dentist's office

though it wasn't as thorough or careful or comfortable as my dentist's care from back home, today i had an excellent experience at the Woori Dental Clinic in Ichon. a korean friend made the appointment for me with her dentist and today i received a cheap and fast dental cleaning. it was all over in ~under~ 30 minutes. i'm _sure_ that if i hadn't had to use the bathroom when i arrived (where i brushed my teeth and, ahem, took care of some other non-brief bathroom duties), that i could have taken advantage of seoul's public transportation 30-minute-transfer discount. if you travel again within 30 mins of your last exit (either off a bus or out of a subway station) the fare is waved. the cost of the dental cleaning was 60,000 won which is like half the cost of dental cleaning from my dentist back home.

just like back home, at the Woori Dental Clinic a dental hygienist cleans your teeth and then the dentist checks her work. they wear rubber gloves and everything appeared to be neat and orderly and clean and safe. the entire office is one (small) room. there's something like an open bookshelf that acts as a wannabe partition between the waiting room and the dental chairs. basically there is no privacy. the dentist could speak a few words of english like 'please take a seat' and 'just cleaning?'. but after i got in the chair, everything else spoken to and around me was in korean. i'd go there again.

getting medical care in a foreign country where language barriers exist is not easy but add to that my intention to avoid it based on the following logic: 'this is not my home so i'll just wait until i go back to my home to get medical care'. saturday marked my 2-year anniversary of living in korea. today i had my teeth cleaned. i have two homes.