A Quick Buck

Wanna make a quick buck?

Become a dentist!

After a late December notice from my hometown dentist reminding me to get a six month check-up, I finally made it in to London Dental Clinic yesterday. I was greeted at the front desk by a slew of giggles as one little assistant ran off to grab the doctor, clearly the only one in the practice with any knowledge of the English language. Dr. Lee Sang Tae help me set up an appointment for the following morning and immediately went back to work, leaving the gigglers to explain the paperwork for me. With a bit of 'guess and check' I eventually filled out some sort of information form and headed out the door, giggles following down the hall.

I intentionally set an early appointment (10:00am) so that I would have a reason to actually get up and out of bed as I often have little to no motivation to do so when working late evenings. This morning I was again greeted by the two Giggles who kindly took my coat and led me to a chair that was in no way made for human beings of my size! With the head rest all the way extended it just barely came halfway up the back of my neck and my feet were only an inch or so from the floor, even while lying down!

In true Korean fashion, Dr. Lee got right to work pointing out all of my flaws. He was no more than 30 seconds familiar with my mouth before declaring my total cavity number (two, apparently) and the fact that my old filling had almost fallen out. No diddle daddling around like they do back home. . ."aaahhh ooooo, ya knoo, it looks lyke we might hayve a little problem here. Lemme just go gryab Dr. J reayl quick to take a looksie? You gonna be okay there for myinute?!"

Having gotten his cavity proclamation out of the way, Dr. Lee went to work on a 'routine' cleaning. First, he told me to close my eyes and raise my hand if anything went 'wrong.' Umm, okay. With my eyes close I feel something being laid across my face. Opening them, I realize that I have a large piece of cloth over my face with only a hole for the mouth. Again, this apparatus was not exactly one size fits all as my mouth fully opened did not fit through the whole. Thus, the mask was shifted such that either my top teeth, or my bottom teeth, but not both, fit through.

Dr. Lee skipped the whole scrapping, flossing, chatting thing and simply dove in with a rotating type of pick. Running over the back then the front of my bottoms before moving on to the tops. While I have always been a fan of the dentist's office, Dr. Lee changed this for me quick as he seemed to know just how deep to drill into my gums before pulling up the second before I yelped in agony. I don't know if that's the sign of a good, or evil, doctor.

After finishing with the gum drill we slapped a handful of some red compound onto my front teeth and went at them with the rubber spinner brush. I was told to rinse myself (no cool water and suction gun) then returned back to the chair, expecting the treatment to continue. This was not the case. Dr. Lee told me I did a great job and that I could come back anytime to have my cavities filled; the black fillings would be covered by insurance, the white compound is not. Well, I think I know which I'll go with but I'm not gonna make an appointment just yet, perhaps a second opinion? Jenna, are you available and qualified yet to do online examinations!?

Anyways, I checked in just before 10:00am and made it out by 10:10am, that is, out the actual door of the building. So, 50,000won for ten minutes, times six would be 300,000w an hour. . .not a bad deal! Wanna make some quick cash? Go get your DDS!


London Dental Clinic is located at Eunhaeng-sa-geori in Junggye-dong and Dr. Lee is available for contact at...

Tel. 02) 935-2226
E-mail. stl2010@empal.com