Someone Has a Hollywood Laugh!

Debbie has teeth.
We were at the dentist's office until almost 8 pm. But now she has a whole mouthful of beautiful teeth. She has a beautiful smile. I can see only one clue that she has had so much work done on her mouth and that is that she has a move star's laugh; when she really laughs, and you can see her teeth, she doesn't have any fillings.
We celebrated by getting KFC for supper. For reasons that I don't understand, that was the best possible food we could get. And so we did. We're both really happy to see the results of this project. But Deb was crying with joy.
She has endured a lot of pain and distress, getting to this point. Yesterday, she was lying in the dentist's chair, crying because she was so relieved to have her permanent teeth in her mouth.
During the fitting, they shoved the teeth on to the implants hard. They flossed between the individual teeth and the floss would cut into her gums. Even with all of that, she was happy.
They had to grind down some of the teeth to get the height just right. But when we left, she had a beautiful smile.
We have one last appointment, today at 11, to get her teeth polished. And then we are done.

Debbie's Mouth

Debbie's mouth took a lot of work yesterday. Where we expected that they would take impressions, and fit her with temps to tide her over while permanent teeth are being made, she had two more teeth pulled. And she had two implants put in.

Part of the problem was that she sat in the dentist's chair so long that the anesthetic wore off. So she felt a lot more pain that she should have. On top of that, she was simply more shocked than I've ever seen her be from a dental procedure.

Deb has had a lot of dental work done over the years. She has experienced a lot of pain from various dental procedures. She is resistant to Novocaine; she doesn't get numb. As a result, dentists have to use alternate anesthetics. Over the years, she has had to prove this to new dentists repeatedly. Dr. Peralta believed her and did not test that fact as other dentists have in the past.

But Later that day...

Today was not a good day. Deb had a very bad day in the chair.

Initially, she was examined and the dentist confirmed that things looked pretty good. We were looking at beginning the process of replacing her temporary teeth with permanent ones. We walked over to a little pharmacy to fill a prescription for antibiotics, and then walked over to the Pizza Hut for lunch. Deb wanted to pick up a few things at a grocery store, so we did, and then lugged everything back to the waiting room.

Deb went into the dentists chair around 2:30 pm, and got out around 6:30 pm. She was shaking and hurting when she got out. We got a taxi and went back to the Alta. She took a pain killer in the office, and it was beginning to take the edge off of the pain by the time she got into bed.

I've been watching T.V., hunting for English language shows, and worrying about her.

Returning to Costa Rica

We have returned to Costa Rica for the second part of Deb's dental work.
She has been eating with a set of temporary teeth that are place holders. Her implants have been settling in and we are hoping that this trip will end with a mouthful of permanent teeth. On our last visit, she had a cap put on a canine tooth, as a temporary measure. Over the last couple of months, this temporary cap has fallen off repeatedly. It has become looser and has become a source of irritation and embarrassment. We really want to get that fixed.

Session Three.

One concern Deb had was that her lower front teeth have been bothering her. She talked with the dentist, and he pointed to the x-ray of her whole mouth. She had something going wrong with those teeth. He could pull them, but it would be difficult. It seems that those teeth are the most difficult to numb up, and the hardest to remove because they are close together.

But Deb was pretty sure that she would have to deal with them, sooner or later.

And so, we decided to proceed.

While I sat in the waiting room, I heard her yelling in pain. Eventually, I got to come in and check on her. She and the dentist were shaken by the process. Deb never got numbed up, even though the dentist worked hard to numb her. He was shaken at how much he had hurt her.

I got Deb home as quickly as I could and got her to bed.

A day off - sort of

Deb got over her nausea and got her temporary teeth. This had been scheduled as a day off. Nobody is a machine, the dentist said. But, Deb had been too sick to come in when she was scheduled. So we came in to have her temporary teeth fitted. The we went back to the hotel so that she could rest. She got the rest of the day off and took the time to recuperate.

Session Two

Deb was feeling better after a night to recuperate. she seemed to bounce right back. Of course, we had to go back to the dentist and he did it all over again. Deb is having the left side of her mouth worked on. The lower jaw was done first, and now the upper jaw is being worked on. Once again, Deb comes out of the session looking rocky but we are better prepared now. We have the prescription drugs ready.
Deb will come back at 3:00 pm when they will fit her with temporary teeth. Basically, she will have her left side finished. The next step will be taken 10 months later when full permanent crowns will be fitted to the pins in her jaw. This allows for complete healing before the permanent caps are put in place.
We had the driver take us back to the hotel. Deb took her pain meds and went to bed. Pretty soon she became nauseous and threw up.
Deb never throws up. She hates throwing up and takes extraordinary steps to avoid it. But she was sick. We eventually figured out that she had taken a pain killer she had from a previous dental problem and had a reaction to it. She does that. Her body doesn't get numb from novocaine. She gets nauseous from some pain killers. She admitted that she had taken two pills which aggravated things.
I called and canceled our 3:00 pm appointment. Deb was sick all afternoon and in to the night.

After Session One

When Deb came out of her first session of dental work, she was kind of shocky. By that, I mean that she knew that her mouth had been hurt even though she was still numb. Dr. Munoz works very quickly. He knows that he is damaging your mouth. It is for a good reason, but he is pulling teeth and screwing metal pins into your jawbone. And so he tries to get in, get out and be done with it. But, as Deb is a McLeod, her instinct is to rush around and do something when she is hurt. I imagine this was a survival positive instinct in the dim past. However, today it meant that she wanted to control the situation, through a mist of pain and shock.
First, I talked with Dr. Munoz to find out about pain killers and after care. Deb was trying to walk out of the office, but I knew she would wait until I joined her.
When I did join her, she wanted to walk to the pharmacy in order to get pain killers. I agreed, and stalled her until the car pulled up. She decided that we should just go directly to the hotel. I nodded, and told the driver to take us to the nearest pharmacy.
A drug store in Costa Rica is a stupid thing. They only sell drugs, and the pharmacist just takes care of that. They don't have huge displays of crap that you can buy while you wait for the pharmacist to do his job. You are not made to wait an artificial fifteen minutes because marketing people know you might buy over-priced junk out of boredom. Instead, now check out this dumb idea, you get service from a pharmacist. Of course, by dumb, I mean excellent. And by excellent, I mean that the pharmacist gave us clear instructions and did it right away.
We got the drugs, and gave her the first dose. The we took Deb back to the hotel, and I put her to bed. She was in real pain but that did finally settle down enough for her to get some sleep.
Her next session was at 9:00 am the next day.

Please to meet you, Now, open wide.

We met the dentist.
So we meet the dentist, Dr. Munoz. He tries to tease and joke with us. English is his second language which makes him braver than me. I wouldn't try to kid someone in Spanish. His son is his partner in this practice, and we met him briefly. His english is excellent. Dr. Munoz is obviously very competent, and comfortable with his competence. Deb is nervous about her dental work. I am concerned about her. He examined Deb's x-ray and pointed out the work that would be required. After some discussion, we had a plan. Deb was given a 3:00 pm appointment.
We had a couple of hours to kill. So we walked up a couple of blocks and found a place with an open air terrace. They serve Columbian style food. And I ordered off of the top of the menu which resulted in a plate of meat. By a plate of meat, I mean: chorizo, fried pork, blood sausage, carne molito (?), a fried egg, and and some rice. Deb had a plate of rice with a pounded thin breast of chicken. Her chicken was the best, although I liked my chorizo.
As we sat there, young men pulled up in in very flashy cars. A motorcycle rider parked his bike and took a table, watching us. Another young man came out and drove off on the motorcycle. Deb noticed all the young men parking very nice cars with expensive rims.
I asked Deb if she remembered that Korean restaurant we found in Chicago. She did, and she remembered that we backed out because we both felt like it was a Korean mob joint.
I expected her to get the hint but she didn't. I asked her what kind of food we were having, she said chicken.
I said, "No, what style of cooking is this?"
"Columbian" she said. And then after a classic pause. "Oh, you don't think.."
We finished our meal and walked back to the dental office. I don't know anything for sure, but we both felt like we had just eaten at a Columbian drug operation, masquerading as a restaurant. We had our little adventure and managed to avoid thinking about why we were here.
When we got back to the dentists office, we had a while to wait, but then Deb was taken to a chair, and the dentist began to work.

Opening Entry

We are preparing for our trip to Costa Rica. This will be a record of the adventures of the Deb & Ted Show.
Deb says:
I've had many trips to the dentist during my life. Root canals, crowns, bridges were the norm. I brushed, flossed, did what the dentists told me to do. It didn't help or change the deterioration of my teeth. After lots of medical tests, it's been determined that I have Sjogren's Syndrome. This auto-immune disorder can target salivary glands which reduces the amount of saliva in my mouth, with the resultant effect of tooth decay. Even the root canal teeth with crowns on them began to fail. It became apparent that I was about to have to have many teeth pulled, leaving not a lot for chewing.

After going to a periodontist who advertised doing dental implants, he informed me that he charged $2,000 per tooth. Then he tells me that I will need to go to an oral surgeon who extracts teeth, does bone grafts and sinus lifts. Nice. More thousands of dollars. THEN, I'm told that I'd need a restoration dentist to do the actual teeth replacements. Total of all dentists to replace 11 teeth was about $65,000. Totally not affordable and my heart sunk. I went on the internet and googled dental implants and began to see links for medical tourism.

That is what led us to undertaking a trip to San Jose, Costa Rica. I've researched about as much as one can on the internet. Found a business Medical Tourism of Costa Rica. A gentleman called Richard who had lived in Costa Rica and worked in the medical field, for a fee, recommends hotels, restaurants, and a dentist that he and his wife go to. It's