Thursday, February 9, 2017, Back to the Dentist

Today I returned to Los Algodones, Mexico and I actually had my first experience in the chair. The dentist, Yuriria Tellez Barrera, DDS, who went by Yuri (which sounded more like Judy) spoke a little English. After evaluating my situation, however, she needed help translating to let me know how bad things were. Instead of simply installing two crowns I was going to need some extra work.

Both problem teeth were back molars and both had broken away enough that root canals were necessary (I suspected that would be the case) as well as gum surgery to expose enough of the teeth to mount the crowns a post and core build-up (didn't expect those). I was pleased to find out, even with the extra work needed it was still just a fraction ($1,340 total) of what it would have cost in the US ($8,300+). I gave them the OK and work commenced.

I grabbed this photo from Alamo's website.  I think that is Yuri working on an unknown patient.

Yuri carved the posts and sent me to the next room for the root canals. Surprisingly, I never experienced the least bit of pain or discomfort during the entire process. Later, when the feeling returned, I expected to need something for pain (a prescription was offered), but I never needed it. The next day another doctor cut away some of the gumline in an operation they called "crown lengthening."  After stitching everything up, temporary crowns were installed and they were ready to send me home. They told me I needed to let the surgery heal for three weeks before continuing.

We already had rally plans and reservations down the road, so we would no longer be so close. In 5 weeks we would be in Casa Grande, AZ (a 187 mile one-way trip instead of the 22 miles from our site in Yuma). All I could do was to hope the temporaries held up for the next month until I could get back to finish up.

Bottom line, if you decide to make the trip to Los Algodones for dental, allow plenty of time just in case. So far it has been a great experience, we will see how it goes in 5 weeks.