Symi and teeth
Tuesday morning and the sun is out, yesterday’s cold wind has dropped, and it all looks calm out there. At least, it does towards the front of the house, at the back, the roadworks have begun again. Well, I’ve not been out to look, but it sounds like they have. Either that or someone is drilling their way through our wall thinking we are a bank vault. It makes for an interesting time when using the vibrating bathroom because the road is two feet away on the other side of the wall. And let’s leave it at that. Except to say, I’ll get a photo when I can.
The drilling is appropriate as Neil is off to the dentist this morning to have one of his teeth examined after it broke off at the weekend. We were down in Yialos on Monday and heading to the dentist when we found him in discussion with the council chairman and others at Spice Corner. Neil went to arrange an appointment, everyone had a good laugh at his missing front tooth, and Vasilis said he would phone him in the evening when he was at work and had his diary. This he did, and Neil’s off to see what’s what a little later on.
On the subject of dentists, many people ask about the costs. I can only speak from experience, and I have no idea what treatment costs in other countries, but here, I recently paid €250 for a crown, fillings are around €40 or €50 and an extraction €100, depending what’s involved, I guess. I also like the way there’s no fuss or messing around. Yes, you have to pay, but you’re not paying for an army of assistants and hygienists and so on, just the dentist, expert and well trained, and everything is attended to when you need it to be. It’s also hygienic if you were worried, though there’s no reason why you should be. Our dentists probably trained alongside yours. There’s a professional, yet friendly and laisser-faire attitude to appointments. Turn up, wait, or fix a time over the phone as the dentist will give you their mobile numbers, and away you go. Actually, I’ve recommended to people that they get their treatment done in Greece when on holiday to save money. I remember lengthy waiting times back in the yUK, with a costly X-ray for every visit and having to take a morning off work to have a hygienist clean my teeth which I do two or three times a day anyway. It’s so much more relaxed here. No disrespect to folks who work in the profession, I have at least two friends who do or did, but when you have your treatment here on Symi, you realise that all you need is an expert who knows what he is doing, not the trappings of a posh surgery and so on. Simple, to the point, clean, hygienic, painless (even injections) and no-frills means excellent treatment and at a lower cost. As our dentist is also the deputy mayor, you can also get some up-to-date town hall news while you’re there chatting about all and sundry.
Ps, I know why you have X-rays, hygienists, assistants, piped music, records and all that jazz so no emails please, but when you need your tooth doing, you just want it seen to there and then, and that’s usually what happens here, and at any time between ten in the morning and ten at night.
