If there is one thing we have learned from our travels abroad, it is, the U.S. runs on a totally different time warp than most of the rest of the world. I would say we (U.S.) are probably in hyper-drive most of the time, if not all the time. The fast paced society that we live in detracts so much from the things that are really important in our lives. Especially quality time with family, friends and other things that are more relaxing, like beach time for example. Anyway, there is something to be said for a slower, more relaxed approach to life, rather than trying to hurry everything along so much that we miss the moment. In Indonesia it is called jam kerat "rubber time", and it is very flexible "rubber". Nothing will ever happen in the time you think it should, so just sit back, relax, enjoy and spare yourself the heart attack, you never know who you might meet. For Costa Rica it is Tico Time, not sure if that is the official name or not, but a friend of ours says that is what he has heard it called, so Tico Time it is!
As we got settled in to the waiting room at the front of the office and Bakty worked on filling out his paperwork, there were several people discussing the process of being seen. One man was not too thrilled at his wait time and he was very vocal about it. These folks had been here waiting longer than we had, it was past 3:00pm and the office reopens in the afternoon at 2:00pm, so I figured they had been there at least since then.. I anticipated that we might have hours to wait as well, not knowing what the exact procedure would be. As it turns out, we were sitting there for probably 25 minutes, just enough time for Bakty to get through most of the paperwork, before his boredom of form filling finally set in and he turned it over to me to finish, when one of the nurses called his name, "Yon Barber" (John Barber). We figured John would be easier to pronounce than Bakty, and it is his first name, which he adopted upon becoming a U.S. citizen. We could see the astonished look on some of the waiting patients faces, thoughts running through their minds must have been, "Wait, I was here first! I have been here for more than an hour and a half!", and so on.
Part of the fun, for me, in the waiting room was listening to the nurses call out patient names and the patients having to tune their ears to the Costa Rican accent to figure out if their name was being called. I love different languages! Don't get me wrong, I am not making fun of the nurse's accents, I actually find it very interesting to see how tuned-in other people, who don't speak the language, are. Once again, I think we are too conditioned and too much in hyper mode to slow down and pay attention and listen closely.
We got up, followed the nurse as she led us down the hall to a room on the left that contained their 3-D X-ray machine, complete with a hookup directly to a laptop. (More modern than some of the U.S. dentist offices we have been in!) She got him settled down and positioned just right and she stepped out of the room, pushed the button, and the machine revolved around his head and took the necessary shots. She then directed us to the room directly behind that one where they proceeded to take impressions of his jaw. While he was having this procedure done, I finished his paperwork and double checked it. Hmmm, what is this form about, $150 for a 3 Yr Warranty? A fantastic thing actually, cheap, cheap insurance!! More on that later. Once his impressions were done and he had finished spitting out the last of the residue from the casting, we were told to go back and have a seat. I turned in his completed paperwork and we sat and waited.
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| Bakty waiting in the nice comfy chair! |
The sky had steadily been growing dark as we sat and waited. Then it began to rain, and rain hard! The office staff was shocked by this as it is the dry season and very unusual for it to rain like this. We will definately get a taxi for the ride home!
By now it is close to 5:00pm and we have Skyped our sons, my mother, Bakty's brother in Indonesia and anyone else who was online that we could talk with, to let them know that we had arrived safe and sound. We had checked our emails and our voice mails through Google Voice. We hadn't eaten since the sandwich and cookies that we were given on the flight and we were getting hungry. (Remember, 5pm CR time is 6pm our time). Thank goodness I had brought the bag with supplies in it! We had brought some Larabars, raw almonds, cashews and Pirates Booty for snacking in the airport and on the plane. We always carry some type of food with us, just in case. Now was the "just in case" and we were prepared for it. I went to the desk to ask how long before our consult and was told 40 minutes which eventually became about 1 and a 1/2 hours. Thinking it was 40 minutes kept us from running out to get a bite to eat...so we snacked, waited and got to know our fellow waiting room companions.
There were people from all over the U.S., Canada, Russia and Costa Rica waiting in the office. It was comforting to know that this wasn't the first time for many of them. Some were back for their 3rd or 4th office visit because of the extensive work they were having done. For some it was their first time (day), like us. For others, they were returning to have corrections done to failed implants. It concerned us when a few of them were telling us how their implants had failed and they had to return to Costa Rica to have them redone. We then wondered whether or not this was the right thing to do, was that going to mean we had to pay again to have the implants done if they failed? Why did their implants fail? Was the work not being done properly? Was this going to be more costly than we first had anticipated? Not really the time to be having second thoughts! However, we were committed and there was no turning back now, and as we talked more with them, we found the overall attitude from everyone was very positive. (Much good news later regarding all of our questions!) You see, unlike the dentists in the U.S., if your implant fails, you pay them again to redo it. If you don't have insurance and even if you do, this can get expensive. Implants can and do fail, for various reasons and most of the time it is probably due to the health of the patient and the way they take care of their teeth (my analysis from discussion with people who were there for that reason). It seems that having considerable bone loss and gum disease adds to that statistic of failure. I will say if you are considering implants and have lost teeth already, don't wait to get the implants! The longer the time period lapse is, the more bone loss and the higher probability of implant failure.
I am going to take a momentary respite from our experience to comment on the U.S. dental fees. I am sure that if there are any dentists reading this they may have some disagreement in my recommendation to have work done in CR or anywhere else other than the U.S. Some would say the work is inferior, or the equipment is outdated, etc. Is this true? Or is it all so they can charge you anywhere from $3,500 to as much as $8,000 for an 1 implant? Or, how about $1,200 and up for a crown? Or $900 and more for a root canal? Maybe..., or maybe they are just misinformed as to the dentists' education (U.S.), quality of work and high tech equipment & materials that are available. And yes, I also realize that in the U.S. there are other factors that increase the cost of any medical procedure. These U.S. cost figures came from our own experience, as well as everyone we spoke with from around the U.S. and Canada.
Which is why we were all there in Costa Rica for dental work!
Some of these people had gone back to their dentists and were told the work wasn't good and they were going to be sorry they had done it in CR (which they weren't), some of their dentists even said they wouldn't do anymore of their dental work. On the flip side there were a few dentists who commended the job that had been done on their patients' teeth by Dr. Cavallini.
Back to the waiting room, it was now pushing 6:30pm and we had been talking with several of our waiting room friends and watching it rain. Bakty even shared his snacks with a young lady who sat down next to him. Despite the fact that we had to wait as long as we did, it really wasn't so bad. It was raining, so it wasn't like I had missed much sun, and we got to talk with some really great people while we were sitting there. Everyone has a story to tell and to me they were all interesting. Many of these people we saw over the next few days and had even greater conversations with them. Remember we need to slow down, there are terrific people out there that we just haven't met yet. It was wonderful getting to know them and learning about their dental experience as well as their life experiences. We met people from Canada, California, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Florida, Arizona, Tennessee, New Mexico, Ohio, Illinois, Georgia, Alaska, Maryland. Had we stayed longer than our 2 weeks, we just might have met people from every state in the U.S.
After all of these discussions, we now know that our fears were unsubstantiated! The praises from our fellow waiting room friends have confirmed, that they would do it again. The work is done to the highest quality and the guarantees are better than you could ever imagine.
They called Bakty's ("Yon") name again, now time to meet with Dr. Cavallini.
Next Post: Meeting with Dr. Cavallini
Thanks for taking the time to share your experience! Very helpful and interesting! I'll stay tuned in. Bob
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