWS!  I have an aunt and uncle that live in Tucson so I figured I could pay them a visit (the last time I was down there was when I was 6 years old) and hop down to Mexico to get my dental work done.  At first I thought it was going to take a lot to convince my mom to feel okay about the trip but when I posted something in reference to it on Facebook, a lady who used to live in the neighborhood I grew up in that moved to Phoenix, AZ said that she knew of people that went down to Mexico for dental work.  I figured that would give my mom some more assurance. So when I told her about it, she didn’t hesitate to make this a vacation with me.  She said we could go visit my aunt and uncle and make the trip down to Nogales for my teeth. 

On the 19^th , my mom and I got up and caught a shuttle from Tucson to Nogales for $10 each.  The ride ended up being about an hour and a half because a few other passengers had to be picked up.  When we got to the border we were a little nervous as we weren’t sure what was going to happen and although we had a map, we weren’t certain where to go.  Thanks to the help of a guy who rode the shuttle with us, he directed us to some taxi drivers who charged us $5 to take us to the dentist’s office.  We later learned that it was only about a 10 minute walk from the border but it made it easier to be driven there the first time. 

When I got to the dentist office, I was greeted by Dr.  Velazquez and his assistant.  I was given medical history forms to complete and then taken into the back to be examined.  I told him that my dentist back home said that I needed a root canal in my back molar and a 3-unit bridge.  He looked at my teeth and said that he didn’t think a root canal was necessary.  He also inspected under my tongue, something that I never recall being done in the states OR in Japan.  He found a bony protrusion under my tongue called a TOR..something…anyway, he said that it’s normal but that he had to let me know it was there because he found it.  After that, he said that he would examine the tooth that I was concerned about the root canal again more closely but from what he could tell it did not need one.  SO, I would need the bridge which would consist of 3 crowns.  If any of you have ever gotten a root canal done, you know those suckers cost about $600-$700 and crowns cost even more at about $1200+.  He also showed me some other teeth that had filings that were old and that will eventually need crowns too (go figure).  For this trip, we decided to have the bridge, a filling and cleaning which would cost me a total of $1675.  Much cheaper than in the US.  So he went to work and the following week I went back and had the work complete. 

I am very satisfied with the work of Dr. Velazquez…he is very compassionate and does what he can to assure you are comfortable along the way.   He even gave me a souvenir (my teeth molds and temporary crowns ) lol.

Tucson is not the most exciting city, as my mother and I couldn’t really find much of interest to do. My aunt and uncle have lived down there for 30 something years but they just do their regular routines, work, church, and whatever.  My aunt is a shop a holic so that is pretty much all she did with us..from swap meets to all the malls…walmart about 5 times…I swear I’m not going shopping until 2010. 

All in all I had a very nice trip.  It was nice seeing my aunt and uncle and spending some quality time with them.  We also had the chance to attend Rising Star Baptist church which was truly a blessing.  We heard this young minister preach during the youth service the first Sunday we were there and it was so moving!  I also go to go see the daycare where my Aunt works…cute little kids. 

One thing I do know for sure is that I could not see myself living in Tucson.  It is way too hot, too dry and not very visually appealing.  There also didn’t seem to be much to do.  I might complain about the cold of Pittsburgh but I like the city much better than down in the desert lol. 

Yep, so God is good.  I really enjoyed my trip but am looking forward to getting back to home and returning to my regular routine!

Light at the end of the tunnel kanaa (perhaps)

Fruitless

hisashiburi

Glad I was home for this one baby!!