on month #5 and French dentistry

Raise a glass, here's to celebrating my 5th official month in France! Hard to believe that I've been in this country 150 days, that is 3600 hours, 216,000 minutes...ok you get the point. The weeks fly by and I don't know where they go! I desperately want to put on the brakes but at the same time the future excites me, all the places I still have to see and the experiences I still have to have. I've already done and seen so much, but still so much lies ahead! Ah, where does the time go?

That being said, I celebrated my 5-month anniversary with a trip to the dentist! Wanting to take advantage of all this free healthcare, I found the name and number of a nearby dentist on the online assistants forum. I called to make an appointment last week, and today I found myself only a 5 minute walk from my apartment and in a very clean, simple, and small reception area, in front of one Dr. Séverine Ciancioni. Again, no receptionists here, or even dental hygienists! The French, apparently, like to have full control. Dr. Ciancioni is young and extremely friendly, by French standards. Ususally the French can be a bit cold an unemotional when dealing with clients and people they don't know, but this lady broke all the stereotypes as she smiled and spoke to me in a happy sing-song-y voice the entire time. It actually made me a little uneasy at first...terrible to say, but I've actually gotten used to being treated like a second-class citizen most of the time when it comes to customer service. This was just too sickeningly-sweet!

She took my insurance number and pointed me in the direction of the waiting room while she prepped. 5 minutes later I was in the actual examining room. It put my dentist's back home to shame! Bright and cheery and decorated with little mirrors in the shape of a tooth and fake flowers in vases on shelves, a little desk and chair in one corner, very office-like, and a large blue dentists chair and work station equipped with all the latest technology. Very clean and shiny and new. So we sat down first to discuss what I needed done (I'm wondering if this consultation-style thing with doctors happens in all forms of French related health-care). I said I just needed a check-up and some plaque removal.

Down to business, I sat down in the big cushy blue dentists chair that she moved up and down with a touch screen, and asked me all sorts of questions about my job and if I had travelled around France etc. etc. Very pleasant. She looked over my mouth, removed plaque with a drill type thingy (which was considerably less unpleasant than the manual method I get back home) and said everything looked good. Instead of the usual lecture I get back home about how I should get my wisdom teeth out because they could cause problems, blah blah blah, and that I should get skin grafting done on my lower gums, blah blah blah, she said my wisdom teeth are fully in and are no cause for concern, just to make sure I brush them well since they're so far back to prevent cavities. And to brush my lower gums softly to prevent bleeding. That was all! And she was quite happy to hear, when she asked, that I floss everyday. "It's always the same, Canadians, Americans, British, Germans, you all floss no problem! Do you think I can get French people to floss? I ask some, and they've never even heard of it!" It's true, dental floss is almost impossible to find in this country, and when you do, it costs about 5x more than it would back home. (I brought 3 containers with me...I learned my lesson in Toulouse.)

Back out in the reception area, she drew up my "feuille de soin" while I whipped across the street to withdraw money (doctors and dentists don't take cards, apparently) and I paid my whopping 28 euros. That's right. 28 euros. Back home I pay around $100 and end up spending over an hour there, between waiting, having the dental hygienist deplaque, brush and floss my teeth, wait some more for the dentist to come in, look around my mouth and lecture me about wisdom teeth removal. Here, I was in and out in 30 minutes, not a minute later. And all of this is being covered, 100%, by my insurance. I walked home grinning (a very clean and white grin). That's how a visit to the dentist should always be! Short, simple, to-the-point, pleasant, and best of all, free!