{"id":532,"date":"2020-02-18T14:39:27","date_gmt":"2020-02-18T14:39:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/?p=532"},"modified":"2020-02-19T05:01:18","modified_gmt":"2020-02-19T05:01:18","slug":"kaliningrad-dentist-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/kaliningrad-dentist-russia\/","title":{"rendered":"Kaliningrad Dentist Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

A Day at the Dentist<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When my wife suggested to me that I should take my tooth that needed to be filled to the Russian dentist, here in Kaliningrad, I thought twice about it. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was my\nwife who suggested that I put an end to my griping and take myself and my tooth\nwith a hole in it to one of the dentists here in Kaliningrad. \u201cThe [dentist]\nservice here is very good; very professional,\u201d she told me. Well, she would say\nthat, wouldn\u2019t she. She\u2019s Russian. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was December 2018. We had just arrived in Kaliningrad having moved from England. Being at that age when everything falls to bits [Cohen: \u201cWell my friends are gone and my hair is grey, I ache in the places where I used to play.\u201d], especially teeth, I knew I had to do something and that was either go to a Russian dentist, travel back home to England or take my brother\u2019s advice and use one of his Do It Yourself dental filling kits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flying to\nthe pub is good, but flying through the air is not and DIY dental kits conjure\nup images of something that Del Boy would peddle, so, tempted with the\nconciliatory carrot that we could go to the local bar afterwards, the Russian\ndentist it was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UK dental experiences<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Now I am not one for \u2018telling tales out of school\u2019 but recently both my and my wife\u2019s experiences of UK dentistry had left much to be desired. I was struck off the patient list by one practice because I did not attend for two appointments, even though I contacted them and explained that I was unwell, and was immediately and suspiciously recommended to their sister practice up the road, which was, quite frankly, awful. In 12 months of registering there I had two fillings: one was so oversized that it felt as if I had a piece of Stonehenge in my mouth, and I breathed a sigh of relief when it fell out six months later, and the other disintegrated three times in a similar period. My wife was registered with Charlie Chan Inscrutable Dentist Man. Alright, admittedly that was not the real name of his practice; it was Charlie Chan Inexcusable Dentist Man. He worked on my wife\u2019s teeth, charged her a bundle and when she was forced to go for a second opinion because the tooth was still giving her pain, she discovered that apart from the anesthetic he had not done anything! To add insult to injury, he had cancelled two appointments in a row, month on month, the only excuse being that he had other patients to see. Yes, we should have reported him, which we threatened to do, but this did not get the tegs seen too, and we all know how difficult it is in overcrowded Britain to find an NHS dentist that is willing to take you on. We did, after a lot of \u2018Googling\u2019 and \u2018word of mouthing\u2019 locate a dentist 15 miles away. He had a nice old-fashioned English name, \u2018Harry\u2019, and seemed to have a severe case of x-ray phobia, as he kept dancing out of the room before he had quite determined how the apparatus went together. You instinctively know things are not quite right when the x-ray plate is lodged behind your ear!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These incidents went a long way in persuading me that the Russian option was worth a try.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaliningrad Dentist Russia<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

There is no shortage of dentists in Kaliningrad and, as it is pay as you go, there is no \u2018will you, won\u2019t you\u2019 register me. Our dentist practice of choice came from personal recommendation. It was, and still is, Centrodent<\/a>. The recommending friend explained that Centrodent was not the cheapest practice in Kaliningrad but, in her opinion, it was the best. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mick
Now, where is that dentist’s clinic?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In recent years, since leaving London, I have been used to small dental practices operating from all sorts of converted houses, so I was surprised to find that not only was the Centrodent clinic<\/a> purpose-built but very large.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Kaliningrad
Water feature and Neoclassicism ~ Centrodent dentists, Kaliningrad, Russia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Inside it\nis spacious, light and airy. The dominant colour is a mellow green, the walls\nmade from a green marble substance containing white ripples (a sort of soothing\ntoothpaste effect). A combination of design embellishments, favouring both Art\nDeco and Neoclassical elements, work surprisingly well together and form a\nharmonic partnership with the general modernity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first impression was one of tranquility, which was surprising as the place is busy, busy. Patients and white-uniformed staff criss-cross the wide reception area, ascend and descend the curved staircase to the upper quarter, mill around the reception desk, congregate in front of the cloakroom, appear and disappear from the central passage and from the glass-fronted rooms to the left of the planters and water feature. It is all go and yet no stress. It is Waterloo Station on quiescent medication. It works and whoever designed it did well, as he took the dread out of dentistry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Kaliningrad
Spacious, clean and relaxing ~ Centrodent dentist clinic, Kaliningrad, Russia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As with many public establishments in Kaliningrad, the cloakroom, with its lady cloakroom attendants, is a nice, civilised and practical touch. This one is open-fronted, built into the main foyer\/waiting room, and allows you to divest yourself of your coats so you can worry about your treatment wholeheartedly and without encumbrance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Swimming caps on shoes<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In exchange for your coat you are given a small numbered tag, appropriately made in the form of a tooth. Before you can proceed further, in the interests of feet hygiene, it is mandatory to cover your shoes with a pair of polythene shoe protectors. These ubiquitous items are found in all medical institutions here. I suppose they are a good idea, especially as they make everyone look rather silly. It is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to indulge yourself in pre-dental stress whilst wearing a pair of these. First off it amused me, as in trying to put them on I nearly went arse over head, but once content that no one had seen me, I settled into a game of spot who looks the silliest walking in bright blue plastic elastic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it was time to advance to go, I looked down at my bright blue shoes and decided that it was me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mick
‘Don’t step on my blue suede shoes!’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

My good\nlady wife led me along a corridor, the doors and arches of which were edged\nwith classical pillars or curved adornments surmounted by pediments. This brief\nwalk brought us into a smaller waiting room of suntan and honey tangerine\ncolours, hollow curves to some of the doorways, beige highlighting and, at one\nend, a row of blind arches fronted by a small stone-wall garden of tall cacti\nand succulents. Activity was no less restrained here than it had been in the\nmain entrance hall but, as before, the colour scheme and sense of open space\nmade it less of a waiting room and more of a transit area. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"Cacti
A tooth bush?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I was not\nkept transiting long, but during my brief stay I did notice that the majority,\nif not all, of the dentists were female, as was mine. She was dressed in a\nsmart two-piece medical uniform and wearing a surgical mask when she called me\ninto the surgery. I remember thinking to myself, she had very nice eyes: kind\nand sincere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaliningrad Dentist Russia \ud83e\udd0d<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It probably was not advisable of me to tell my wife later that I had fallen in love with my dentist as she promptly told the dentist, thus making me very self-conscious when it came to return appointments, but how could I not be so enamoured: pain-free dentistry, a palpable professionalism, a dental surgery equipped with the most sophisticated appliances and stuff to fill your teeth with claimed to be top of the range, not to mention those kindly eyes and gentle but accomplished hands. What was there not to like? There was even a garden and shrubbery just outside the window.<\/p>\n\n\n\n