"All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth"

Well if you need a dentist in China, I can refer you to mine : ).  On about my fifth day in China I broke my tooth because that is the kind of luck I have!  A LONG time ago (maybe ten years ago) I got a root canal done in the U.S.  Due to the absurd cost of dental work and my lack of dental insurance, I never got a permanent crown put on it.  This tooth has been good to me and not bothered me at all until I decided to travel to the other side of the world. 


While I was on the road trip to the rural villages I was offered quite a bit of very hard foods (nuts, dried corn etc).  In my effort to be polite, I ate all of them and ate them in the manner that the locals were eating them…by cracking them with my teeth.  I am not sure which one did me in, it was either the raw chestnuts, dried corn pieces or dried cheese (I don’t even want to think about how cheese gets as hard as a rock).  After we had left one of the villagers homes, I felt something odd in my mouth and found that a piece of my tooth had chipped off (it’s a back molar so you can't see it thankfully).  I was a little worked up...my memory of dental work in China is a guy with a chair on the sidewalk yanking teeth out of screaming "patients" mouths.  I really wanted to wait until I got home to see a dentist but eight months is way to0 long. 

 
About two weeks ago the short term coordinator went with me to the dentist.  I was feeling ok initially but the panic soon set in.  The dentist told me (through the coordinator) that I wouldn't need any Novocain.  I was relieved because I thought that this meant that he didn't need to drill.  Imagine my surprise when a drill entered my oral cavity!  I need to consult with my dental friends (Allison and Chloe any thoughts?) because maybe they never numb you when the root canal has already been done.  It truly didn't hurt it just TERRIFIED me!    I sat there for what seemed like eternity, my palms sweating, my heart racing, my stomach churning and bits of my tooth flying out of my mouth.   The panic really heightened when I saw that the drill was smoking and I could taste the smoke!  Somehow I managed to not die under the stress! 

 
All things considered it went well.   The dentist was a really nice guy and seemed very professional.  This week I went back and the dentist put on the new crown.  I was told that it is the one that the foreigners all get (all two of us) and that it is "world famous."  It was the only one that didn't seem to be made of toxic metal which is how I settled on it over the cheaper one.  The short term coordinator tried to haggle about the price but the dentist wasn't having it.  He told me that it is about a fourth of the cost of a crown in the U.S.  He is probably right.  As I sat in the chair I reminded myself that I am trying to avoid buying some of the junky souvenirs that so many people get in China.  I had wanted to find myself something functional and long lasting .... VIOLA!  I found the perfect souvenir (and Christmas present) from China… a world famous tooth!