Smile--again!

January 31, 2012—Poor, Jim. He’s back at the dentist for a redo.

We went into Los Algodones, to our dental office, yesterday. The first thing we found was that the office we had gone to is undergoing remodeling; it was closed. We were taken around the back to the larger office (same company, two locations), on the street behind the one we had frequented. We discovered that the dentist we had seen last summer had been fired. “Too many complaints,” the guide said.

Now we know why there were too many complaints.

We were immediately introduced to the newest member of Gator Dental, “Dr. Oscar [Cuevas].” His demeanor was completely different from that of “Dr. Edgar” our previous dentist. Dr. Oscar appeared interested in his patients; his competence oozed from him. Dr. Edgar, on the other hand, had seemed like someone who was waiting for 5 o’clock…or someone who was a lame duck in his position—uninterested and dismissive.

After a bit of a wait, Dr. Oscar was able to see me. Although Dr. Edgar was no longer there, the practice honors is guarantee. Dr. Oscar checked me out, listened to my complaints, identified poor biting spots, and then began to work on me. After about an hour of checking and grinding down high spots, he asked how my bite felt. I can honestly say it is better than I have had in probably 50 years.

Jim was next. Again, Dr. Oscar listened, identified the poor biting spots, and then started working on him. Only Jim wasn’t so lucky.

Jim had had crowns put on all of his upper and lower teeth. From the start, he never had a good bite. Unfortunately, it appears that the teeth were not put in properly. Grinding down the high spots would go down through the porcelain into the metal—an unacceptable option. (I suspect the teeth were not pushed into place properly; that had happened to one of my crowns, the one that came off after one month.) So, the alternative is to replace all the crowns—all 32 of them.

That’s why Jim is at the dentist now, and probably will be there tomorrow as well, and mostly likely the next day too.

The practice is honoring the guarantee. Unfortunately, they will not absorb the lab fee ($700). Oh, well. Even with this modest additional cost, it was still less than one-fourth of the same work done in Jacksonville. We would do it again.

Until later,

Your Reluctant RoVer,

Linda