By Osmel Almaguer
HAVANA TIMES – The last time I had seen a dentist here in Brazil was at a government clinic after I had already spent several months enduring a toothache. They kept giving me appointments very widely on time but the expected result never arrived.
I even passed 44 Brazilians reales (about US$8) in an Uber to go to a hospital that was quite far away (but also state owned and free) where they did some x-rays that were also not very helpful to me. That’s when I decided to try a private clinic.
My wife recommended the Dental Institute of America, where she goes. She has managed to fulfill her dream of getting braces on her teeth at a moderate price, although it is quite expensive in Brazil.
In fact the braces themselves were free and he only paid 60 reales (about $11) per month for customizations and maintenance. The low price is due to the fact that the clinic is also a teaching space, where students of this specialty do their practice. The typical price for this job is much higher, around 150 reales (about $28 per month).
Encouraged by her good recommendation, I went there to get a diagnosis and find out the price of a filling. The comfort and elegance of the lobby impressed me. The main specialist examined me, but she gave me an unexpected diagnosis: the tooth would have to be extracted.
The price of a fill performed by the students would be around US$9, like most of the services they offer. But since this was an export, I preferred to pay the teacher’s fee which was 150 reales (US$28).
For greater certainty, the dentist asked me to take a panoramic x-ray. At first, I didn’t know what it was. It cost me about US$10 and I had to have it done at the UNIX Dental Radiology Clinic, another place that offered the amenities and attention of a hotel.
Nine days after the first appointment, I was sitting in the dental chair for the extraction. From one corner of the room, the television played soothing pop music.
I was watched with all due attention. They even placed a translucent cloth over my face with the aim of isolating the intervention area from the rest of my head. This way, they avoided any kind of contamination and saved me from having to watch the dishes being prepared. At the same time, the fabric reduced the intensity of the light above my eyes.
They disinfected my face with extreme delicacy. They spoke to me warmly, and even allowed a few jokes, all respectfully. The pain level was minimal. And every step of the way they let me know what they were doing. They asked me if I felt any pain.
Really, the whole experience was marked by my own fear of pain, not the pain itself.
It was a fear created years ago, from repeated painful experiences in Cuban clinics, where oral dentists almost always do their best, but there is neither the technology, nor the utensils, nor the comfortable environment. Beyond that, however, they also lack the protocols of respect and sensitivity that every human being deserves.
Three days after an extraction that included stitches, a practice I never saw done in my country, the scar was clean and the recovery was painless. The total cost of the operation was 200 reales(US$36), which represents just 4% of our total monthly income.
Read more from Osmel Almaguer’s diary here.
