Getting Dental Work Done for $8.68 in Potosi, Bolivia

Greetings,

The last week or so of travel has been rather intense; I was moving at a pace I had not seen since 2009 and it took a toll on me. Luckily Potosi, Bolivia is a very cool place to kick back and relax at over 4000M in altitude! The history of this city is insane but more on that later; now we’ll discuss a trip to the dentist in Potosi which could only be described as most pleasurable and pleasant.

Sometimes when in a funk, people go out and shop or eat big fatty cakes or do other things. Personally, if I want to reset the switches, I go and get a solid teeth cleaning from some random dentist in an even more random location. I was strolling the streets looking for something to eat when I saw a dentist and the hamster wheel started spinning.

Waited a while and the gent quoted me 130B and said tomorrow night at 7; I told him I might show up and thanked him for his time. Randomly I see a sign for an orthodontist and stumble in. The dentist is busy but I have some graph paper as I’m designing something and get to work; he opens the door and calls me into the room. He proceeds to check my teeth and quotes me 60B. I thought he said 600, then 100 but no, only 60B aka $8.68! $1US = ~ 6.91B fyi.

I show up at 5 and it was one of the best jobs I’ve had in recent memory. He used a pick for the entire cleaning as well as a a sander of sorts with lots of cotton swabs and finished up with a professional polish. It’s funny how people spend so much time on hair or clothing but neglect the most important of all accessories; the teeth! I won’t go into detail as to why clean teeth are key but do use your imagination.

The dentist was a friendly 35 years old and I’m his first ever customer from Canada. I do believe every 2-3 months is ideal and I’ll tell you why… People dread the dentist because they rarely see the dentist until it’s too late. If you go every so often every treatment is rather routine and dare I say relaxing. Leave it for years and you have a reason to dread that diabolical drill.

In closing, don’t fear the dentist if you never want to feel the drill…

Tips hat,

P.S: Notice the dental sign in the left side of street photo…