The dentist

It has been nearly two years since we visited the dentist, so you can imagine I was a little anxious for our appointment yesterday with our dentist in France. Similar to the UK, it is not easy to find a dentist who is taking on patients. The best way here is to ask friends or neighbours if they know of one, but that can be a long wait. Fortunately for us though a friend of ours living in Châtillon had heard about a new young dentist who was taking on patients. We didn’t waste any time in travelling to Châtillon and trying to convince the receptionist to adopt us as patients. It really wasn’t a totally straight forward conversation – but that’s another story – however we came away with an appointment. This happened in July, and yesterday the day had finally come for our checkups.

There was of course still the worry that our French is still not great, and dentists, like all healthcare professionals, have a language all of their own. I didn’t really have anything to be concerned about though, he was a really nice young chap, who was very calm and gentle, and between us we managed to understand what was required. Best of all, all was good with both Brian’s and my check ups. He also gave us both a clean, which felt so good after such a long time. All for less than 30 euros each, which I think we will be able to claim back via our health insurance. All in all, a very painless trip to the dentist. We will go back again in 12 months time.