Jun 28, 2006 08:54 PM
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Prologue
I had terrible oral hygiene when I was a kid. After my mom thought we were old enough and she didn’t have to herd us all in together to the bathroom so we could brush under her supervision, I stopped brushing…for a couple of years. Hard to believe? It’s true.
Needless to say, my mouth wasn’t a pretty place. As fate would have it, the dentist (a Turk who didn’t know a word of English) killed my Central Incisor. Dentists usually do this by removing the root canal (the nerve that keeps the tooth alive). Then I got braces, got perfect teeth, and life was good.
Seven years later, my central incisor is grey and I can’t smile. Because I’m a chick, and a vain one at that, this was very traumatic. My self esteem was at an all time low and I’d become a recluse of sorts.
Something had to be done. Since Apollo Group of Hospitals are the ones we frequent for any kind of treatment (liposuction, nose jobs, the occasional cold), I thought of it first. I called and took an appointment. Then a nosy friend of my mom’s intervened and said that her friend’s daughter’s also a dentist and I should see her. I agreed, mainly because of the perceived benefits of family friends of doctors (won’t have to pay that much….yea right!) Anways, I went to her clinic. It reminded me of a World War II make shift hospital…a 100 people in a row, and most of them with teeth in states more appalling than mine. So they took a few X-Rays, gave me an appointment to start working on my vanity, and didn’t charge a rupee. I never went back there. I went to Apollo in Jubillee Hills instead. It was another Zoo…granted with slightly better groomed animals, but a zoo is a zoo is a zoo. I grilled the doctor there for about half an hour, found out the intricacies of the treatment I needed (I’m an expert now), took a few more X-Ray’s and an appointment to start treatment. I never went back there again either.
Now you guys remember that nosy friend of my mums? She called yet again, and meddled. But this time, I don’t blame her.
So I called, took an appointment, and went to THE ROYAL HOSPITAL FOR DENTISTRY & FACIAL SURGERY (TRHFDFS). Looking back, I could have laughed at the terms ROYAL and HOSPITAL. Why? Two reasons. One is that there’s nothing royal about it, and another is that its not a hospital, a 5 room clinic manned by two (and a half) doctors is more like it.
But I didn’t laugh. In fact, I was very impressed.
The Story
TRHFDFS is a small clinic tucked away in Khairtabad – Anand Nagar. Its spick and span, and the waiting room has a stock of magazines catering to both the flippant and the serious reader. Their receptionists are exceedingly polite and refuse to take affront, even when dealing with the most annoying patients (I’m talking from experience, because that awful patient was me). It’s a little stuffy there sometimes because the air conditioner doesn’t work too well, but that doesn’t matter because the crowd is better than at Apollo’s and conversation can be made with other patients that does not involve the rapidly escalating prices of greens and what the CM is not doing for the poor people.
When you go inside, you have to take your shoes off and they give u pair of clean rubber soles to put on. The doctors are polite, well informed, well spoken and apparently concerned about the welfare of those poor souls with bad dental hygiene who find their way into their clinic. The equipment is not world-class, but it’s tidy.
So anyway, they got to work straight away, filed my tooth to a little ugly stump, and called me back 8 hours later for a temporary cap. And the problem here is that the temporary cap was many shades darker than my actual tooth color (C1). They tell me to come back in 10 days for a permanent cap. Other hospitals in Hyderabad take anywhere from between 3-5 days to get a permanent cap made. TRHFDFS said that they get the best quality caps made and delivered ‘all the way’ from Mumbai. And since that’s a couple of continents away, it takes 10 whole days. So I’m stuck in the house and counting the minutes. 10th day, I call. My cap hasn’t arrived, promises are made, assurances issued. 11th day, my cap hasn’t arrived. I’m livid. Being an outdoors person, living holed up in my three storey house for over 10 days is, to put it mildly, difficult. When I finally break down and throw a tantrum of unseen proportions in my living room, my mom intervenes. She calls and talks to the doctor who’s been treating me. Now this doctor tells me to come straight away to fit me with another temporary cap which matches my actual teeth shade till the permanent cap arrives. I agree…after all, something’s better than nothing right? I go there, give everybody who meets my eye dirty looks, especially the young doctor who fitted my ill matched temp cap 11 days earlier. And then finally, on the 13th day, the much coveted tooth arrives. And it’s perfect. I wouldn’t say it was worth the wait, because nothing could be. But now it’s behind me.
Epilogue
All in all, because of the courteous doctors, receptionists, good work, focus on quality and clean surroundings etc. I’d recommend this place to anyone who needs tooth work. Oh yea, they do facial surgery as well…
Perfect teeth...hooray!
