How fair can a dentist be?

The story so far: about two weeks ago much of a tooth that I had filled 20 years ago in Hamburg fell out. There was no pain, so having found a dentist, an appointment was made for a couple of days later. In spite of having made an appointment there was a very long wait. This was no great surprise – dentists and doctors are like that, but I did make a quip to Sarah: “They charge a lot for their own time, but they never give you a rebate for making you wait!” The temporary filling was paid for, and a new appointment made.

I returned a week later for further investigation – there was no charge, as the main filling was to be done at the third appointment, which was yesterday.

I arrived in good time, armed with a book of nearly 800 pages that I am slowly reading at the moment. Clever, eh? And a good thing too – it was 50 minutes before I went in to the treatment room, and after the technician had cleaned out the temporary filling, I then had to lie on the chair for another 20 or more minutes, gripping a piece of cotton wool between my teeth at the offending site, before the dentist came to do the more skilled work of recreating the tooth.

And now the surprise. After checking that the word-play in a statement such as “you have been very patient patient” worked in English, as apparently it does in Italian, the dentist told me that today’s tooth was free! “Time is money,” he said, “that is my philosophy. And I know that is true for you as well.”

I would say that I was gobsmacked, but I wouldn’t want to knock this new tooth out.

Contact me if you’re looking for a dentist near Aulla!