Dental Day One

Our first day at Algodones.

   Our appointment was at 9am so not knowing the route and layout, we left our Yuma motel at 7:45.  Got on I-8 and drove west about 6 miles to the Algodones Road exit which is the same exit for the Quesan Casino.  Three miles south on the paved street puts youo at the US/Mexico border.  There is an RV park there if you need hook-ups otherwise there are spaces in the desert to park your rig for free.  Right on the border is a parking lot owned by the local Indian Tribe that charges $5 to park for the day.
    We parked and walked into Mexico.  It was 8:15 so it was fairly quiet.  The shops were starting to open up and a few other folks were slowly starting to enter Mexico, probably because they had early dental appointments also.  At the appointed time our dentist picked us up in front of the Purple Pharmacy and drove us severl blocks to our dentist's office.  There must be 40-50 dentists in this small town.  Also there are a dozen pharmacies and two dozen optical places as well.  Put all those together and fill up the other stores with jewelry, pots, knick knacks, etc. and you get an idea of Algondones.  Narrow streets, brightly painted buildings, some vehicle traffic, a few visible police and federalies.  Now add several hundred Americans every day to complete the picture.
   Our driver, Hector, who is the bookkeeper for the business, delivered us, in a few minutes to the office, which is a new building a few blocks away from the downtown hussle.  Like I said, very new and very nice.
   A few minutes and both os us were in chairs being examined.  After x-ray s I found out that I had a badly cracked tooth that will need to be pulled and a broken tooth that needed a root canal before it could get a crown.  R had similar extensive and expensive news. 
   Bottom line, I had my root canal, not painful but certainly not fun.  R had prep work done for a crown.  Tomorrow my cracked tooth will be extracted and the other will get a temporary crown.  R will also get an extraction (the same tooth number as mine but on the other side) and then get a permanent crown on her prepped tooth.  We will both have sore mouths for a while.
   We also have an appointment for next Friday to get the permanent crown on my tooth and to have our extractions areas checked. 

Dental work is so much fun...