This One's For You Gramps

Ariana and I both made visits to the dentist this week. You will be pleased to know that Ariana was very good during this first ever visit. After a bit of gentle prying, she opened her mouth for the dentist and sat quietly while she cleaned her teeth with vanilla flavored toothpaste and applied orange flavored floride treatment.

And she has no cavities !!!!,


I too was very good while undergoing a very, very thorough cleaning as I sat through the water jet spraying, the picking and a couple of other machines I had never experienced before. For over an hour I sat and listened to the dentist talk about plaque and age and the need to clean. He spouted statistics about the amount of bacteria (thousands, of which brushing, flossing and deep cleaning can only find 57%) in an adults mouth, where they hide and how, and how with this new laser technique, he can "torpedo" the bacteria in the "warfield" that are the pockets deep within my gums. Between the stats and the war talk, I realized why baba-san likes this particular dentist so much, but I have to admit it was the most painless and complete cleaning I ever got.



The offices couldn't have been more different. Ariana's dentist, who specializes in treating children, has a large and sunny office in Hiroo, a favorite ex-pat area. Walking in, the large reception area is inviting, with magazines and a beverage machine that makes everything from tea to cappucino for the adults and video games and puzzles for the children. Upstairs, there are about seven chairs in one big room with television screens mounted on the ceiling above each, so when your child is being treated, they are distracted by a cartoon. It worked. Ariana held on to the headphones with both hands and did not make a sound as the dentist did her work. When all done, Ariana got to pick out a little toy. She stood for what seemed like hours in front of the display of trucks, little toy figures, shiny bracelets and necklaces, finally choosing a plastic bubble filled crab.



I on the other hand was treated by an old school dentist, who has one room in a small office. As I leaned back into the chair, instead of a television screen with which to watch something, I had a view of a "Danger" sign, meant to remind everyone to wear goggles when being treated with the laser devise used for very deep cleaning.

Great.

Really reassuring.

But the good news was he gave me a gargle rinse that was an anesthetic, so all the cleaning and scraping didn't hurt a bit.

I sadly, received no toy when finished even though I didn't cry a bit.