Just for Fun Dental Clinic

Where do I start? How about with this: DON'T EVER GO HERE. I know it's cheap. I know the name is clever (fun means teeth in Thai). I know the mall location is convenient. But nothing about this place is fun. I went in for a routine check-up and teeth cleaning with a small spot that was giving me some trouble. The dentist immediately diagnosed it as a cavity and within 20 minutes had the thing filled in (sans Novocaine, which I prefer with a relatively painless procedure like this). All well and good, it seemed, though a bit quick for comfort. 700 baht. I went home feeling pretty proud of myself. Then over the weeks that followed I developed sensitivity to cold and pressure in that tooth. I waited for it to go away but it didnt, so a month or 2 later I scheduled another appointment, explaining that I'd been in before and just wanted to get it looked at.

Upon arrival, I was immediately scolded by the dentist on call (male, a different one that before) for not scheduling an appointment with my original dentist. Well, I would have if I had known she wouldn't be there, which reception did not tell me. "Well, have to redo filling, can't touch another dentist's work," new dentist said, already swabbing on the pre-novocaine numbing gel. "Wait, wait," I said, not wanting another drill in my mouth for what seemed like relatively minor sensitivity. He basically insisted, acting very impatient and telling me "if you don't believe me, go somewhere else." It all felt very uncomfortable and I did not like his attitude, but since he insisted he knew what he was doing I made the fatal error of believing him. He jabbed the novocaine in immediately and drilled out the filling and put in a new one. While working in my mouth he muttered something about a "nerve" that he didnt know was there. Not comforting. I emerged numb and a bit sore but hoping for the best. He said the numbness would go away in 3 hours.

It didn't.

The next morning I awoke still slightly numb but I figured it was fine. Then I realized I had lost all sense of taste on the entire right side of my mouth. Limes, chilies, vinegar -- nothing. This lasted for a FULL WEEK. I was not about to return to this hell-dungeon for another treatment so I started consulting online all the dentists I knew who told me it was probably nerve damage caused by the novocaine needle jab. They said it might take days, weeks, months, years, or forever for my taste to come back. Needless to say it was an awful week.

Luckily my taste came back, although to this day it hasn't seemed QUITE the same, and probably never will be.

But that's not even the worst thing. The tooth was not fixed. The sensitivity was worse than before. I returned to the States (moving back after living for several years in Thailand, hence my desire to get some last minute dental work taken care of) and went to a different dentist. He said the filling was poorly done, the tooth was overly stressed because of the multiple fillings, and I would need a root canal. So that's where we are now. Thanks, Just for Fun Dental Clinic. Thanks so much.