Dentistry Adventures

Next week I have to go to the dentist, so I thought you might like to hear about what that’s like.

The Peace Corps has a designated dentist we go to in Chengdu, the city where PC headquarters is located. They’ve verified her skills and credentials, materials and clean water supply, so that’s why we all have to go to her.

Here’s how the trip goes: I take the bus 1 1/2 hours to the train station in my city. (On a good day—one time it took 2 1/2 hours and I missed my train.) I take a two hour train to Chengdu (yay, high speed trains!). In Chengdu, I take a 45 minute bus from the train station to the university where Peace Corps offices are located. I walk 25 mins from the bus stop to the PC office, near the campus hotel where I check in to spend the night because I don’t have time to take the train back the same day. I walk 25 mins. back to the street, then take a 20 minute bus ride to the dental office. After my appt. is over, I have the evening to hang out in Chengdu. In the morning, I do all of that in reverse.
 
This is the kind of thing I mean when I say we only do one thing a day. It will take me almost two full days to see the dentist, and I’m lucky, I’m relatively close to Chengdu. Some volunteers have to travel for days for a dental appt.  

In China, this is called “Incovenient.”

Last year I had to have a lymph node removed from my cheek, so I went to the University dental hospital. I was in a sparse room of about 50 chairs, no privacy at all. A doctor operated on me while another dentist held my mouth open with his fingers, because there was no tool to keep my cheek open. I was really hoping his fingers didn’t slip while that scalpel was in my mouth! Goodbye, tongue.

This was the best care I could receive there. The conditions shocked me, but for my part of China, it’s perfectly acceptable. And hey, my lymph node was removed and I’m fine, so it worked.