Trip To The Dentist (Haisha)

Card we use to check-in (at a machine) for appointments.

We were originally going to go to the Dental Clinic on base to get our teeth cleaned, but the waiting list was way too long (we were 100 out of 600).  So instead of waiting, we opted to try a Japanese dentist.  The Dental College outside of the base was recommended to us by our friend.  It's good that we had a recommendation because there are tons of dental clinics to choose from in town.

The process to see the dentist was pretty easy.  As long as I had my phrase book to help me get my/our needs across, everything went well.  Luckily, the pediatric dentist and the adult dentist we were assigned to both spoke Eego (English).  They were very professional, thorough, and made us feel comfortable. 

Most things were similar such as: waiting rooms, x-rays, etc, but the one main difference was that the dentist did the teeth cleaning.  The dentist used an ultrasonic teeth cleaner, a toothbrush with some tooth cleaner to clean my teeth, floss and then 2 types of damp swabs inside my mouth.  It was a very unique way to clean teeth, but it seemed to do the trick.

Along with teeth cleaning, the pediatric dentist was able to repair Cutter's permanent front tooth.  He chipped his front tooth the night of the earthquake (not related to the earthquake) after a bike accident.  The dentist was able to repair the tooth in one visit, and it looks as good as new.

Our records, etc go into these blue bags.