The Tasmanian Devil Dental Hygienist

Since we have been gone from the US for over 7 months now, it was time for us to go to the dentist. So, we made appointments on-line to have our teeth cleaned at the local dental clinic for our health insurer. It was easier to do it online because despite our much improved Spanish, doing things on the telephone is still difficult for us.

When we arrived at the clinic, it was just like any other dental office - they took our insurance card and gave us a medical-history form to fill out, which we were able to do fairly easily with a little bit of help from favorite on-line dictionaries (free WIFI in the clinic was a nice bonus).

After filling out the form, we each saw the hygienist for our cleaning. The exam room itself was very modern and had all of the latest equipment you would see in any dental office in the US, but that is where the similarities kind of ended. The process of cleaning your teeth while the same as in the US happens at what can only be called break-neck speed. The hygienist uses an ultrasonic cleaner to remove tartar (no hand scaling) and then polishes your teeth. After going first, Shana said she felt as if her teeth had been cleaned by the Tasmanian Devil. And I agreed.

After the cleaning, we realized that we were not actually going to see a dentist -- that is a different type of appointment, so we are going back in a few weeks to have our teeth checked. Ah, well, sometimes the language barrier still gets us. But the good news is the dentist apparently speaks very good English -- so, if we need it, we'll have a safety net.

Probably the best part of the whole experience was when we were done and got the bill. Ha, ha, ha, just kidding. There was no bill. The cost of our insurance premium includes twice-yearly teeth cleanings. So, we will be back in September or so for another visit with the Taz. Interestingly, despite being covered for bi-annual cleanings, we learned that in Spain the general practice is only once-a-year cleanings. Most of the time we are happy to adopt the local customs, but in this case, we'll stick to twice a year. Clean teeth are a good thing.

Hasta pronto,

Jeff and Shana