At the Dentist

As I have previously mentioned, we have an excellent dentist here in Grecia - Dr. Marco Vega Quesada. Again, here is his card:

His modern office is located near POPS on the second floor and across from the central park and cathedral. A plus is that he is bilingual, although his office staff is not. He also works at our Grecia Caja hospital, San Francisco de Asis. He and all his staff are so personable, kind and caring. Great view of the park from the treatment rooms.

I had my third visit with him this Wednesday for gum surgery. All my appointments so far have been late afternoon (4:30 pm). This means that quite often it is dark when I leave his office (this being the tropics after all). We don’t drive in the dark so Lance drops me off and I taxi home. Reasons for not wanting to drive in the dark: narrow, winding roads; few if any sidewalks and lack of shoulders; people, dogs, chickens walking on the roads, lack of street lights and so on. Obviously not all of Costa Rica is like this, but it is in our area and we prefer to leave the driving to the taxis. 

This particular appointment was over an hour long and I left with a mouthful of stitches and cotton batting on one frozen side, instructions to rest, avoid the sun, don’t drink hot beverages and take the prescribed medications. It was dark out by now.

So here’s the funny part. There’s a large farmacia (pharmacy) near his office and the taxi stand. In I went, handed over my script and was handed back a pack of pain killers, mouth spray and a large needle with vial! I thought ... am I supposed to inject myself? That’s for sure not going to happen. Then I remembered - in Costa Rica pharmacies provide a lot more services then just dispensing pills and selling shampoos. They will also give injections.

So I was motioned into the back of the farmacia, had my blood pressure and heart rate recorded, then into another room - up on the table and the deed was done. I’m assuming the shot was antibiotics - the doctor explained everything to me but I think I missed that part so I was kind of shocked when I saw the “giant” needle. Poor Lance - I had phoned him to say I was not yet in a taxi but in a farmacia waiting to have a shot of some kind, but I couldn’t talk very well with the freezing and batting or even explain why this was going to happen to me. I was a bit addled!

Anyway, taxi home and I got to see all the wonderful Christmas light displays on the houses in our neighbourhood.

Dental Visit

Since moving to Grecia from Atenas, we have been looking for a new dentist. On the recommendation of several expats in Grecia, we decided on Dr. Marco Vega Quesada. The reasons for this are that he speaks English, and is young which to me means he is up on all the newest treatments and has the latest equipment. Yes, yes - I know - my Spanish should be better but when it comes to dental/medical I prefer to converse in English so I don’t misinterpret anything important. Here’s his business card:

His offices are across from the cathedral and central park on the west side. The cathedral faces west (as do most churches here apparently) so you can orientate yourself that way. Dr. Vega is on the second floor of the building that also houses Pops ice cream and Kentucky Fried Chicken on the first floor. These are completely normal directions for Costa Rica.

He has a really nice receptionist and a small waiting room. There are three treatment rooms. Today I went for a cleaning and a consultation. The first treatment room I was in looked out onto a balcony and the park. They don’t skimp on air conditioning and I was told they would give me a blanket if I was too chilly. All the equipment was modern. Dr. Vega did the cleaning with help from an assistant. They work fast. Then it was off to another treatment  room for the x-rays.

Final cost for the cleaning, which included the x-rays, treatment assessment, polishing and a fluoride treatment - 40,000 CRC or about $70 USD.

My next appointment is in November to start the work for replacement of a crown (estimate, if I remember correctly, was less then 300,000 CRC or less then $520 USD.) And then we will go on from there.