The Dentist Drill

Every Tuesday K goes to nursery. I work in the morning and then, in theory, have the afternoon to myself. In reality, I go to the dentist. I have been every Tuesday afternoon since December, save for one week when I was ill, and last week when I filed my taxes instead...

There are a few things here in Japan (not just at this particular dentist) that stand out as different from my dental experiences in the UK. Firstly, as you may have deduced, it takes a long time. Even a simple filling generally requires 2 or 3 visits. I had a temporary crown fitted at the end of January, and each week since then the dentist has removed it, cleaned, poked about, amended the fitting and who know what else. I swear he's been soldering in there recently. Today he fitted the permanent crown but I have another appointment for next week so your guess is as good as mine as to when it'll all be over.

The other big difference is the general set-up at the dentist. Instead of individual rooms, there are 4 dentist chairs all in one big room, with low partitions between them. The dentist works on you for a while and then goes off to someone else, coming back again a bit later. There's very little waiting time in the waiting room, but you do spend time reclining in the chair waiting for him to reappear. Most of the time I don't mind; the chairs are very comfortable and it's quite relaxing, but sometimes you do begin to wonder if they've forgotten you...

Hopefully the current round of dentistry will soon be over, and I'll be able to spend Tuesday afternoons on more enjoyable activities, most notably sewing and general making of stuff.