Yesterday was a very good day!
The last time I was in my homeland, Canada, was about 4 years ago. At that time I asked my sister Mary to make an appointment with her dentist to have my teeth examined and all work necessary to be done before I returned to China for another indeterminate length of time. I got x-rays and a root-canal procedure as well as a cavity filled. I have no dental plan and the bill came to about $1000 Can which I had to pay immediately in cash. (7000 RMB)
Then, a half year ago, while dining and chewing, suddenly I found a piece of my
filling had broken away from an old cavity filling. I now had a hole in my tooth on the side where I do all of my chewing, having lost a tooth on the other side of my jaw when I was a child. There was a gap there and chewing is not effective on that side. So, I planned on having this filling replaced when I visited
Canada again. I should mention that the cost to repair a tooth like this with no complications would be about $100 Can.
To continue; a year ago I returned to our school office from a class to find a stranger in the office waiting for me. He was a Chinese man who badly wished to
practice his English and the teacher in our office was actually happy I turned up since he was asking her questions non-stop and she was becoming tired and bored with this strange man who was taking up so much of her time. We spoke for a
while but his English was such that he preferred to spend more time speaking Chinese with her, asking her all sorts of questions about me. Finally he asked me
if I would like to take a short walk to his office and he wished to show me his
equipment … he was a dentist. I did accept and expected to see a small room with out-of-date equipment. I was surprised to find a modern dentist office with
workstations set up for 5 patients to be treated at the same time.
Back to yesterday, here was my chance to see what I thought of his skills. I persuaded my wife to arrange to have her teeth examined and cleaned. I intended to watch his work carefully and compare it with the dentists who had work on me over the past 50 years. If I felt he was sanitary and skilled with his tools, I
would ask for an examination and recommendations for my dental work. I was trying to be very careful about who worked in MY mouth.
As it happened, my wife did not have enough time for her examination but he was
willing to give my problem an examination immediately. I had been watching him
work on two other patients and felt that this would be ok. I reclined in his chair and he looked into my mouth. In only a few moments he was able to recommend
two treatments for me. The side of the tooth had broken off and he felt that a
repair as before would possibly break away just as the first one had broken off
since there is quite a lot of pressure upon the tooth when chewing. Or I could
have the whole tooth capped with one of two different materials. This procedure
was much stronger and should last my lifetime. When I learned he would have to
grind away much of the tooth before installing the cap, I decided to take the chance of the first procedure.
He could do this right away, it would take 30 minutes. I asked him how much it
would cost … “You are my friend, I will not charge you.” was his response!
This is unheard of in Canada! Dental work needs appointments and is always expensive. He would do it immediately and for free? I shook my head violently! I
would pay him … how much? … with a smile he said “30 yuan”.
In Canada this procedure should be 700 RMB and he would only charge 30 RMB!
I agreed to the procedure and 45 minutes later, no painkiller used and good careful workmanship, I was done, a good filling and no pain.
My wife suggested we take a group photo of his mother, who works as an expert for false teeth, his young female associate, himself and I. We intend to have the
photo made large for him to hang in his reception room wall. He could show visitors a smiling and satisfied patient, his first foreign customer.
All in all, yesterday was a good day!
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