Post Gordon ~ Thoughts, Commentary & Reflections

The Dental Difference between Dentures and Implants

The difference between a tooth implant from a dental appliance, like dentures or a bridge, is that as far as your jawbone is concerned, the implant's just another tooth, which means that the implant stimulates your jawbone as you chew food so your jawbone continues to support the implant/tooth.

Your dental appliance or denture does not. The result is that with a dental appliance or dentures you have eventual bone loss and atrophy, that sunken-faced look that folks with a dental appliance inevitably take on as their jawbone recedes for lack of stimulation from natural teeth or a tooth implant.

So wrapping up and completing the tooth implant I started almost two years ago (in 2012) was one of the primary check-off items on my Trip West. Have to say the new tooth both fits, chews and looks great compared with the gap on the lower right side of my mouth. Wasn't too visible, but the reasons to have an implant aren't just esthetic.

Over the last 25 years or so, or so I'm told, Los Algodones has grown into something of a dental phenomenon. With a population thought to be about 5,000, this small, Mexican border town has literally hundreds of dentists, one shop after another compacted into its small downtown area as dental graduates from Mexican dental schools come here to spend a mandatory one-year internship with a practicing dentist. Many stay after their internship and open their own practice.

More on Los Algodones here: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Algodones

The headache in Los Algodones is figuring out who is good from who isn't and it is a definite headache. My method has been to spend time in the tiny lobbies of different dentists. At my implant dentist's office, it seemed everyone came from a small town in Canada. Canada!! They came all the way down here each winter to get their dental work done.

The other issue is price. I could easily pay double, over $2,000 for the same tooth implant. And I could pay $800 or less. The $2,000 tooth implant is no better and the $800 tooth implant is far worse and may not fit well or have a bad bite. My Doc has both Mexican, American and European training, takes frequent trips to Loma Linda or England, for further training and dental conferences.

You can get top quality dental work in Los Algodones for about a third of the cost on this side of the border. That includes root canals, crowns, cleaning, whitening (bleaching) and implants.

More on this later.

 

A Little Culture Shock

For most folks, the street experience in Los Algodones is... different. Imagine a 10-block area honeycombed with small, poorly-built store fronts, mostly dentists, all sort of pushed up against each other. Imagine more dentists per square foot than you've ever seen before.

Imagine countless hawkers asking, "You need a dentist?" "What you looking for?" "I got the best (dentist, pharmacy, eyeglasses) for you! Come with me, man!" Yeah, they sure do. Can't find Dos Equis? Right now every one has Pacifico or Tecate (same distributor).

But you can get Dos Equis and the hawker will run into the store right next to you and tell the clerk to charge you $2.50, so he gets $1.25 commission. Got belts, hats, trinkets, toys, cheap jewelry, purses, you name it. The sidewalk is draped with blankets hanging down, vases, all sorts of stuff. And folks buy them. Shrimp tacos, fish tacos, tamales. No negotiating on prepared food.

Shoe's shined? They'll tell you $10. Going rate's $2. Asked a guy walking away with a shoe shine what he paid. "Ten bucks," he answered. I was livid. "You're crazy, man! The going rate's $2." Said he didn't care, did a good job but you know he's just flustered at his lack of cross-cultural chops.

You can buy from the blue farmacia, the green farmacia or the purple farmacia. Hardly matters. All the same. Amoxicillin's $4.50 but they'll get $5 from you if they can. Even though the geographic footprint of Algodones is small, the purple farmacia has MULTIPLE stores, almost one on each block.

Trudy's is pretty good. You can get virtually any drug except narcotics and bring it back across the border. Also liquor.

Glasses? Well, Los Algodones Optical has 5 stores, very professionally laid out and also Best Optical. Prices are the same but the inventory varies from store to store.

I haven't had any luck with glasses. There are 3 labs in town. You can have your glasses in a couple hours. I get a great frame, progressive, with polycarbonate lense from a one-price shop in Bermuda Dunes, California for $99. He's backed up 5-7 days right now, but will send them to me in Indiana. Here in Algodones they wanted $159-$259.

Early in the day you don't want to buy a heavy item and have to lug it around.

Getting a good deal can be time-consuming. You need to know what the real prices are. How to do that? For every item, there are multiple vendors.

Prices are softer at the end of the day, when they know folks are heading back across the border. It's a last chance for them to make a sale today. Take time to find out what price is too low for an attractive leather belt, for example. Negotiate from there. Once you know the 'real' price, it's a lot easier.

If they're asking $12 for a leather belt, ask if there are some for $5. Start there. And don't worry, a vendor further down the street has the same belt. Same one.

Right now there's no big line to get through customs and walk back to your car. In high season, it can take hours with folks queued up in a slow-moving line for blocks.

 

I'm leading up to chelation, plaquex, and other intravenous treatments--among others.

Visit a dentist or other medical professional in the States and things grind slowly. Not in Algodones. Got a bad tooth? Most examinations are free. If the exam reveals an infection and you need a root canal, north of the border you get a referral and a two week wait (or more) while this horrible infection chugs along in your system, possibly affecting your brain, heart and blood stream.

Not here in Algodones. Someone in the office will walk you over to 'their' endodentist and you'll have your root canal the same day. It'll cost $200-$300 depending upon which shop they take you to. One of the first things I used to ask was who they used for root canals. They'll tell you. Then I'd swing by the root canal office and ask who they recommended to look at a tooth... see if the endodentist recommends the dentist.

You know there's a ratio of endodentists to dentists (more dentists). There are differences in offices, for example, how fluent they are in English, for just one. The decor, how they treat you, and certainly the satisfaction of their customers and how they deal with problems.

After the root canal you have a temporary placed on your tooth by the endodentist and then you go back over to your dentist who takes an impression for the crown and sets an appointment in a day or two to fit the crown. All of this in a single day.

So things move faster.

In the case of a specialist I needed (geriatric and internist), the specialist has hours in a dental office on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This doctor/dentist arrangement is quite typical. The specialist drives over from Mexicali. My noon appointment was the only appointment he had in Algodones, in part because it's early in the season.

So he drove over to Algodones from Mexicali to meet with me on a day's notice. Cost me $100. He can't practice in the US, which doesn't recognize his Mexican University training but is a member of both countries' geriatric associations, both of which require special training in the field.

For dental implants, for example, you'd like to see a certificate on the wall from Loma Linda University in California. My dentist isn't the only Algodones dentist with the Loma Linda certification.

 

Crunch Time

My flight back to Indiana's set for Monday, so it's crunch time. (Friday evening). Been calling this afternoon on either Suzuki or Isuzu 4x4's in the Mesa area (PHX) where I rented the Dodge Avenger from Hertz. Like to find a good, rust-free 4x4, make the drive back to Indiana and forego the plane Monday. Right now have two 'possibles' for tomorrow (Saturday).

So plan to drive up to PHX (Phoenix) after Plaquex (intravenous). Did chelation today... A couple more treatments, if possible, would be a plus.

I'd also like to make another visit to the West LA Veterans Hospital (California) and say hi to my Mom there.

All depends on finding a good buy and driving back to Indiana; else I'm on that plane Monday afternoon.

Either way, hopefully the car's still where I left it, in front of a pizza shop in Bloomington, Indiana. Before my flight, I drove to the Holiday Inn to catch the airport shuttle, only to learn the Holiday Inn no longer allows you to park there. A little notice from the shuttle company would've been nice.

Happily, the pizza shop manager said parking there was, "No problem."

Very cool. We'll see...

 

The Original Plan for My Trip West

The original plan for my Trip West was not quite the same as it has turned out. Flying out to PHX was part of the original plan, the visit to West Los Angeles to see my 93-year-old Mom was part of the original plan, as was the crown on my dental implant. 10 chelation/Plaquex treatments was part of the original plan and the search for a 4x4 to bring back, skipping the return plane ride.

Car camping out here in the desert was part of the plan, as well as showering at the new YMCA in Yuma, new since the last time I was in town. One major difference in the plan is that I had intended to spend beaucoup time at the Y on a treadmill or other workout equipment. Hasn't happened.

Not only has that workout time not worked out, a segment of the trip has been devoted to issues with sleep apnea, high blood pressure and the weight I've put on this last six months. This, I did not expect.

This 'surprise' part of the trip began a few days before I left. I had heard about corleus forskohli extract to help lower blood pressure and drove over to a pharmacy near Spencer (Indiana). Got into a long chat with the owner's son and the next thing I know I'm walking out with this big pulse oximeter that records your sleep. "Just bring it back tomorrow," I was told.

Well, yeah, sure. I was heading for a plane tomorrow.

The next morning I brought the rig back and told the owner's son, "Well, that's not my problem. Thing never went off all night." Came the response, "Okay, let's take a look at how you slept," and he downloaded the results.

Fact was, it buzzed all night--and I mean, all night.

As he looked at the results, looked back over at me and said, "Victor, you qualify for oxygen right now."

 

Bad Pennies... Er, PJs

Well, not to say that PJ is a bad penny but she is rumored to have red hair.

Here I am tonight at Motel 6 in Casa Grande, first money I've spent for a place to sleep rather than car camp. Am slowly coming to the recognition that my hard, dry cough and night sweats might need looked into further. My vascular system has had a nice little overhaul this last 10 days or so and I'd be fine if this darn cough would go away, please.

Well, it's occurred to me before. You fix enough things, start the engine and sooner or later have to fix that flat tire, I guess. Hopefully that's all it is.

Around 2 a.m. I hear a couple texts come in, probably some of the folks with a car to sell in Mesa. At 2 a.m.? Well, at that point I didn't know what time it was... Some time passed and curiosity got the proverbial of me. Here's this text about PattyJ, PJ driving for Henderson and who the Hell is this???

Dumbfounded, I text back, "Who are you?"

Apparently PJ texts about herself in the 3rd person. Okay, fine.

It's going on a year since I've heard from PJ and she's several phones removed. (I like these cheap flip phones that StraightTalk sends me for free if I buy a $30 card online... ) Her number doesn't pop any ID up in this phone and she's who knows how many phones back since her battle with Navajo.

And, being PJ, it's too much trouble to look me up on TTR and say, hi. No. A text at 2 a.m. Two, in fact.

Of course, of course.

The good news is she's in the sleeper; God sent her a trainer who has managed not to put her out of the truck for 8 days, so there's hope!! I can guarantee that she has tried every way from Sunday to pick a fight with this guy and he won't have it. He's not going there.

Well, we'll have to wait and see, won't we? PJ Trucker Story II... she sounds... really good!! Sounds up, even good with having someone close enough to throttle and not tempted. At least so far...

Welcome back to trucking, PJ...

 

Back to West Los Angeles

My car search this weekend in Phoenix/Mesa came up dry. No lucko. Best was a '92 Volvo with just over 200,000 miles and a motivated seller. Sadly for him, when I went back to see what his car was worth back in Indiana, there were oodles for sale, some even for less and many with less miles. Was a good car, though, despite the high miles.

No need to buy it and drive it back to Indiana. Plenty there.

Amazing what $10 more than Motel 6 Casa Grande bought at the Best Western Mezonan in Mesa, about a mile from where I rented the Dodge Avenger that has been playing Elvis (Sirius radio) for over 10 days now. Just amazing. Good breakfast, too. Had planned to turn the rental in today. Let Elvis go, too.

He is The King; grows and grows on you. Too much is still not enough.

The argument goes whether being lucky's better than being good, but it's easier to take advantage of your luck if you're good, too. Lucky no one reached into my open passenger side window last night and looked into the $1500 in cash in the glove box. Well, I did at least lock the car.

Just left the window down. Had rolled it down to talk to a cop in the middle of a bunch of construction and forgot about it.

Okay, fine. No harm, no foul.

On check-out, the Avenger's dash showed 84 degrees outside. A stop at Wal-Mart to exchange $10s and $20s for larger bills and then off to the Mesa Main Branch Library to print off my boarding pass for my 6 pm flight... then I noticed US Airways still offering no fee flight change due to the fire in Chicago airport. Hey! I'll take it!

Took almost an hour but got moved over to a better flight (9:40 am) on Thursday, another non-stop. The temp on the Avenger's dash was 87 when I pulled out of the library parking lot and 90 when I passed under the sign for I-10 West to Los Angeles.

So my 93-year-old Mom, who won't remember this visit or the last one, well, she gets another visit. For tonight I'll car camp in the VA Hospital parking lot, which is where I am now.

 

A Hop towards Phoenix

Visited with my 93-year-old Mom at West Los Angeles Veterans Medical Center this a.m. after her breakfast, then rolled down to Seal Beach, a touchstone for both her and me, for different reasons, where I picked up a couple postcards of the pier and a magnet with some neat art of Seal Beach, a woody (surfer truck) in front of the pier.

They help 'anchor' her, with her otherwise 'lost' parts of her memory, past and the folks she knew all her life mostly all gone. Well, as a 95-year-old friend says about life in general, "It's a gift." Thanks to those postcards she was more lucid the rest of the day.

Because Seal's a significant part of her past.

We had another couple short visits after her lunch and then after her dinner tonight while I waited for the freeways to clear out some.

Still have a couple possibles for the trip back in PHX, including a Tercel 2-door coupe with 130K and a Chevy Malibu. Otherwise it's US Airways Thursday, rather than another car jaunt.

Hafta wait and see.

From the VA Medical Center right off Wilshire Boulevard and hard against the 805 Freeway (San Diego Freeway), it's just a few miles south to the I-10 East, and hypothetically a direct shot to Phoenix, which it's not.

You have to work for it. From the Wilshire District you have one- or two- lane pull offs to stay on I-10, some exit right, some exit left until you break loose of Greater LA up around Banning/Beaumont.

The I-10 will get there (PHX). Eventualmente.

For tonight it's the windy Whitewater rest area for me (Morongo Indian Reservation, east of the Morongo Casino in Cabazon before you pull over 'wind tunnel hill' into Coachella Valley) in order to check on my new $99 glasses in Bermuda Dunes come morning.