If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way (Napoleon)

In The Hague, my place of birth, the Dutch government has its seat. It also is the home of Madurodam, a miniature town that features about all important buildings and places in The Netherlands. This is the Amsterdam railway station.


Would not it be nice to have small, perfect replicas of your teeth available, so that every dentist would have the same starting point? Unfortunately, the builders of Madurodam have not thought about that (yet.) We, the dentists, still depend on x-rays and scans.

There are mini implants, though. We think they are less stabile (therefore less suitable), and no long-term studies have proven us wrong yet. We will follow all publications and as soon as there is a good reason for changing our opinion, of course, we will.

Life can be thrilling

I think I read more than 52 books per year. I read in the bathtub, at work (breaks only), in bed, in the garden and in waiting rooms. However, 17.99 Euros is an amount I hardly ever spent on a book. I rather buy my reading stuff secondhand at Ebay or in bookstores.





I only make an exception for Jonathan Kellerman, Val McDermid and Elizabeth George.

Writers that feature the same protagonist(s) in every book seem to attract me. There are many more, but somehow, these three are different from the rest. Alex Delaware and Milo Sturgis, Thomas Lynley and Barbara Havers and Tony Hill are like best friends.

Mind you, I have enough money to spend 17.99 Euros on every book. I just do not want to. Many secondhand books look perfect and it makes no difference to me if someone else already read the words.

Now if I had 1799 Euros (the . in between would not be realistic, would it?) to spend on dental treatment, it would make a difference whether the dentist is a nice, trustworthy, experienced, skilled guy or not. I could travel to Bulgaria (400 Euros from Amsterdam), book a hotel (230 Euros for 10 days, outside the season) and have 7 crowns, 23 large white fillings or 6 veneers done.

Such a pity I am wearing full dentures....

Gone too soon

Michael in wax is all that is left. Last night, the King of Pop died of heart failure.


Let us forget about cosmetic surgery for a moment.

Although I was flabbergasted by the album Thriller, the only song that I will play tonight will be 'Ben'.

Venice of the North

Whenever I tell patients that I am based in The Netherlands, they ask me: "Are you in Amsterdam?"


Unfortunately, I am not.
Especially in Summer, Amsterdam is GREAT! Astonishing architecture, living statues (from Michael Jackson to a with, well that is not so far apart), street musicians, channels, unique boutiques, Vincent van Gogh Museum etc. etc. etc. (Sorry, no red light district anymore.)

Somehow, people all over the world seem to soften up when they think of Amsterdam. Everyone has been there and everyone wants to come back. Although right wing politicians may think different: the most liberal city in the world is a nice figure head for The Netherlands and the Dutch.

My experience in Amsterdam is that cyclists ride where the hell they like and aim in a state of rage at all pedestrians while ringing their bell loudly, the concept of avoiding people being foreign to them.
(Terry Prachett)

Whatever.

I am stuck in a boring part of my country, many miles away from where life is lived to the max.
I must admit that there is no lack of dynamics at work, though. Tens of e-mails and phone calls and learning more about teeth and people every day.

Who needs Amsterdam when you have the Dentaprime service centre.

I do!!!
I do!
I do
Do I?

I want to ride my bicycle....

Sometimes you just do not see the wood for the trees.

Dental clinics are everywhere: Poland, Hungary, Malta, Malaysia, Bulgaria... You will find the dentist that suits you best by following your heart. It will tell you if you have found the right dentist.

Do you feel comfortable?
Do you think the website is clear and complete?
Do you receive a 'Thanks for the e-mail. Now shut up and come to our clinic!'-ish reply?
Do you receive a real answer instead of sales bla-bla?
Do you get the feeling that your phone call is bordered to 5 minutes?

There is always a dentist that suits you:

A dinner speaker was in such a hurry to get to the hotel that when he arrived and sat down at the head table, he suddenly realised that he had forgotten to get his false teeth.

Turning to the man next to him he said, "I forgot my teeth." The man said, "No problem." With that he reached into his pocket and pulled out a pair of false teeth. "Try these," he said. The speaker tried them. "Too loose," he said. The man then said, "I have another pair...try these." The speaker tried them and responded, "Too tight." The man was not taken back at all. He then said, "I have one more pair...try them." The speaker said, "They fit perfectly." With that he ate his meal and gave his address.

After the dinner meeting was over, the speaker went over to thank the man who had helped him. "I want to thank you for coming to my aid. Where is your office? I've been looking for a good dentist." The man replied, "I'm not a dentist. I'm the local undertaker."

Sunrise, sunset

At this very moment (7:30 AM my time) it is 22,1 degrees in Varna and the next four days show a maximum temperature of 29 degrees.

If you visit Varna in Summer, the excellent weather is not all you get.

For culture lovers, there are daily performances, e.g. the Women´s Chamber Orchestra of Austria, Anna Karhanina, Schubert Night, Varna State Opera, Varna jazz festival and the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra.

The Sea Garden is the oldest park. It houses an open-air theatre, an aquarium, a dolphinarium, a terrarium, a zoo, a planetarium and many other attractions. The Cosmonauts' Alley contains trees planted by the world-famous cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.

The Beatles sang: "Tomorrow may rain, so I'll follow the sun"
I would like to add: "and have my teeth done."

Row, row, row your boat

This weekend, we added a rowing machine to our fitness collection. Instead of taking it to the attic, we placed it in our living room, in plain sight.



By making this not-so-logical choice, we hope that we will use the machine more. We will solve the huge problem with passers-by by using the roll-down shutter: every day, around 6 PM, it will be down for 2x 30 minutes. No one likes being watched when they are that vulnerable, do they?

Some people hide their teeth when smiling. They put their hand in front of their mouth, or they adapt the Mona Lisa smile. Their teeth are crowded, damaged, or simply not there at all. They may have fang teeth, ill-fitting dentures or a gummy smile. These people never are 100% relaxed when they are in the company of others.

Dentaprime has a solution for nearly all dental problems. We want you to row your boat down the stream of life merrily.

There is no exception to the rule that every rule has an exception (James Thurber)

I think one German Shepherd is scarier than a large group of pittbulls, Dobermans and Rotweilers. I guess it is the way they walk. Of course they can not help it. Their hind legs are placed under the hip joint and they always seem to sneak around.

However, I simply LOVED Gaico, my mother-in-law's dog.


First of all, the long hairs made him less 'Attack of the dogs'-like. Then he also had a reversed anorexic way to look at himself: he thought he had the body of a chihuaha. You would be sitting on the couch, and Gaico would decide to join you. He would jump from one couch to your stomach and stay put for many minutes, even if you told him he was free to go.

To every rule, there will be at least one exception. This is why we cannot give you an exact price for your treatment wthout seeing you in person. A crown is a crown is a crown of course, but some teeth require more preparation than other and there could be a gum disease spreading that needs to be taken care of first.

Gaico passed away a few weeks ago. I miss him, but I have seen 'All dogs go to heaven' twice, so I know he is in good Hands.

Money Money Money

This is an empty bottle. It is worth 15 Euro cent. Someone threw it away instead of taking it back to the supermarket. People that are rich or drunk enough (or both) do not care too much about money.

Many people in the UK can not find or afford a dentist who will perform a 'full renovation'. Sooner or later, these people will explore the frontiers and many will go to Eastern European countries. Even when considering that the Pound Sterling has dropped in value in a very dramatic way, they can still profit by the much lower (Euro) prices. Savings still are 50-60 per cent.

However, even though they are fascinating animals, you should not play ducks and drakes with your money. We all know that a bad bargain is dear at a farthing and (to throw in another well-known expression) a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Dentaprime is always in your hand., even if you decide not to book treatment with us. That is how the word 'service' was meant by its inventor.

And no, I did not pick up the bottle. The real Ebenezer Scrooge may have been a 19th Century Dutch grave digger, but I am not related to him!

Boiling an egg once a week does not make you a Jamie Oliver

My mother-in-law used to be a hairdresser for ages. She still is very good at it and saves us a lot of money by cutting and dying our hair for free. She never worked on the curls of a Poodle, though. You can read from her face that this is something entirely different.



The average dentist will be very experienced in placing crowns, doing root canals and extracting teeth. Recently, dental implants have become booming business. The price for one is around 2000 Pounds Sterling/Euros. No wonder that many dentists have added the treatment to their menu. Unfortunately, if he only places one implant per month, this will not give him much expertise and -as a patient- you could get into big trouble.

Regarding implantations, we know exactly what we are doing, and doing it daily makes us the experienced people you are looking for.

(By the way, our Poodle is fine. She just cut away a few hairs around his eyes.)

Rejection

This is titanium. A titanium knife to be exact.

Demi-Lee Brennan from Australia had a liver transplant. This changed her blood type and she also adopted the immune system of her donor. Hence, the transplanted liver was no longer rejected. This case seems to be unique.

Rejection is the main problem with transplants. This is why nearly all dental implants are made from titanium. This material is seldom rejected by the human (jaw)bone. Therefore, titanium dental implants can unite with bone and thus support crowns, bridges and dentures.

At Dentaprime, we offer German Bredent dental implants that have proven to be very reliable. We place them daily and our experience makes us one of the best.

The hospital's consulting dietician was giving a lecture to several community nurses from the Southampton area of Hampshire.

'The rubbish we put into our stomachs and consume should have killed most of us sitting here, years ago. Red meat is terrible. Fizzy drinks attack your stomach lining. Chinese food is loaded with msg. Vegetables can be disastrous because of fertilisers and pesticides and none of us realises the long-term damage being done by the rotten bacteria in our drinking water. However, there is one food that is incredibly dangerous and we all have, or will, eat it at some time in our lives. Now, is anyone here able to tell me what food it is that causes the most grief and suffering for years after eating it?'

A 65-year-old nursing sister sitting in the front row stood up and said, 'Wedding cake.'

Privacy

Sometimes, there just is not any privacy. ...

We are in Bularia, our patients in Germany, the UK, Iceland, Spain etc. etc. Of course, it is impossible to judge their teeth, gums and jawbone from a distance, but digital photographs can give a first impression.

When I ask for such a photo, I am fully aware of what I am doing. I know I am not asking for ' that great holiday pic!'. Many times, it is a shot of neglected, damaged and disoloured teeth that I am after....

The only thing I can tell these people is that our dentists have always seen worse and, which is far more important, that they do not preach or yell at their patients. We know how dentists can be and we know how much impact this can have.

If you send me a photo, I will not use it to get nominated for the Bafta Award. I will show it to my colleagues and we will be looking at at in only one way: how can we help?

Nothing can get him down

Last week, I visited my brother, who has Down Syndrome.

Frank was still recovering from the 4th or 5th pneunomia in 2 years time. Earlier this year, he had a stroke. Yet he was on a short holiday and even visited a pop festival (dancing in his wheelchair.) He seems to have at least as many lives as cats.

My brother misses two front teeth: one in the upper jaw, one in the lower. He is not embarressed and his smile ranges 'from ear to ear'. No problems with self-esteem, because he never thinks about what other people may say. In many ways, his life is so much easier than ours.


Missing teeth can be replaced by partial dentures, bridges or dental implants. The difference is not just the price. Many people have huge problems with ill-fitting and bad looking partial dentures. For a bridge, some healthy teeth need to be drilled down to stumps and the problem with dental implants is that... uhm... let me think....uhm.... Sorry, cannot think of one now.


By the way, my brother would reject all options. On the day that he needed local anaesthesia for an extraction, I saw three dentists and a bottle of laughing gas failing. In the end, the simple extraction was done at the hospital, using full anaesthetics.

Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is (Voltaire)

Even though they know that there is a crabby student inside the suit, every one wants to have this type of picture taken. They show it to friends, as some kind of proof that they really visited the attraction park.


If you go to Bulgaria, to our clinic, the proof will be even more convincing. You left home with a gap between your front teeth and returned with some beautiful veneers. Gap? Which gap? Who had a gap? Or you had an ill-fitting denture that used to half-leave your mouth when eating in a fancy restaurant and now you have dental implants and ask for an apple as desert.

Sounds like a fairytale? We gladly prove that we can turn it into reality!

Birds of a feather

Scary? He would be if he was a real one. Now it is just a nice piece of artwork, inviting you to step into the world of rollercoasters. Which, of course, is scary.



Some time ago, I talked to a lady who suffered from dental phobia. Every question, every answer was spoken with a trembling voice. The word 'dentist' almost made her cry. Telling about how good we were with anxious patients was comforting, but then I said 'treatment' and she was hyperventilating again.

As a child, I also was scared to death for my dentist. As a young adult, I decided not to visit her or any of her colleagues again. Five years later, I was wearing my first set of full dentures. I blame myself, but I also blame my dentist. If she had treated me in a child-friendly way, I would probably still have the most of my natural teeth at 53.

Now that I work for Dentaprime, I talk to my feloow sufferers daily. They all have their own sad story about dentists. Some of them decide to go to Bulgaria for treatment and there they experience a whole new way of getting dental treatment.

Shall I go or shall I stay?

Cats are the inventors of this question. Every night, at the same time, my Billie starts mewing. She walks up and down the living room, mews, jumps upon the window-sill, mews again and repeats the whole ritual if I do not open the window immediately. Opening the window does not solve the problem. It just helps her to put her head outside the window and to keep her behind on the inside during the next mewing concert.

Deciding about treatment in Bulgaria often is a time and nerve consuming thing. I know and therefore I will treat you differently. Instead of a decisive push, I will give you information and a listening ear.

Material girl

One of my favourite materials is wood. For me it is always a miracle that someone can carve something as beautiful as this from 'just' a piece of wood. Just look at the face! It really is incredible.



In November 2008, in Japan, wooden dentures from the 18th Century were found in a ditch.
Compared to similar teeth, the quality was extremely good. Haruhisa Yamaguchi, a dentist and former head of a museum of teeth in Nagoya, said wooden teeth only were for the upper class. “Only high-class samurai and rich merchants could afford artificial teeth. The owner might have dropped and lost (the wooden teeth), but didn’t throw them away” in the ditch because they would have been so expensive, Yamaguchi said.

In our clinic, wood is a material that is only used for some of the furniture.
Woody Woodpecker will defenitely leave your dentures (partial or full, temporary or permanent) at peace!

Are you being served?

Yes Captain Peacock.....

At our clinic, you are more important than a VIP, so I guess we should call you the MIP (Most Important Person.)

We serve you well and if you are not satisfied, you can tell the staff or (in case you are back home) our service employees.

Because even if the treatment is finished, we will still want to take very good care of you.

It makes no difference if you have purple hair like Mrs Slocombe, have a gap between your teeth and want to keep it (like Mr Humphries) or have a much younger partner (like the young Mr Grace): we will treat you all equally!

Tom Thumb

Meet Tom Thumb!

If you look well and long enough, you can find Tom in the Efteling, a Dutch attraction park. Tom pops up every thirty odd seconds to pull himself up. The giant is sleeping and dreaming about nice straight teeth.

Humans and apes suck thumb because it makes them feel comfortable. It does not start that way, though. Babies, at birth, will do it reflexively before they find the spot where the milk comes from.

Most children stop sucking on thumbs or other objects before they are four years of age. If they do not, it can cause dental development problems. Therefore, some parents dip their child's hands into something spicy.

New market for Cadbury?

A lad named Paddy went to the dentist.
Examination revealed that he had a cavity, which needed filling.
'Now, young man’ asked the dentist, 'what kind of filling would you like for that tooth, amalgam or composite?’
'I would prefer chocolate, please,' replied Paddy.


Many local dentists say that patients who travel abroad for ‘cheap’ dentistry, risk sky-high repair work costs in their own country. Find out (by mouse clicking on the following link) how to avoid a dentist in Farwaynistan, who would really melt down some chocolate bars and then pour the sweet stuff into your mouth: http://dentaltourismineurope.wordpress.com/

Some guys do 'ave 'em

The worst thing about holidays is that they are always too short and -every now and then- your boss seems to be there too....

Many of 'my' patients want to get rid of their fangs, but this boa constrictor would kill to get them back....

I met him and his owner at a street fair and even dared to touch him. It felt like... Italian shoes or a very expensive handbag.