Adventures in Uruguayan dentistry

Originally published May 13, 2009



I'm finally in Uruguay! I arrived in Montevideo last Friday and began Spanish classes on Monday at a school for extranjeros (foreigners) called Academia Uruguay. They have a hostel-style residence area and I am renting a room here, which is located in the downtown neighborhood of Ciudad Vieja. I love this neighborhood and I feel like I am right in the middle of everything! I live on the corner of Plaza Constitución which is adjacent to a pedestrian street filled with shops and restaurants. The only thing is that no one really lives in this area since it is downtown, so at night it is a little bit sketchy. The unusually warm autumn weather finally subsided, and the past couple of days have been rainy, dreary and cold and I'm totally loving it!

One of my priorities upon arriving in Montevideo was to immediately go to a dentist. The friendly people at my language school helped me locate an office and made an appointment for me, and today I went to the dentist... again. The Brazilian dentist told me I probably need a root canal, but the Uruguayan dentist told me that what I need is to have my wisdom teeth extracted. However, in January of this year I actually had a consultation for wisdom teeth extraction with an American dentist who told me I should absolutely NOT have these teeth pulled since they're fully erupted and not causing me any problems. My toothache is not in my third molar and so three different dentists have told me three different things. The Uruguayan dentist also said that the pain could be caused by clenching and/or grinding my teeth at night and suggested an acrylic bite plate.

So what am I supposed to do? In the meantime, my tooth still hurts and I don't know, something tells me no one has it quite right. And I'm also a little wary of the Uruguayan dentist's diagnosis because he said all this before sending me across town to get ex-rays taken, then said basically the same thing after I returned with the films. The only really great thing is that my consult today cost $0. Seriously, zero pesos, zero dollars. I had to pay $330 pesos uruguayos for the ex-rays, which is about $15 dollars. The same ex-rays I had taken in January in Seattle cost $75 dollars, plus $100 dollars just for the consult. $175 versus $15. What is wrong with the United States??

I guess I'll just keep up with my ibuprofen regimen for now. Maybe I'll go to a different dentist here in Montevideo. This whole toothache problem is really starting to get me down.