Going to the dentist

I just got back from the dentist. My third time in the chair since we've been in China.

My insurance from Intel covers dental up to about 100 USD per year. You don't actually pick a dentist, but a dental clinic. When I looked on the list of approved dental clinics, there was one called iMD located about 10 minutes walk from our apartment. The first visit I brought Sun-Ling with me, but since then I've been back twice by myself with no problems.

So on Tuesday of this week I called up iMD and requested for an appointment on Friday at 10AM with Dr Wang, the dentist I had on my second visit who speaks English, does a good job, and has a sense of humor. I reminded them that I have GBG insurance since for some unknown reason they need to have a GBG specialist in the office during my visit to process the paperwork. I found that out last visit. OK. I'm in.

So today, I arrived right at 10AM. They had my file ready, asked to make a copy of my insurance card and ID, and had me fill out the patient section of the insurance claim form. The usual kind of claim form with a teeth diagram, and lots questions about dependents, dates, policy numbers, etc.

Dr Wang goes by the English name of King Wang which is slightly humorous if you speak Chinese since wang means king. So he's King King. I told you he had a good sense of humor. Also, Elvis is called Mao Wang in Chinese which translates to Cat King which makes a lot of sense if you are old enough to remember 1950's hipster lingo.

I walked back to a bay, they don't have rooms, and sat in the chair. A smiling Dr Wang asked "How can I help you today?" "Please clean my teeth" I replied.

In China the dentist does all the work, while the assistant only adjusts suction, spray, etc. This clinic uses ultrasound to clean the teeth.

The cleaning, flossing, and polishing took about 30 minutes. King Wang reminded me to floss every day which I already do. I took my chart up to reception and paid the 19 RMB Co-pay (about 3 USD). Then I asked for a copy of my records, which are in Chinese. And I got them to put a copy of my panorex on my USB disc. See below. I was back home at 11.

Living away from our house

We have lived in four apartments in the past four years; two in Shanghai and two in Jacksonville. Those have been fantastic experiences for us, though it was not completely our choice the first time around. I love the choices and freedom apartment living afforded us. I would even venture to declare that home ownership is overrated, except

1. Having a house gives me a tremendous amount of security. If ever our wild escapades go awry, we can retreat home anytime.
2. Recently we were almost thrown out of our apartment by our landlord for the last two months of our Shanghai stint because they wanted to sell. It's awful when someone else messes up your plan.

Now we are about to embark on a new phase where we will again test our family motto: Home is where we are together.

The big five-oh

The in-laws threw me a surprise birthday dinner for my 50th at the Dolar Shop hotpot restaurant. Here are a few photos. Johnny's getting older. ;-)