How often do you hear someone saying, “I’m going to my dentist today?” I haven’t heard that for ages. Going to a dentist is an imaginary sight (not real because who goes there apart from for aesthetics?) wherein the dentist will inject on your gums, pluck a few teeth, drill beyond the gums, stick ugly braces, make a fountain of blood spuming from your mouth or open your mouth so wide that a tennis ball could fit in. Add to it a lot of screaming as the background score. Yeah, that pretty much sums up a typical cleaning/scaling session. Which is in real world a harmless procedure, if you’ve been regular, that is.
In my final year of school, I discovered one day that one of my teeth can hide a grain of rice, and toothpick can slide that further. That warranted a visit to an unknown place called dental clinic. The ordeal started with scaling, which was horrendous as I spit blood after that. Scaling sent shivers down my spine, with the drilling machine acting up as a devil with a single horn. The dentist stated that I need a root canal, explaining the whole process through a chart, as if it was a mere formality and nothing would pain.
In four sessions and the final capping, I realized that even a dog bite wasn’t as dramatic as a tooth canal procedure. When it got done, I promised myself that I am not going to come back again. As fate would have it, the pain started again, the cap came off, and the misery started. I went to another dentist, who said that the earlier root canal didn’t work! Again started an ordeal. But this dentist was gentler. He also explained the benefits of regular scaling, most important being good oral hygiene and no bad breath. And I promised myself again, that I need to visit the dentist every 6 months. Because if I don’t, who would know that a certain tooth is getting dug, and one day it would be a pit hole that needs a cover. Why reach that level of getting root canal, if it can be solved with a mere filling. Though I know people who are afraid of cavity filling as well. I keep telling them, it’s as painless as tapping on your phone. You don’t really feel any pain!
Though going to a dentist every 6 months doesn’t still guarantee a smooth sailing. Some 6 odd years after that ordeal and regular visits of scaling all this while, one summer day a throbbing pain arose from the wisdom tooth. I was vacationing in Manipal (Karnataka, India) and didn’t know a good dentist in that town. So went to a medical academy, where a senior student on the brink of getting his senior degree checked my case and told me that my wisdom tooth has taken a different route to grow, and is going against the traffic! Essentially meaning instead of going vertical, it’s going horizontal. These teeth have a mind of their own I tell you.
What ensued was the worst experience of my life, wherein that senior student put a stopper kind of thing in my mouth so that I couldn’t close it, and he hammered my wisdom tooth. He kept calling a professor for instructions, while I couldn’t say a word. A large group of students came to see the procedure and learn, a live case study! I was crying, that’s what I can recall till date, with the dentist breaking the tooth in 3 parts, as it was still under the gums. For the next 3 days, I couldn’t open my mouth, speak a word or eat anything. Could only drink through a straw. Adding to the misery was that I was travelling and my next stop was Goa. I couldn’t drink or eat in Goa, which is like going to Vegas, just watching the Bellagio Musical Fountains and coming back.
Though those experiences still haunt me, but what I realized was a good dentist can fix everything without much pain. Coming to Dubai, my biggest stress was to find a good dentist. Though I chose the closest dental clinic available, yet, it was a blessing in disguise. German Dental Center was in the next building, and when I went there for the first time, I thought I’ve come to the wrong place.
The reception area was so much like a TGIF, replete with memorabilia, quirky items, guitar hung on wall, vintage posters, billiards table style wooden clock, large postcards, figurines of musicians, some musical instruments, neon lights under the reception table, bar stools, a cowboy kind of barn doors entrance, and even a jukebox. Nobody could tell this is a dental clinic. Looking at it, I imagined the dentist to be kind of punk rocker – sporting a tattoo, maybe a sleeveless shirt and muscles bulging, spiky hair and torn denims. But what came out of the dentist’s room was a totally different figure. A peaceful man in a white robe with an aura so bright, it was as if a fairy has emerged. That’s Dr. Hamdy Al Banna for you.
Dr. Hamdy has a magical touch it seems. Whether it’s scaling or even plucking out a tooth, it’s always painless. Yes, I had to get another wisdom tooth removed, which he did in 10 seconds flat. He injected my gums with local anesthesia before the procedure, heck, even that injection didn’t prick! And when he does scaling, I always ask him, “How did you manage to finish it without a single drop of blood or that freaking drilling machine?” And he will only smile, saying, “You are doing just fine.”
If dentistry is an art, he surely is a master of that skill. And the best part is, Dr. Hamdy is not going to rip you apart by telling you that your teeth needs root canal, new cap, fixing or any other ‘expensive’ thing that is not required. He would anyway suggest you if need be, but in most cases, he will say you are doing just fine. We all need a doctor who is kind and concerned, don’t we? He is a decorated doctor, well known for being one of the first implant surgeons in the Middle East.
Special mention to his staff that is really sweet. The girls there are mighty cheerful, which is most important in an environment that is usually dreadful. Maybe that’s the reason they have such a unique décor at the reception.
There are many German Dental ‘clinics’ (German Dental Clinic, German Dental Oasis…in fact in the same neighborhood), so make sure you’re googling the right one. This is GERMAN DENTAL CENTER. Below are the details.
Website: www.gdc.me/
Address: Unit 106, HDS Business Center, Cluster M, Jumeirah Lakes Towers, Dubai.
Phone: 04 449 5335
Mobile: 050 249-0769
This post, like all other posts on this website, isn’t paid for. It’s entirely my opinion & experience. If I love any place, I don’t hesitate about writing about it.
