I was booked in for the 12th at Dentzz but thought I should pop in and let them know I’d landed. Within the hour, they shuffled things around. I spent most of the day going through the scans, X-rays, Blood tests (yes, blood tests!) etc. They even had the moulds done, all by 3pm.
What blew me away was the quality of the equipment compared to their Australian counterparts, Faster, Higher resolution, far more detailed! The offices themselves looked like a High End facility.
The first thing that left me in AWE, was the state of the art equipment. I’d had scans in Australia to check for difficulties. On the scan, which took 15 minutes to present a grainy x-ray picture set, you could see the pocket of infection in the upper and lower right jaw but the extent was a bit of a mystery. Dentzz put me into their scanning booth, which looked pretty much the same, until the scans were done. Within 3 seconds, they had images so clear, it just looked like my face had been removed then perfect 35mm B&W photos of the skull, then X-rays that looked like they were perfect close up photos
Warning, If detail makes you squeemish, skip to the next paragraph. The exact sixe and shape of the infection pockets clearly covered 4 teeth on the top and 3 on the bottom. The scans clearly depicted a hole out through my skull. I’d had an area just to the right of the nostril, where if you pressed on it, the discomfort was substantial. What you could clearly see was the hole in the skull was exposing the very top of a tooth root and when you pressed, you were pushing on the nerve entering that tooth. With diagnostics like that, faith was an easy thing to develop.
Each subsequent step showed the same commitment to professionalism and thoroughness.
During the course of the day, I spoke to at least 10-12 other patients, each in for similar teeth replacement or other considerable work. A couple, like me at the start of their journey and others at or near completion. I did not hear anything Non-complimentary about their work, practices or results.
On the afternoon of the 11th, I headed back to get 4 bottom teeth removed. Day of 12th was rest and now I had a “Stage 1” completion date of the 24th, I could start planning the itinerary. Woke up a tad sore, say 3/10 but tomorrow was the big day when all of the top teeth come out. Can’t help but say I was feeling intrepidation.
13th Feb, headed into the office at 2:30 and was promptly whisked into the chair. Dr Joshi was the hardest working dentist you’ve ever seen. Very thorough and quick. His hands were never still. He knew his business and dealt with it as a process he’s done more times than I’ve put socks on. Very large, bulky impacted roots were no obstacle, he just kept moving as though it was a conveyer belt and had them all out in about 2 1/2 hours. Was back in the foyer being given Antibiotics and Pain killers by 5pm. A team of 3 worked continuously with one holding me in a WWF headlock while Dr Joshi appled some pretty serious force. Only a couple of times was there a bit of discomfort. They had anesthetized very well.So much for the Aussie dentists insisting it had to be done under a GA, in hospital, at an extra cost of about $10k of which your out of pocket will be over $5k.
Graphic warning, if squeemish jump to the next paragraph. Next on the agenda was to laser out the necrotic and weakened bone from the infection pockets. Yep, A laser burning out your skull just 40mm from your nostrils! I think my nose would have preffered to stay home that day. By doing this, it allows the bone to grow back much more quickly, with less chance of weakness remaining.
The rest of the day was a bit of a write off given the pain killers and tranquiliser administered. Returned to the back packers where I promptly fell asleep in the Common room, only to be woken up when they were getting concerned about me. Later that night, they admitted they were concerned because it was the first time they’d seen me not smiling and being friendly.