Off to the Dentist
I’m back in Puerto Vallarta, this time to get the implants started. I had 5 of them this morning, in a 90 minute session that wasn’t nearly as bad as it sounds. You see me here getting one of the innumerable shots of Lidocaine that kept the ordeal mostly painless.
They cut into the gums, drilled out a hole and then screwed 5 posts into the jaw bone. Six or seven months from now I’ll come back and they will attach crowns to the posts and I’ll have a decent set of permanent molars for the first time in decades.
This is Kirk, owner and manager of DentoAmerica, the clinic where the work is done. His wife is the dentist who started the operation. There are quite a few dentists working there now, most of them female. I like female dentists–smaller hands, just as much skill.
Today’s dentist was a man, Oscar. Perfect English, excellent work, had the stereo playing The Girl from Ipanema on a loop until I told him it had to go. Then he switched to Frank Sinatra.
After the surgery, a nurse came in to give me shots of pain killer and an anti-inflammatory. So I left the dentist with the biggest pain in my throbbing tushie. Life is strange.
Everything has an upside, I guess. There is a gelateria right next door to the clinic, and I’m not allowed to have hard food for 24 hours, so this was my lunch:
Salted Caramel ice cream, hazelnut on the bottom. I had two of them. For dinner I had 4 more scoops. I’ll get back to healthy food soon, but it’s nice to be able to OD on ice cream with no guilt once in my life.
Another side benefit of having your teeth fixed in Puerto Vallarta.
Tomorrow I’m going to the local bridge club. We’ll see how that goes.
Totally Unauthorized 