32: BACK IN THE SADDLE AGAIN!

Buenos dias! Today I had my 1st appointment of my 2nd and hopefully final trip to Costa Rica.  Let me rephrase that as that made it sound like I never want to come back to CR again.  I meant hopefully there will be zero problems with my final dental work that would require me to return. I do indeed hope to return to this beautiful and amazing country for the sole purpose of leisure and relaxation.  Even if you never have the desire or need to come down here for dental/medical reasons, you should highly consider it as a vacation destination.  Put it on your bucket list and you won't regret it.

Today's appointment was longer and involved more work than I had thought would happen. I figured today would just be a look over to see how well things have healed. I thought we really couldn't move forward with getting my final teeth until Dr. Gonzalez had a chance to check out the osseointegration progress of the implants and he only comes to Prada's clinic on Wednesdays. But I ended up being in the chair for at least 90 minutes. The temporary bridge was removed as well as the posts which screw into the implants. Then Dr. Prada put some longer posts in...

Now what does that remind me of? Oh yeah....the guy from the James Bond film MOONRAKER

Anyhow Prada explained to me what those longer posts are for but frankly I forgot 30 seconds after he told me. My memory has been practically non-existent since I entered my 40's. But he put those in, made some kind of mold around them and then took everything out and repeated the process 3 more times. Then the temporary arch went back in but this time instead of it being cemented in, as it was back in January when I first received it, he fastened it to the posts with screws. This way it will be much easier to remove later this week or next week when I get my permanents. There was a couple of other things done while I was in the chair but I can't recall right now what they were. Oh....checking my bite alignment was one.

It's harder to record exactly what is happening during my dental visits on this trip compared to the 1st trip last January because I don't have my lovely and talented assistant....errr....wife with me this time. She not only did most of the camera work during the last trip but also helped me remember what had exactly happened at each appointment. So I won't be surprised if many of you feel the quality of these new posts are not up to par with the previous. I wish she was here for that and for more important reasons. I miss her already.

On a less important note I noticed the entrance to DDS Dental had changed a bit. They installed new frosted etched glass to match that of their Imadent Imaging Center that opened up this last January. Looks nice...

As I was waiting for the clinic to open up at 8am, I played with the panoramic setting on my new phone (Samsung Note 3). You'll need to click on it to enlarge...

If you are looking to come to CR for dental work and if you choose Dr. Prada, there is a nice hotel right across the street from his clinic as you can see in the photo below. Villas Del Rio and you can get a discounted rate through the clinic.

Instead of taking a $3 cab ride back to where I'm staying, about 2 miles away, I decided to walk it after my dental appointment. It's a beautiful sunny day so I took advantage of it. This is the rainy season in CR and who knows how long this sunshine will last. My next appointment is tomorrow, Tuesday, @ 10am. I'm not sure but I think we will discuss shape and size of  the permanent teeth.

Rest of the day consists of a nap, a movie, grocery shopping and who knows. Thanks for reading!