"I admire your professionalism....."

Every time I go to the dentist I am reminded of that scene in the movie "Little Shop of Horrors" when the sadist dentist played by Steve Martin has Bill Murray, the masochist, as his patient.  At one point Bill Murray screams out (he is enjoying the pain being inflicted by Steve Martin) "I admire your professionalism!"......I have never forgotten how hard I laughed at that line.   Fortunately, over the years I have had good experience with dentists, so have no phobias regarding them, but all things being equal would rather be sitting on the beach enjoying a Corona than sitting in the dentist's chair having my teeth cleaned.  Well, Wednesday, was the day of our dental appointment with Eva Urenas, DDS in Los Algondones, Mexico.  Since this was our first visit to Los Algondones we left the hotel at 10 am in order to be sure we arrived in time for our 11 am appointment.

It was a 15 minute drive to the border crossing where we parked, along with a few thousand other seniors, in the $6/day parking lot right at the border.  Eva had sent us an e-mail confirming our appointment, and giving us very good directions to her office.  Ironically, to get to the border crossing we had to re-enter California exiting I-8 at exit 166.  From the parking lot it was a 15 minute walk to her office (maybe less).  Getting into Mexico is pretty easy.......you just follow the crowd of seniors and in a few minutes you have crossed the border (no questions asked) into Mexico.  You are immediately struck with how many dentists there are in Los Algondones.  I made a somewhat humorous, uninformed guess in yesterday's blog entry as to how many dentists there are, and amazingly was not far off.....according to this website (http://www.dentaldepartures.com/dentists/mexico/los-algodones/) there are 128 clinics housing 304 dentists in Los Algodones!  

As you walk along the narrow streets you are bombarded by street hawkers extolling the virtues of the dental office they represent......it was relentless until we were about 3 blocks from the border, then it was quiet once again.  Dr. Urenas has no street hawkers steering business her way.....she uses advertising and word of mouth.  The office is located on the ground floor of this nice courtyard, and it is just she, her husband, and one or two assistants.  We arrived at 10:30 am.....a little early, but TLE was taken in immediately.  She had the more serious issue of the two of us......a crown she had installed a few decades ago had come out, and we were just hoping it could be reseated, but alas it was not to be.  The tooth which had a root canal before the crown was installed, had deteriorated over the years, and was decaying, which is why the crown came out.  What remained had to be pulled.......in 3 months we will return to have an implant put in, and then two months later to have the new crown installed.  

So, here is a breakdown on what has been done, and what will need to be done over the next 5 months:

Pull the tooth  - $   80

Deep cleaning - $   70

Implant            - $800

Crown              -  $700

 Eva Urenas, DDS

Her office

Back in the day when I was paying retail for dental work (with the assistance of dental insurance) my share for a crown was $1100.....the insurance paid the rest which came to another $1000+.....so $700 total for a crown seems reasonable to me.  An implant would have been about the same, if not more.

In my case all I needed was a cleaning ($35), and that is what I received.  We were both done by 11:45 and on our way to the local pharmacy to pick up antibiotics plus pain killers for TLE, and antiseptic mouth wash both for both of us......total bill $50.  We were both very happy with our experience with Dr. Urenas, and can unequivocally give her our highest recommendation!  Unlike the line into Mexico which was non-existent, the line out through U.S. Customs was quite long, and it took us about 40 minutes to walk back into the USA.

So, the question you may be contemplating just now is 'does this affect our travel plans?'......the answer.....YUP!  We had planned to travel to east Texas after we leave Sedona, and fly back on February 26th for TLE's college reunion in Pasadena, CA, but now that money (1,100 miles worth of diesel fuel, and round trip airfare) must be earmarked to TLE's needed dental repairs.  As a result we will be spending much of the next 2+ months exploring the northern Arizona/southeastern Utah canyonlands, whilst working overtime on our boondocking skills to keep our costs down.

We still plan to head up to Michigan in late April after TLE's implant is done, and then down to Indianapolis for the INDY 500 workamping gig, but all our other immediate travel plans have been scuttled.  Instead of flying back from Texas for TLE's reunion, we'll drive to Pasadena from Cottonwood, AZ.

After a quick lunch (a cold vanilla shake for TLE due to the cavernous hole in her gum), and a chicken salad for me at Carl's Jr. we were on the road just after 2 and 'home' in Wittmann by 5:15.

Thanks for stopping by!