Is it safe?

What's a fun way to spend a Saturday? The answer to this question is probably not -- as D can attest-- "getting [edited] a triple root canal."

D's teeth have been hurting for, like, 2 years. But rather than go to the dentist to find out what was wrong, he just started using toothpaste for sensitive teeth, assuming that the pain was due to clenching his jaw (from stress).

But last week the pain, which had been getting increasingly more severe, became too much. He couldn't eat anything without flinching, even liquid foods. And he was getting really bad headaches. We did the only thing that we could do: get a referral to a local dentist.

Our colleague gave us a number, "Call Dr. Bob. He's good. Speaks some English. His office isn't as clean as what you're used to, but they open the packs of sterile instruments in front of you."

D called Dr. Bob and was granted a same-day appointment. The good doctor told us that his office was off the 68 bus line, tried to explain the name of the bus stop, and said he'd meet us at the bus stop at 3:00 [This kind of thing no longer surprises us here. There's nothing odd about a dentist offering to meet a new patient at the bus stop. This place is so chaotic that this is often necessary]. We left our apartment 2 hours early, knowing that we'd probably have trouble finding it since a lot of the stops are missing the pinyin versions of the names.

But first, we had to get some food in D, who was feeling a bit light-headed. We stopped at a restaurant, where D tried to find something on the menu with a good number of calories but that didn't require much chewing. He settled on a cream soup and an omelet. He managed to eat the food despite the pain and the fact that the omelet looked like, in his words, "something that someone sneezed out."

After eating, we tried to find the dentist's office, with no success. We ended up calling Dr. Bob for more detailed directions to the bus stop, and he asked us where we were. When we told him the name of the restaurant, he replied, "I know where that is. I will come get you." And about 5 minutes later, he showed up in a little car and whisked us off to the clinic.

When we arrived at the clinic, Dr. Bob hustled D into a chair (see above photo), and then suggested to me that since I was there anyway, I might as well get my teeth cleaned by another dentist. I was in the chair getting the plaque scraped off when they made the assessment of D's problem -- his tooth pain was the result of him needing [edited] a triple root canal (or "root canal treatments," as Dr. Bob called them). In addition, he had a molar that was too pointy and was poking into another tooth; it needed to be ground down a bit.

My cleaning only took about 10 minutes -- a different procedure than what they do in the States -- and I spent the remainder of my time alternately watching D get his procedure done and reading Ethan Frome.

I was able to watch D the whole time because the entire clinic was about the size of an average U.S. hotel room. Had the dental chairs been facing out toward the front door of the clinic, the patients receiving treatment would have been able to see all the activity on the sidewalk outside. For all intents and purposes, the treatment areas were public places, with visitors coming in to chat with Dr. Bob while he drilled into D's teeth. People walking by on the street could look right in and see procedures being done. There were even sound effects: The man in the chair next to D's howled in pain as he was being worked on by another dentist.

D told me that as Dr. Bob scraped out the nerves and stuff, he would hold up the little strips of flesh so that D could see what he was taking out. Dr. Bob was very concerned that D be comfortable and would frequently ask, "Is there pain?" If D grunted, "yes," Dr. Bob would give him more Novocaine. Dr. Bob and his staff were very polite and very considerate.

All told, D spent about 2 hours in the chair. Cost for three root canal treatments [edited to add] (that is, removing three nerves), one crown, and one molar grinding: 800 RMB, about $106 USD. My cleaning was 50 RMB, about $6 USD.

D has at least one more visit. He has to go back on Friday. He's hoping that the procedure can be completed then. So, this story is to be continued. . .