Dental Torture

[PattayaOneTeam]

Pete’s Peregrinations

Dental Torture

Squeamish readers may wish to skip this item.

A friend recently needed a back tooth extracting and went to his usual small clinic in Pattaya, where things began taking a turn for the painful.

First the dentist didn't seem to know what she was doing. She went to work without anesthetizing his gum. When he howled in pain she anesthetized it, but unprofessionally and insufficiently, as he felt the fluid cascading down the back of his throat instead of going into his gum.

Eventually demolition work became so painful that he had to beg for more anesthetic, which she gave him with reluctance, muttering: “farang teeth very strong”.

Twenty minutes later, frustrated that her full-on assault and feverish yanking had got nowhere, she began to smash his tooth. He could feel particles of it disappearing down the back of his throat as his mouth became yet more painful and extremely bloody. Even with the water he said he felt he was choking on his own blood.

After half an hour of smashing, the dentist x-rayed the damage. To my friend's dismay, he saw that all the exposed tooth had been smashed off completely, leaving the root intact.

She decided to cut the root in half. When that didn't work, she tried to cut it into thirds, and the anesthetic began wearing off again, at which point my terror-stricken friend gave up, one and a half hours after going into the clinic, in excruciating pain, and looking like he's just been on the receiving end of a hostile interrogation at the hands of the CIA in a Pakistani jail.

As he escaped from the clinic, he warned them not to bill him. He then drove himself to Bangkok Pattaya hospital, his face swollen and painful, his clothes, and now his car, were covered in slobbered blood. Lucky he was only driving in Pattaya, where such things pass as normal.

At the hospital he was seen by a very skilful dentist, who had his tooth assessed, x-rayed and extracted, painlessly and professionally, within 30 minutes of him being in the chair, for the reasonable sum of 1,800 baht.

He was warned that the carnage in his mouth was shocking and that the first dentist may have damaged his adjacent, healthy teeth in her extraction frenzy. The dentist couldn't tell until my friend's swelling in his mouth and gums subsides.

The new dentist also had to put six stitches in his mouth.

Ouch.

Nong Khai Inflation

I am writing this in Nong Khai where I have been recently been spending more time away from Pattaya.

Whoever came up with the phrase “driving rain” had a perverse sense of humour, I thought, as we drove from Pattaya last night, through at least seven hours of heavy rain, which made driving in the dark, on poorly lit, hazardous and water-flooded roads, aqua-planing in “driving” rain, a pretty treacherous and stressful experience.

Up in Nong Khai, the locals think they have struck gold with the announcement of a rail link from China to Bangkok which will come through the town in about 10 or 20 years time, if ever.

This news has made their already inflated real estate prices now, ahem, go through the roof, with no ceiling in sight, as they add on a rail link premium to their asking prices, making them even higher than in Pattaya for shophouses and commercial premises.

The way they structure their deals is also interesting.

One owner told my wife on the phone (so Thai to Thai, not knowing I was involved) he wanted the already-excessively high monthly rent paid UPFRONT, three years in advance, plus a huge security deposit for one small shophouse in the town centre.

Er, no thanks.

Isaan Non-Scam

The Green Fields of Isaan

One of the many joys of a trip to and from Nong Khai are the detours we take through the wonderful Isaan countryside.

The rich, varied greenery of its rice fields is always a joy to behold, although I never seem to be able to capture them well on camera.

On our trip this time I was warned to be wary when filling my petrol tank, as the local rumour (or urban myth) was that some petrol attendants, in cahoots with a certain brown shirt organization, were slipping small bags of ya bah into petrol compartments after drivers had filled up, only for them to be stopped down the road by a spot check followed by a gargantuan backhander to allow you to continue on your way, if you were lucky.

I scoffed at this, but my wife took no chances and watched the petrol attendants like a hawk.

Luckily, either as a result of her hawkish oversight, or simply because it was <deleted> in the first place, we reached our destinations happily unimpeded by corrupt attendants, planted drugs, police stops, incarceration or bribes.

Contact me at [email protected]

Enjoyed this article? Why not go to our poll and vote for it at:

FREE DOWNLOAD HERE

Download the full #3 issue in PDF format here:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/files/download/659-pattaya-one-issue-3/

-- Pattaya One 2010-11-02

[huangnon]

I've had similar experiences in a Rayong clinic. I should have sussed that the young girls doing the supposed dentist's work were only students. Even during a supposed "cleaning" they were all over the place; clumsy and careless. They seemed more concerned in discussing last night's soap opera than their 'patient'.

Eventually, I sat up and took off the face cloth. I asked them if they were actually qualified dentists, and they seemed horrified that some customer had the temerity to question them. They admitted they were just students; working for experience rather than a salary.

I walked out to the front desk and asked to see the manager of the clinic.. "No here.." Walked out without paying and never went back.

[farangpattaya]

I've had similar experiences in a Rayong clinic. I should have sussed that the young girls doing the supposed dentist's work were only students. Even during a supposed "cleaning" they were all over the place; clumsy and careless. They seemed more concerned in discussing last night's soap opera than their 'patient'.

Eventually, I sat up and took off the face cloth. I asked them if they were actually qualified dentists, and they seemed horrified that some customer had the temerity to question them. They admitted they were just students; working for experience rather than a salary.

I walked out to the front desk and asked to see the manager of the clinic.. "No here.." Walked out without paying and never went back.

Maybe "off topic", because it's not scary:

Went to Pattaya Memorial 2 years ago, with a hel_l of a tooth-ache.

The dentist mde some x-rays and found out that a root-canal-treatment was necessary........the root canal was in a pretty bad shape.

Anyway, went there 4 times..........3 times for a root canal treatment + preparations for a crown and the last time for a check and the placement of the crown.

Not particularly cheap, but for 7 hours of PAINLESS treatment + crown: THB 15,000