Malta Dental
After a few months on this island, it was time to go to the Maltese dentist. Now, I have no fear whatsoever of dentists, the way that many people seem to have. I actually love my last dentist and I went to him for many years. For me going to the dentist just means getting a cleaning, making sure everything is going well in my mouth, and if a cavity or something else needs to be done then I take care of it. (For someone like me with quite a lot of irrational fears and phobias, it is perhaps amusing that I have no problem with dentists).
My friend P highly recommended a dentist in Sliema. It was time for M to get a check-up as well, so we both went. The dentist runs the whole operation by himself, with no receptionist or assistant. He was very nice and we had a nice chat about many things as he looked at my old x-rays and I told him about my dental history. But here is the part that left me very confused: when he actually got down to business, the whole cleaning procedure took about three minutes. That was all. I did not know what to say. All my life, this procedure has taken between 30 and 45 minutes and involved scraping out plaque and everything else they do. I was so startled that I just mumbled something about “wasn’t there any plaque?” but he just said that I take very good care of my teeth and to keep it up. I was on my way out the door and the whole thing had taken just minutes of my time.
Now, this doctor was highly recommended, but it still leaves two possibilities.
1) He is actually a bad dentist and did a very minimal and superficial cleaning.
2) My old dentist has been lying to me for years and telling me I needed all sorts of treatments that I did not actually need.
I am still trying to figure this out. Perhaps I should try another dentist in Malta and see if it goes any differently.
