Bert Got a Tooth Pulled

Poor Bert showed up late last week with the right side of his face all swollen up. It looked like he had some grapes tucked under his bottom lip! I knew immediately that a cracked tooth had gotten a nasty infection. I sent him off to the dentist immediately. You don't mess around with this stuff.

We use Dra. Lily Contreras, located on Santander above the Banco Industrial. Here is her link in the Atitlan Directory: https://atitlandirectory.com/directory/listing/dra-lily-karina-contreras

Dr. Lily wasn't in the office when Bert showed up, but her assistant called her and she came quickly. She took a look at Bert's tooth and told him he'd have to get the infection under control before they could remove the tooth. She said it was "too dangerous" to operate while the infection was so bad.

Dra. Lily's assistant posing in the office. 😄

So off Bert goes to the pharmacy to get antibiotics. Eeks, expensive! Clavimox BID, 20 pills for Q404. That's a 10-day course, twice a day. (Clavimox is 125 mg of Clavulanic Acid and 875 mg of Amoxicillin.)

Today, Bert headed back to meet the dental surgeon, Dr. Hector Alberto Cordon Orellana. (Whew, say that five times fast!) They were running late, about a half hour, which is not unusual here or back home either, for that matter. The procedure itself only took about 30 minutes.

Bert says, "The worst part was getting the needles." It didn't take long to get the tooth out but then they had to scrape the infection off the bone. EWWWWWW. 😖 "It felt like torture. That was excruciating. Tears were forming in my eyes." After a minute or two of that, they were done. Ouchies! They packed it with gauze and sent him home with instructions not to walk dogs today. He has to rest. (He's pacing the floor right now. The painkillers have obviously kicked in so his energy is still high.)

Dr. Lily said Bert was very brave. Ha ha! Bert says it made him feel like a child when she said that but I think it's adorable. He says, "What was I supposed to do? Cry like a baby? You just gotta sit there and take it."

The cost of the extraction was only Q350. Less than the antibiotics! They gave him a prescription to get 600mg of ibuprofens but we had some at home already, so we didn't buy more.

Bert kept the tooth (gross), showed it to me and said, "Do I get money from the Tooth Fairy?" I said, "Yeah, the money to pay for the dentist!"

So now Bert is on soft food for a few days. But we get to try this new Jello flavour: strawberry and banana.

Strawberry-banana jello. Yummy!

The moral of the story: there are good dentists here in Panajachel, Guatemala. Pretty much just like home, and actually cheaper. Don't fret about dental care if you're thinking of moving to Guate.
Smile on! 😁