53: I'M STILL HERE...AND SMILING!

Wow...over a year since my last post???? Where has all that time gone? I've been wanting to do a video post but just keep finding ways to put that off for some reason. Camera shy I guess. Anyhow I still want to do that as I feel I can convey a lot of information in a video over text. So I'll probably get on that when I get back from vacation. Oh yeah...I'm on vacation! Currently in Puerto Rico spending about a week here before we go on our 1st cruise. Not sure if I'll enjoy cruising on a ship with 3,000 other souls but I bet I'm about to find out. The picture below is one that I just took as I stood on the balcony of our AirBnB rental in Rincon, PR. My teeth and mouth are still healthy and I've experienced zero problems. Every once in awhile I'll have a dream that my new teeth are chipped or falling out of my head and that freaks me out for about a second when I wake up. "Thank God that was just a dream", I think to myself as I run my tongue over my teeth to make sure all is well.

Cheers!

52: STILL SMILING!

I'm still here, still smiling and still ecstatic about my decision to go to Costa Rica for dental work! Months and months ago I stated I would be doing a recap video and posting here, and I still will, but man life just gets in the way sometimes. Well, to be honest, it was also a bit of needing to get away from the whole dental thing for awhile at the time as well. I mean I had done so much research that my brain was ready to explode! Once I returned from my 2nd and final trip to CR, I still had 'dental' on my mind because I was responding to so many emails, talking to people on the phone about it and so on. So after awhile I just needed to take a break from it all before I found myself in the psych ward mumbling about teeth.

Everything is great and I have no problems with my teeth whatsoever. I don't even feel like they are fake teeth anymore because I eat whatever I want to, just like with normal teeth. I've been to my dentist here at home a couple of times now, for routine cleanings, and she says everything looks great. In fact someone from her office called me last week saying they had a patient there that wants implants and wanted some more info regarding dental treatment in Costa Rica. I said it was no problem at all to give the patient my name and number. How cool is that of a U.S. dentist!? Awesome if you ask me. 

So to wrap it up, yes I still plan on doing a video which will summarize my whole journey and will post it here. Knowing how I ramble on though, it will probably be a long and boring video so you've been warned. Smiles!

51: EMAILS LIKE THIS...

...is exactly why I created this blog. It makes me incredibly happy when I hear that sharing my experience is helping others. I received the below email today and quickly asked the author if I could share it as it's that good!


"Wow! First, I must say that your blog is amazing and it's helped me take so much out of the guesswork for my trip to Costa Rica for dental work. I had a rough idea of what I was doing but, now I feel more certain of my plan thanks to you and your blog. You did so much research and I'm so grateful. I had also narrowed my search down to Nova dental and Dr. Anglada, but now I'll be giving Dr. Prada a call too.

If all goes well I'll be off to Costa Rica in a few weeks. I'm familiar with dental tourism and had implants placed on some top back teeth in Tijuana. That was an interesting experience, but to make a long story short, I WON'T be going back there! It's been almost 3 years and the implants have healed and it's time for the new final product.

I was especially touched by your post about getting personal. I too have battled alcoholism most of my life. I'm now 34 and almost 7 months sober. It's crazy to think how differently I was living my life and treating my body this time last year. I (drunkenly) fell off my bicycle and chipped then hell out of my front teeth in December. I also found myself homeless after getting kicked out of my place for never paying rent on time. I had to move in with my sister and her husband for a month and that's when my family finally got to see just how badly my alcoholism was progressing. They knew I couldn't be counted on and that loved to party but they didn't know I was drinking all day, every day just to get by. I did manage to find an amazing place for rent at the beach that was way out of my current budget. If I kicked the booze, I might be able to swing in. So, on January 23rd I broke up with alcohol for good. By February 1st, I was painting and moving into my new beach cottage and a new way of life. Quitting drinking hasn't been that hard for me either. I had my moments in the beginning but once my head cleared up the urge began to subside. I'm happy to say I now begin my mornings with a bike ride at sunrise on the beach with my dog at my side. My bills are paid and I'm a happier, healthier, truer version of myself. But, like you I have one last matter to clear up: my teeth. It's the final reminder of how bad I let myself go. I can't hide it. I can't truly smile a genuine smile to express how great I feel now. The bad teeth have to go. I cashed in some stocks I didn't know I had (my sister never told me, because I was a drunk mess). She protected me from myself until she knew I was ready to use that money wisely.

I thought your blog was great before reading this particular post and now I feel like it's some sort of destiny. We have lived parallel experiences and suffered similar fates. It's just another one of those signs I've been getting since I sobered up that I'm on the right path, and I GOT THIS!  Thank you, thank you, thank you for taking the time and energy to really put it all out there and be honest with your entire experience. This is exactly what I needed to read today. Costa Rica and new teeth here I come!

Regards,
Blythe"

50: ANOTHER GREAT EMAIL!

Received another email from a very satisfied person who went to CR for dental work and thought I would share it here...after getting their permission of course. I love receiving emails like this and I'm so glad my blog has helped others as that is the primary reason for starting it.

"Hi Rod,

I'm sitting here in Escazu and felt the need to write and thank you. Your blog was definitely the tipping point in my decision making process to come here & I can't express enough what a positive experience this has been.
I'm staying at Victoria's (Liza's?)  and was telling her about my internet searches etc. & she said that you'd also stayed here. (she says hello btw)

Anyway, she's laughing at me a little bit because I'm just so excited about the whole process...perhaps it's only something that another person with serious dental phobias would understand. All of the doctors have been amazing! Dr. Prada is so kind and gentle....& incredibly patient!

I could go on & on about this amazing experience but I won't bore you (you've been thru it!) but I just wanted to thank you for your blog, to let you know that you are reaching a lot of people, and that you are (I'm sure) helping to make a huge difference in people's lives.

Good job!!!

Kind regards,

Sharon"

Thank you for the kind words Sharon and I wish you the best!!!!

49: ALMOST 1 YEAR!

This coming May it will be my 1 year new smile anniversary!!! Can't believe how the time has flown by. I'm heading to Vegas in May but when I return I will be recording a video update and posting it here on my blog. Everything has been great and have had zero problems with my new teeth! Stay tuned!!!!!!

48: POST REMOVED

This post no is no longer valid. See you at post #49!

47: Topix CR Dental Forum

If you are looking for the very popular "Dentists In Costa Rica" forum, Topix decided to move it's location for some reason. It can now be found here --->  http://bit.ly/1CpA5nY

46: CHECK OUT SmilingAtLast.com!

Someone that I met over at the Topix forums when I first started my dental research, and who I now call "friend", has created a site with some very good and useful info on the subject. Check it out and feel free to ask him questions as he has quite a bit of knowledge in that noggin of his.

just click below and away you will go...but please come back ;)

45: THE LAB OF LORENZO FAVINI!

So the audio in the video isn't the greatest and for that I do apologize. I could have spent a lot of time on editing and polishing this up but....well I just didn't. It is what it is, a basic tour of the clinic but mainly talking with the man...Mr. Favini.

Lorenzo Favini is from Italy who has found his way to Costa Rica and man I'm glad he did. He is the maker, the artist who created my new teeth and I will always be grateful for his talent and expertise. He is the only person in Costa Rica who uses the famed Zirkonzahn Prettau Zirconia. You can find more info on exactly what that is here: www.zirkonzahn.com

Some will say that, "zirconia is zirconia...it's all the same", but that is either the one's who have not done their research or who don't want you to consider Zirkonzahn because they don't work with it or offer it. It's the cream of the crop...the "Rolls-Royce" of zirconia based restorations.

The video is 24 minutes long so go grab something to drink, get comfortable and I hope you find it informative...

Mr. Favini's lab is a bit out of the city in a beautiful, lush and private setting. It's not like a regular business that you can just walk up to on a whims notice so I want to thank Mr. Favini for allowing me to come out to his place to meet him and see how he does his work. He was fantastic in answering my questions and it was an experience I'll never forget. THANK YOU LORENZO FAVINI!!!

Thanks for watching!!!

44: WhatClinic.com - FOR GENERAL INFO ONLY!

This subject recently came up in the Topix forums and thought I would expand on it a bit here. WhatClinic is a site that people can go to and search for different types of medical clinics. I think it's a good place to get the basic information of a clinic such as what they offer, who the doctors are and to read some reviews. But DO NOT let the reviews you read be your deciding factor on what clinic to choose. You will hardly ever find a negative review on that site. The clinic gets the say as to what reviews are posted about them. The clinic pays WhatClinic.com to be on their site...sort of an advertisement.

Here is a report on WhatClinic that I found....

"At Whatclinic.com , go to "Add Your Clinic" in the upper right corner. It opens a page where doctors can sign up. Near the big yellow "Sign Up" button, select "Terms and Conditions". There, you will clearly find that Whatclinic.com is frequently paid by the doctors for listings under a number of schemes, though it does indicate there is some form of free account.

Now, the scam. Select any doctor, and attempt to make a review on that doctor. Try "Review This Clinic" towards the bottom of the page. On the subsequent page where you can fill in the review, there's a button all the way on the bottom of the review named "Review Policy". Click that.

The Whatclinic.com review policy clearly states that they are not a review site. All patient reviews are submitted to the clinic, and the review is only published if the clinic approves the review. It also stipulates that aggregate consumer ratings only include those ratings that meet their guidelines. Patients are forbidden from making a defamatory review, and no reports of criminal activity are permitted. 

The review policy states that if the clinic refuses to allow a patient review to be published, then that will be disclosed on the clinic's review page. OK, there are complaints at the Ripoff Report that Whatclinic.com refused to publish their negative review of Doctor Alberto Coto Calvo of San Juan, Costa Rica. Well, his review page is here: http://www.whatclinic.com/dentists/costa-rica... and you're a better person than I if you can spot where Whatclinic.com made the disclosure they promised in their policy.

My opinion time. There are a lot of marketing websites scattered all across the web that are no more than hype for services. They are paid by subscribers (doctors in this case) to make the advertisements appear like objective consumer ratings. Throwing out the reviews you don't like is far from objective. In my opinion, I consider words like lies, fraud, misrepresentation, scam, illegitimate, and don't use if you care about your health to be far more accurate. Don't use Whatclinic.com as a source for choosing a dentist."

source: http://bit.ly/1ze8faB

Another site that has something to say about WhatClinic: http://whatclinic.pissedconsumer.com

So again...it's an OK site to get the general info on a clinic but that's about it. You can be looking at a clinic on that site and be reading some good reviews and say to yourself, "wow...all positive reviews and nothing negative so it must be a great clinic". Well you don't see hardly any negative reviews because the clinic will not approve those to be posted. Some clinics who have a lot of positive reviews, say 30 or more, will allow a not so favorable review to be posted once or twice because they feel it makes the whole thing look more realistic. This is obviously all about $ for both the clinic and for the site WhatClinic.com

For your research be sure to be diligent, methodical, intelligent and dare I say a bit obsessive. It pays off.

43: TEETH DREAMS

Before I went to Costa Rica to get my teeth fixed I use to have these teeth dreams from time to time. I would dream that my nasty teeth started to fall out of my mouth and render me toothless. I would wake up and realize I still had my teeth...my disgusting, chipped, stained and gaped teeth. I would then wish there was something I could do to get my teeth fixed. I have no doubt that I had these dreams because I was always so aware of how bad my teeth were and how it affected my life. It consumed my mind in wake and sleep.

Now that I have a brand new smile and I am no longer consumed with thoughts of bad teeth can you guess what happened to my teeth dreams? Gone? NOPE! They have altered only slightly. Now I dream that my new white and straight teeth fall out. I wake up feeling my teeth with my tongue and then being so happy that it was all just a dream.

42: FIRST CLASS CONVERSATION WITH CONFIDENCE

During my trip home I had a layover in Dallas. Before they started boarding my flight home to Portland they announced that they had 2 first class seats available and the first 2 people who came up to the counter could upgrade for $100. As soon as I heard that announcement, I was up there as quick as my non-fit body could get me. The person who snatched up the other seat was a gentleman who was a tad older than me and who was also returning home after visiting family in Texarkana. We talked quite a bit and I told him about my dental journey to Costa Rica. During our conversation I suddenly noticed how I was not trying to hide my teeth as I was so used to doing all my life. I was talking, smiling and carrying on with confidence that I had never possessed before...it was very nice.

To this day I still continue to build my confidence but frankly it's coming naturally with little effort. Instead of avoiding conversations I now find myself wanting to join them. I knew this whole experience would result in a huge life change but it's still surprising in some ways to see how quickly and easily I'm making those changes.

For my regular and dedicated readers I apologize for going so long without any kind of update. Once I returned home I settled into the normal life of work and play. Everything is going great and I've had zero problems regarding the dental work I received from Dr. Prada in Costa Rica. I love my smile and I can't believe how much my new teeth feel natural. I still have planned a final wrap up post that should cover quite a bit and I'm currently starting to piece that together. Thank you for your patience and I'll get back to you soon.