I will never go to the Japanese dentist again

I hate dentists with passion. Well, it is more accurate to say that I am very nervous about going to the dentist. It is slowly getting better because the dentists that I have had in the U.S. have been very good and put my needs first. This may sound biased as the last time I went to the Japanese dentist was in 2001. I was not sure how to use my school dental insurance in the U.S. and decided to take advantage of inexpensive dental costs in Japan. It was not a huge cavity so it wasn’t not a big deal.

My heart was racing really hard when I again stepped into my childhood dentist’ office because I was so traumatized by his treatment.  It wasn’t just him but our local dentists 20 years ago were also really bad.

Almost everybody that I met were anxiousA lot of people are afraid of dentists and it is normal. I used to dread going to the dentist in Japan because of the pain. I much rather endured with the toothache than having to go to the dentist for a “regular” dental cavity.

Because my dentist in Japan refused to use the local anesthetic and just said..”It’s only for 30 seconds or less, ok? If it hurts, raise your hand so I will stop.” Yes he will stop..but he keeps on going!!!!

I was a child so he even had his nurse restrain me so I wouldn’t move…ouch.

That happened so many times because the local dentist used to come to my elementary school so my strategy didn’t work. If he found any cavity, the school would send a note to my parents so they could take me back to my dentist. 🙁

When I was having a really bad toothache and swollen gum, it was less painful because the dentist would use the local anesthesia. I was afraid of getting injected because it was so painful for me as a child but there was no choice.

After years of suffering, I started to have really bad headaches and toothaches because of the wisdom teeth. I had one bottom left wisdom tooth that needed to be extracted in high school and for that, I had to go to a bigger hospital because the tooth was trapped under gum and some of the surrounding bone needed to be removed with a drill. I know it is pretty scary hearing the procedure the itself.

Did they use the local anesthetic for this procedure? Yes, of course. My new dentist gave me about seven shots before he started to drill the bone and of course told me to raise my hands if it hurt. Usually, my other primary dentist didn’t care. He would stop for two seconds and told me to just endure with the pain and suffering for a few more seconds. But for this procedure, my new dentist gave me another local anesthetic and the surgery was about two hours.

Fast forward, I was talking to my husband and he told me that he had all four wisdom teeth extracted at the same time. Wow. “Wasn’t it terribly painful and uncomfortable?”, I asked.

He said, “No, because I was asleep and when I woke up, the procedure was done.”

“Oh..”

He had IV sedation!! then I talked to other American friends who had to have one or two wisdom teeth extracted and they said the same thing. One said she was very drowsy because she had laughing gas! and the other one had to have several wisdom teeth removed so she also had “conscious” sedation. And this was around the same time I had the same surgery in Japan.

“I will give you enough shots but you need to raise your hand if it hurts.”

This was the nicest thing any dentist said to me in Japan.

I know that I am biased but the last time I saw my childhood dentist was back in 2003. I didn’t see dentist for about five years and needed to be seen badly. Because of the language problem and the costs, I decided to take advantage of my Japanese national medical insurance and just fix my dental issue while staying with my parents during summer.

One good thing about Japanese dental care is that it is much more affordable compared to the American dental care. It is insanely expensive here in the U.S. But I rather use my credit card and just get it done and over with with one appointment. It is very cheap in Japan but you are going to need to keep returning to the dentist because they try to drag treatment as they can only charge certain amount to the insurance company in Japan. So they make more money by dragging the treatment.

My poor sister almost lost a molar tooth because of severe decay and prolonged root canal. She had to go back to her dentist at least five times to treat this single problem and she was having headaches and anxiety every time she returned to the dentist. I used to think that it takes five to seven visits to fix two cavities because that’s how long it took for my Japanese dentist to take care of my cavities.

I will never forget the very first time I anxiously went to see a new dentist in California. I was very reluctant because of the costs and that was my first time going to the American dentist and I was mortified just to think about the pain. I thought I would be sent home after 15-20 minutes with more appointments. He told me that I had two cavities and his secretary gave me the costs after my dental insurance covered the primary costs. It was about $250..wow in Japan, it would be like $20 per visit and that was my copay.  I signed the agreement form and the treatment started. I was there for like 45 minutes to an hour and the problems were fixed in ONE VISIT.

To my surprise, I didn’t have to beg this dentist for local anesthesia. He even put some cream on qtip before injecting local anesthetic. Wow! I was too scared to ask what that qtip was for..I thought it was the beginning of torture in a foreign country. LOL

And lastly, I had to have a dental implant to replace my molar bottom tooth which was treated by my local Japanese dentist. It was about time and again I was very reluctant because it is insanely expensive. But I decided to just use my credit card to pay for the dental implant procedure here in California and the doctor recommended that I get IV sedation since I was already nervous about coming to his office.

It was insanely expensive (about $3000 after my insurance covered the cost) but I just had my follow up appointment today and was glad that I got that taken care of here in the U.S. I know that Japanese dentistry is improving and advancing and they are more concerned about pain management and many dentists now give patients an option.

But still, I will never return to my childhood dentist in that countryside of Japan. Not only that it is painful but he would use silver filling (again many dentists in Japan are far less concerned about the appearance of our smiles.) after enduring with multiple painful procedures. Ouch. So if you are moving to Japan and need to get dental treatment, I would suggest that you find a reputable doctor who speaks English and can understand your needs. Don’t be fooled by the “cheap” dental care in Japan because there are pros and cons.

But I can definitely say that I will NEVER return to any dentists in my hometown simply because they are outdated and don’t care about their patient’s concerns as my parents told me as my father was beeming his gold filling. :'(

YIKES!!!! One thing is that Americans are obsessed about beautiful smiles so having silver tooth in visible area is frowned upon.