Well it had to happen, with all the chocolate I was eating... While I was drinking some Aquarius (a Coca Cola made clone of Pocari Sweat, in other words a sports drink), I felt something hard hit my tongue. I spat it out and found it appeared to be a piece of tooth, one side white and the other side black. I was shocked, had one of my teeth rotted through? Well after a lot of lectures from Ritsuko about my chocolate eating habits, she booked me in at a local dentist that had been recommended to us as the gentlest dentist in town.
Well when we got there and I showed her (the dentist) the bit of tooth, she examined it and said it is a piece of plaque and I don't have a broken tooth. I felt like a bit of a doofus at that point! She said I'll have to have a full clean and scaling before she could examine to see what shape my teeth really are in. Well, the last time I went to the dentist was 9 years prior in Australia, that clean and scaling was such a traumatic experience, that I never went back there again! Yes, I guess I'm a bit of a wimp! Well, here I am in Japan about to face the clean and scaling again...
Well, the truth be known this dentist is very gentle, compared to the one I went to nine years ago in Oz. After a clean and scaling, an examination and an x-ray, she pronounced my teeth were in perfect shape, I just had a lot of plaque on them. Now with the plaque removed I can feel each individual tooth with my tongue, which is a rather strange feeling. I thanked her most politely and exclaimed in my best Japanese that "you are so gentle", which kind of took her by surprise. (Note Ritsuko was with me at the dentist to translate)
Well I'm definitely going to go back for regular cleans and scales now!