Blame Canada

I'd always heard that Canadian dentists were the best in the world, but today I had that rumour confirmed. Not only are they thorough (I sat in the chair for almost two hours, so they must have been doing something in my mouth that whole time), but they're friendly, they make conversation with you, and they don't treat you like the Antichrist because you can't remember the last time you flossed.

Mind you, if there's anything that makes you want to floss, it's visiting a Canadian dentist. They go through everything with you, in every gory detail (they even send you your x-rays if you want - those stalactite things on the left are my front teeth!). And if you've grown up in Britain, the details are probably pretty gory.

It's not that British dentists (at least, the NHS ones) are crap. No, it's that they're positively negligent. It's like they aim to be worse than crap. Let me give you an example of an NHS filling:
Specifically, it's my NHS filling. Okay, so most of the tooth is amalgam, but it still counts as a filling. Look at either side of it, in the gaps between the teeth. Can you see how it juts out on both sides? The spaces above them are where no dentist's implement, no matter how technologically advanced, could ever reach. Which has made it a honeypot for bacteria and turned my gum into a puffball. Thanks NHS!!

Okay, there is a snag to Canadian dentistry. You do have to pay for it - but there's this wonderful thing called health insurance and it's worth every penny. And you know why I didn't even think about private dentistry when I was in England? Because I didn't think I really needed it. I didn't know NHS work was so shoddy.

Okay, one more picture. This is not for the queasy, by the way! Ready? Here we go...!

See the amalgam filling there (amalgam, by the way, hasn't been used in Canada in about ten years)? See how it's come away at the sides, allowing all kinds of nice bacteria to come in and cause decay? It's not even worth the forty quid I paid for it.

So, anyway, sorry to gross you all out - I just thought I should warn you what kind of dentists you're entrusting your teeth to. But then, private treatment in England is absolutely outrageous, so what else is there? I always thought it was unfair that North Americans saw the British as having bad teeth, but now I know they're right. What do you expect with this kind of dollar store dentistry?