Avoiding Time-Consuming, Expensive, and Unneeded Dental Surgery
Our move from Mexico to Miami years back was a happy one. My US employer needed someone like me there and they offered me the position. It was a great career move with better pay and opportunities to grow. My wife, children and I were excited for the move and what the new position would offer us.
Our children already knew English, but now they would “Learn it like Americans,” I would tell them. They would attend high school understanding American culture firsthand. They could attend university here preparing them for a life with all the opportunities.
We ran into difficulties like you would expect for any move, but after several years, the kids were doing well in school, my wife and I had adjusted and one of our boys even had a girlfriend – a Latina – which we both liked.
During dinner one day, I noticed a crown coming loose in my mouth. I could chew on it and it wasn’t painful, but there was something wrong. I needed to have it checked.
After a short exam, the dentist explained I had a broken a screw in the implant. I had bitten down and broken it. He needed to replace it. He asked if I could contact my dentist in Mexico to see what implant he had used.
That sounded simple enough. I would call my dentist. I would get the information. The dentist here would fix my tooth.
But reaching my dentist in Mexico wasn’t easy. The phone I had for him wasn’t working. He did not turn up in Google searches. I asked my brother in Mexico to visit the office and it looked like the dentist had moved. No one knew where to find him.
When I told my US dentist, he said, “There are so many implant companies and so many different implants. If I knew which one you have, we order the part and install it. Simple. But,” he said, “if we don’t know which implant you have, we need do the procedure over again. It will take 4 to 5 visits over several months. The procedure can be uncomfortable.” He warned me.
“Ouch!”
I learned a big lesson. Not having my dental records available is a problem. In my case, it was the difference between inexpensive, straight-forward treatment versus painful, time-consuming, invasive treatment filled with unnecessary costs.
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