Arrived at 11:25, and sure enough Ruth was taken in five minutes later.
We've been to Dr. Lisette Gomez several times before and she's always been efficient with her appointments.
Half way through Ruth's cleaning, the receptionist came out to tell me that Dr. Lisette would like to do my work right after she was done with Ruth instead of waiting until my scheduled 5:30pm appointment. Works for me!
So when Ruth was done, I went and sat in the chair. She had to grind down my two upper molars and shape them to fit the caps. Then do the moulds for them. It took about an hour and ten minutes for the whole job, but now it's done and I don't have to go back until March 12th for the final appointment.
Hmm. I think I might have started to have a nap.
Dr. Lisette, hard at work.
By the way, Ruth's dental cleaning and inspection...done by the dentist herself, cost 200 pesos ($15.60 CAD). Same price that it was when we first had it done here about five years ago.
Then we walked back to Sherman. Along the way, we stopped in at the local public health building. Not many people around, and I asked the girl at the desk if I could see a doctor about my blocked ear. We waited about 15 minutes and the doctor came out and led us into his office. No English spoken here, but no problem.
He poked and prodded and asked if I had a fever or any other sickness. Nope, just an earful of wax!
I was kind of hoping he would use one of those little spoons and just clean it out, but instead he wrote down the instructions to dilute hydrogen peroxide (oxygenated water) and put it in the ear for 30 minutes. Then he went and got a special syringe thing, gave it to us, and explained how to use it to flush out the ear.
And then sent us on our way. Total cost? Zero.
I love Mexico.
I even asked the girl on the way out if we had to pay something. Nope. She said it wasn't necessary.
So we went back to Sherman and I tried it all out. Still have a blocked ear. But, from reading on the internet sometimes you have to do this two or three times over a period of a couple of days in order to soften it up enough to clear it all out. It does feel a little better today, so we'll try it again this morning before we head out to the market.
Sherman, parked up at Chema's RV Park.
GPS 19.940287, -102.958664.
Speaking of which...Saturday is market day here in Valle de Juarez. Looking forward to seeing the fruit and veggie guy Martin, provided he's still doing it.
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Still on sale...you can't go wrong for the price, and it includes batteries!
And in Canada...a good deal on this portable camping stove...
I clean my ears out myself using a makeshift hook (formerly a paperclip lol)- not the most safe at first I suppose, but I know my ear canals pretty well by now. The doctor's method is the safest and should work.
ReplyDeleteHow do you like Mexican dentistry? My dentist here botched a filling and now says I need a crown, they originally denied that ever worked on that tooth, but said if they did that would pay for the crown. They otherwise quoted me $3,000 for a crown. My next visit, for a cleaning, they set me up to do the crown without my knowing, and when I caught on they played dumb, saying they thought I wanted it done. Now that are refusing to give me anything in writing about paying for the crown if it had been them who did the original work- they don't know I have proof it was them.
But I'm tempted to just get it done in Mexico..... Thoughts or guidance in this?
Afraid that we would never attempt to clean out either of our ears your way, I think we will just stick with the doctor's method.
DeleteAs long as you get a good dentist (which would be the same way in Canada or the U.S. because you can get bad dentists there too) we see no problem with dentistry in Mexico. We really love Dr. Lissette here in Valle de Juarez and contiune to come back whenever we have dental work that needs to be done. I have also have an emergency root canal done in Mazatlan last year and was totally happy with the work done there as well. Many people get the work done at the border towns in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas with good results, having said that we find the border towns and tourist areas are more expensive than further inland in Mexico.
For your ear see if a drugstore carries a big plastic syringe that you fill with warm water and get Ruth to just blast it in there. Or you can get little syringes that are shaped like a ball with a spout but they don't hold as much water. Do it over a sink or outside because all that water comes running out. You'll probably have to do it about 5 times. That's how they do it at a clinic here in Toronto.
ReplyDeleteIf you had noticed when reading the blog that is exactly what the doctor had us do, he even gave us the syringe! :-) Unfortunately, this method has not yet worked but we will continue to try it and if Kevin is still having issues with his ear on Monday we will go see the doctor again.
DeleteI guess they don't talk about ear candling anymore, that's what we did as kids...
ReplyDeleteI'm only kidding, we did it but it's proven not to work....
DeleteEverything Kevin has read about candling says it isn't a good thing to do, although we know that some people may dispute this, we will just avoid this method for the one the doctor has suggested.
DeleteNow how can they charge so little or zero, and here in the States we pay out of our nose?
ReplyDeleteThis was at the public clinic which is free to the Mexican population that can't afford to have private care so the buildings and facilities are quite basic and not all "prettied" up. I think the biggest difference though is that doctors here don't get paid astronomical wages and there isn't the same liability insurance that they have in the States.
DeleteLook these up on the Internet I think this is what you were looking for you can get them at any drugstore
ReplyDeleteIn the US they're five dollars a box
Here's the Scoop!
Clinere™ Plastic Ear Cleaners have dual purpose ends for flexible ear cleaning and ear-itch relief! Similar to a physicians tool but designed to be more flexible and bendable for use by consumers!
They look like a good thing to have on hand, not sure that we can get them here in Mexico but definitely worth looking into when we head back up into the States. Thanks!
DeleteLooks like Chema's place has really come along well. More convinced about this summer.
ReplyDeleteYes, has been improved upon since we were here the first time but he wasn't finished working on it at that point. We really like the fact that it is much closer to town.
DeleteYou should definitely come here for the summer!
It could be that your ear block is internal - on the other side of the drum. I have had this. Years ago had problems SCUBA diving and the doc gave me Guaifenesin with Sudaphedrine . Last summer I went to a farmacia in Palomas south of Deming NM and got a bottle of 100 Guaifenesin tabs for a few bucks. This stuff is made for chest and sinus but apparently works on ears to. It soften and liquefies mucus. It is the main ingredient in Mucinex. If you can't solve the problem then maybe it is not wax but mucus. Could work?
ReplyDeleteKevin is pretty sure that is just wax build up. We tried flushing it out yesterday and also put a few drops of olive oil in it to soften the wax up. Today it finally opened up for a little bit but has once again clogged up, so it looks like it is working albeit slowly.
Delete$200 pesos for a cleaning is great! I paid $600 MX in Playa del Carmen and thought that was really good compared to US prices, but I knew that it had to be cheaper in less touristy parts of Mexico.
ReplyDeleteYikes, 600 pesos is a lot, I think the cleanings even is the border towns are quite a bit less than that. I agree that you will definitely pay less in the non touristy areas.
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