Trip to the dentist - not exactly the excursion I had planned.

[tomko2]

Thank you for sharing. Good to know.

KathyT

[PlanoTim]

I worry about this every cruise so it's nice to hear of a good experience. Did the work done pass muster with your regular dentist?

 

Actually, I haven't been to see my dentist yet. The technique the Belize dentist used seemed identical to what my own dentist does. The only difference I noticed was the dentist in Belize still used a little spit sink and cup of water for rinsing once everything was done. My dentist here squirts water in and uses the straw for "spitting." :rolleyes: I think the document on his wall said Marquette University School of Dentistry.

[PlanoTim]

I understand if you don't want to say, but can you tell us what the dental issue was? Just for future reference it would be nice to know what dental services the onboard doctor can or can't do.

 

The medical staff said they had a compound they could mix up that would temporarily repair a lost filling. But that wouldn’t help for my situation. I have some porcelain veneers on my front teeth. At dinner on Tuesday night one of them popped off. I was so fortunate my wife spotted it under our table on the dining room floor – all while the wait staff was performing. ;) I had brought along some temporary tooth cement (from the drug store) and we re-applied the veneer after dinner. I was very careful to not bite anything, knowing the drug-store bonding stuff probably wasn’t too strong.

 

We had kayaking and snorkeling planned for the next day in Roatan (At Upachaya, great excursion). I was concerned the entire time that the veneer would come loose and geyser out into the crystal blue Caribbean Sea as I cleared my snorkel. :eek: Luckily that didn’t happen. But it did come off again before dinner at Chops that night. :( We attached the veneer once again a couple hours before dinner but it came off as I was sleeping that night. The temporary cement was just not up to snuff.

 

I could have just left it off, but having one veneer missing can compromise the remaining ones some - not to mention I would look a bit snaggle-toothed. :rolleyes: So I decided to get it addressed in Belize. Thankfully it all worked out.