Dental Woes

So yesterday I went to the dentist in Los Algodones, Mexico. Linda was kind enough to go with me so it was much less stressful. I paid $6 to park at the border on the U.S. side and walked over. There’s no one there from Mexican Customs, I guess they don’t care who you are or what you’re bringing in! The Ja-Bal dental clinic has 3 locations and we found one, and they led us to the correct one.

My appointment was for 11:00 and we thought we were brilliant for figuring out that we enter from Winterhaven, CA so they’d be on Pacific Time.  Well they’re not!  They’re on Mountain Time and I was an hour late for my appointment. They were very very nice about it, and took me right in.

My 3-tooth bridge had come unglued and I thought one of the anchor teeth had broken.  I was right about that. I had thought that maybe the dentist could put in a post to re-anchor the bridge but that was wrong.  I had to have a root canal, then a post, plus a whole new bridge, because the old one was letting bacteria in (that’s why that tooth underneath had gotten decayed).  $740!!!  I know in the U.S. all that would have cost $3000 or more, but it was devastating news for me, since my savings amounts to hardly more than that.

They phoned for the root canal guy and he arrived in about 5 minutes with a big plastic fishing tackle box of his tools. It took about 2 hours to do the root canal and then get the impressions for the post, then they told us to go away for 1.5 hrs. while the lab made the post.  So we went shopping.  Los Algodones is nothing but pharmacies, optical and dental clinics, and liquor stores!!  I know there are 350 dentists in the 5-block square town.

I had gotten a prescription for an antibiotic and pain meds so we went to a pharmacy.  My antibiotic (Amoxicillin) was not cheap; $16 for 24 of them.  But I got a whole bottle of 100 Keflex 500 mg. for $8, and 100 of my prescription diuretic for $3.60! (I’m going to run out of that one before I can get back to NC to my doctor)  And now with the Keflex on hand, I’ll be ready if I get a urinary tract infection.  Linda price Ambien but it was expensive (we thought), 10 of the 10 mg. pills for $27.60.

Then we went to a couple liquor stores.  Linda got a bottle of Jose Cuervo Tequila for $7.99.  We each got an 8 oz. bottle of pure Mexican vanilla for $1.41.  Today we went to the supermarket and they sold the same size Jose Cuervo WITH a big bottle of Margarita mix for $8!!  So not much of a bargain there, LOL.  I guess you really have to know your prices before you go.

I went back and got the post stuck in and impressions for the new bridge.  Paid them $400 and I have to go back on Monday with another $340 to get the bridge.  She used my old bridge as a temporary, so at least I don’t still look like a toothless old crone!   Boy that was sooo depressing; I really thought I might have to pay around $200, and I thought THAT was bad!

So now I have practically zero savings and if some other bad thing comes up, I’ll have to put it on my high-interest credit card.  I’m keeping my fingers & toes crossed for good luck! And I’m really going to have to watch my expenses.

Here is Linda’s dog Rascal.  He LOVES the water and chasing his tennis ball.  After he swims out and retrieves the ball, he bats it around with his feet and then flops down and rolls on it.  Does this look like a happy dog, or what?! I’m glad he’s in her camper and not mine, and I’m suddenly glad that Roxie does NOT like the water!

Today we went out and ran a few errands. Here’s a view of the Chocolate mountains from our campground, and the lettuce fields across the road.  There are miles of those irrigated fields, all growing various kinds of lettuce, cabbage & broccoli.  The different bands of color are beautiful! I’m afraid the sun was coming in from the wrong angle so they don’t show up nearly as pretty as they are.

Migrant workers picking

And finally, here is Princess Roxie relaxing.