Going to the Dentist · 4:54am Last Tuesday
Let me tell you about a nightmare.
For about a year and a half now, I have not been to the dentist. My last appointment was in the US back in 2023 in January I believe. I know some of you aren't even from here, so this is how the visit normally goes:
Make an appointment, go at your appointed time. Wait for a bit after getting there, then they call you in.
You go beyond the reception desk and are led to the back where you sit in a chair with all the dental instruments to the right and a computer behind you. In recent years, They've added an x-ray camera to the mix, so instead of putting on a lead vest and going to a large machine to get your teeth x-rayed, they just do it from the chair after putting a block between your teeth. They look at this for cavities and other problems, and then go in for a cleaning. They check your gums for damage (and mine have not been the best since I went to college) tell you you need to floss more, and then start the cleaning. They scrape for plaque, put a tube in your mouth to suck the spit out while they work, and once you're nice and down to enamel, they polish the teeth.
This has been my experience at the dentist's office for all my life. Now, you may have heard this before, but going to the dentist in Japan is what most would describe as a frustrating experience. From what I understand, they generally only do one thing at a time due to the way insurance works. It's government healthcare, meaning it's usually shit or somebody is not getting paid very well to do this stuff. This translates to either poor service or several visits to the dentist, and Japanese dentists take the second approach.
The way careers in Japan typically work is that you pick a field, you get very good at it, and then you retire after 60/70 years of service. And by retire, I mean drive a Taxi because this is Japan and no one retires here. The dental industry is a bit fucked because the government only pays so much per visit. this is of course not enough to run a dental office, so rather than do eveything at once, they schedule as many visits as possible to get their money's worth out of the government. There's a copay of course, but for my recent 'plaque removal' it only cost me 3K yen, or about $24 USD. in comparison, back in the US, my copay was something like $90 USD of a $320 bill that was mostly covered by insurance.
So, this visit to the dentist, I was very worried about the plaque because it was beginning to make it difficult to floss, so I finally gave in asked to have an apointment scheduled. The first strange thing was that they asked me what I wanted done specifically. I'm used to having it all done in under an hour, so that was the first thing to consider. I thought I might meet up with my interpreter for the appointment, but no, I was alone. Sure, fine, whatever, I can follow instructions, I know that much Japanese at least. And then I get in there and they ask me what's bothering me. A struggle ensured as I tried to tell them about the plaque using basic words, and eventually we got it down.
They gave me a cup full of water and a little bit of a topical numbing agent, I believe. I was told to swirl and spit that after a minute, and when I felt the light numbing, I wondered what they do if a kid like, swallows this shit. I do that, they lay me back, and then, the strangeness begins to ramp up. An assistant uses these plastic mouth guard like things to stretch my mouth open for me and then hand me a mirror. they again ask me what's wrong so I point to the plaque again and try to ask about my gums, but I think they only really got a little bit about the plaque. They have me swish and spit again, then the real dentist comes over and he speaks a little english. He tells me that the plaque is due to the build up of bacteria and all that and how they try to impart the importance of brushing your teeth to children and all that... then leaves.
That was a thing I guess. The other assistant leaves too, and a young nurse lays me down and puts a couple towels over my face. I'm not sure what's going here, but whatever, then she puts some kinda tube with a sweet scent blowing out of it in front of me, and then starts to scrape my teeth. I of course have no idea what any of this is and just let it happen, latching onto the familiarity of my teeth being scraped. Only, she seems maybe a little new. it goes on, she pulls out the water drill, and the starts getting in there. I swear to go she cut my gums at least three times because this shit was not fun.
She finishes, hey do the mirror thing again, and then she says, "good work." I'm like, oh, what now? and she gives me a little pamphlet about the tooth life cycle in which it goes, cavities, fillings, caps, and then permanent loss and I'm thinking, wait, can we not fix that? I could swear we could fix that before, but that might not be a very common practice here. Either way, I am ushered out of the office and confused on what to do next. I'm used to paying for these things, so I got up to ask about that and she reacts to it almost like it's an afterthought to charge me anything. I get my bill, pay the fee, and walk away.
You may have noticed that there was nothing in here about toothpaste or cleaning my teeth. That's because there wasn't. I went in at about 4:30, left at about 5, and that was all that was done. I feel like I need to go back for a deep clean or something but I'm not sure I want to go back because this was not the dental care I was expecting. I definitely need to do more of my own research into this, but there are a lot of crooked teeth in this country and I have never seen braces or anything like that here before.
After about a year and a quarter here, I feel like Japanese health care is super hit and miss. Half the medicines of the modern world are banned, getting anything useful has to be done through a doctor visit, doctor visits are... Well, I wouldn't call them thorough based on the ones I've had, and the end result is usually, "Oh you feel bad? here's like twelve pills since it's not legal to have them all in the same pill here for whatever reason."
I like living here a lot, but damn it if the health care here isn't great. Of course, I don't live in a huge city or anything so it might just be the result of my location, but a lot of medical professionals in this country went to the big university in Tokyo. So either the reputation is not up to the reality, or the education is not as good as they say it is. Either way, when I go back home for christmas, I'm gonna try to get an appointment in. I want this shit done right.
Anyways, that's all from me for now.
Until Next Time~
-KCZ
It's kind of funny listening to my sister talk about health care in Japan. She'll go on and on about how it's great because it's so cheap and universal and everyone can get it no problem and yadda yadda yadda... until someone in her family actually has to go to a doctor. Then we get a spiel about how much of an annoyance it is. For instance, one time the doctors refused to do anything but give her placebos for six weeks before finally acknowledging that maybe something was genuinely wrong, only to immediately send her to the ER because they discovered her lungs were on the verge of collapsing. The doctor who actually treated her was pissed, but also told her "this is just how the system is."
And then she's back to telling us that it's great healthcare, because it's universal single-payer and that automatically makes it so. We should totally adopt it in America!
Her husband is a little more practical-thinking. He acknowledges that Japan's healthcare is shit. He also acknowledges that England's healthcare is shit (he's English, BTW). What's the one thing they have in common?
Now that you mention it, I don't think I've ever even heard the concept of braces brought up anywhere in Japanese media. Or Asia in general, for that matter.
5788411
This and the blog post in general made me surprised that... braces aren't apparently a thing in East Asia? Because, over here in the Philippines, they're as common as you'd probably expect braces to be. I should know: my sister and my dad wore braces for an extended period of time and I should have gotten braces as well but I simply just forgot (if I remember correctly, I have overbite).
As for healthcare, I can't (not just won't) comment much on it because I haven't studied a lot about it. I can think I know, but watching a few YouTube videos from people of my particular economic-political leanings doesn't seem to be enough. I can say (albeit naively) that perhaps both the private and public sectors should combine forces and become a supersector for healthcare.
Also, speaking of Japan, there's this last bit of kliksphilip's video about plushies of leftover/abandoned food that I remember and just... well, they're cute!
5788411
Yeah, It's not something I enjoy. While I'd like better care, the US system is also fucked due to how expensive it is and how intertwined it is with corporations and this visit I want done when I go back is likely going to cost me about a quarter or more of my flight ticket there. You only kinda get one or the other it seems and there's no middle ground.
5788441
I really can't say why either because a lot, and I mean a lot of the populace could use them. I'm sure it has to do with expense and training, but IMHO, I think it's worth it. I also have an overbite, but I never got braces either.