How I Celebrated My 31st Birthday at a Dental Clinic

15th of June 1991 after more than 600 years, a dormant volcano in Pampanga released its rage on the northern part of the Philippines. Per information gathered from the internet, this is quoted as one of the most significant eruptions in the century. After a day, while ashes were falling a young man from the family of shoemakers was born in the basement of their home. Hospital birth isn’t the main thing back then as old folks rely on midwives for childbirth. It was a dark day as pyroclastic materials cover the vicinity, Laguna is quite far from Pampanga but the remnants of the volcanic eruption still affected some states.

Fast forward, the man that was born become an adult and had his own family. After celebrating the birthday of his first born he realized that he doesn’t need to have his own party anymore or prepare anything. He was happy with what life is offering him. Maybe because his own family is well and not in need? Who knows, but he is at peace and content. 

After his night shift work, he just rested for a few hours and went to his newly found dentist. For the past few days last May, he is enduring the pain in the left portion of his teeth. The pain will go from a scale of four to five but since it isn’t that painful he said that he can still manage plus the fact that he is just new to the province and he is not sure if his healthcare provider will be able to cover the procedure.

By navigating the legacy website of his healthcare provider he was able to get a contact of two dentists from his place. It was around thirty minutes of travel and from the conversation, he is entitled to get a simple tooth extraction, a little cleaning with his teeth, and 2 oral prophylaxis which he acquired.

The cleaning took around 15 mins and 2 teeth were secured in the meantime for the prophylaxis procedure. Now the moment of getting rid of the perpetrator of pain. Btw, there was an extra charge of 500 PHP / $10.00 if someone will be using their health card for the infection fee. The price is quite cheap compared to the other practitioners that he inquired which will cost him more than that, almost double or triple.

Before proceeding with the tooth extraction the dentist asked if I have plans to go to work this day and he nodded yes. He mentioned that he just took a nap around 1:00 AM and he thinks that it is okay. They hesitated at first because they are worrying that the young man might bleed continuously while the extraction is ongoing so they asked again if he is sure and he answered yes. 

While they are thinking about whether to proceed or not, the dentist mentioned that the coverage of his HMO will only be simple tooth extraction and when they say simply she mentioned that the tooth should be easily removed and no drilling equipment, etc. will be needed more often than not those teeth are the ones that are moving already. The young man was quite worried because he is sure that the affected tooth isn’t moving which the dentist confirmed. He has a healthy gums per se thus a moving tooth is close to impossible but since his tooth is already broken chances are the pain will escalate further and it may cause other issues in the future. He then asked for the possible price of the procedure and was quoted that it can be more than 1,000.00 or $20.00 depending on the situation. He thought about it for a few minutes, he has some spare money available but he will be buying milk for his daughter that day too! After pondering he said he will go with the procedure and will just buy a small carton of formula milk and told himself it is better than nothing as he will just go to the market after a few days again. 

The taste of the anesthesia was bad! It tastes like bitter gourd extract and the two needles that were used caused pain. His left mouth started to get numb and the procedure begins. The dentist mentioned that if he experiences pain just says so in that way they can add an additional dosage of the drug and with the additional dosage there’s an additional cost.

They went back and forth and used different tools. The tooth was annoying and clingy and he doesn’t want to let go. The dentist asked every time if it is painful but the young man just said no it isn’t. 

It was more than 10 mins until he heard the crack. The tooth is now moving and after a few seconds it finally fell off. 

Was it painful? 

Yes, it was but he was able to tolerate the pain or perhaps he conditioned his mind that if he will be adding another anesthesia then an extra cost will be charged to him as well. 

Happy with the process the dentist mentioned that it was a good thing that he didn’t bleed that much and no equipment was used. She tap the back of the young man and said good job sir and visit us again after 6 months for the cleaning schedule. 

For the final price of the procedure. He just paid 500 PHP for everything, no additional costs were charged to him as nothing extraordinary that isn’t covered by his healthcare provider was used.