Two ladies wearing what looked like flight attendant uniforms staffed the reception of the dental surgery. When I eventually met Dr. Y., I wondered why he wasn't as talkative as German and American dentists are. Instead, he did something I've never seen anywhere before. He shot photographs of my full face from all angles, as I was biting on a piece of rubber, before diving into my mouth with his camera. Afterwards, we sat silently at his computer, where he uploaded the digital images. One picture he left in its original format, while the others he cropped. I was wondering if I had accidentally walked onto a film. These pictures weren't me. There was a face of a beast on them, a new "Hannibal Lector." Feeling distressed by the sight of them, I then walked to the other room, where his colleague, Dr. R., started with the treatment.
"This teeth needs a crown."
"Teeth?" I said. I don't have money for more than one crown. I thought only one tooth needed treatment.
"One tooth," Dr. R. corrected himself.
"How much will it be?" I anxiously asked.
"It's 1, 200 yuan ($170) for the cheapest filling, 1,500 yuan ($214) for a German filling and 4,000 yuan ($570) for a gold filling."
"Okay," I said. I don't have money for the gold ones, I'll go for the German one. But I only have 400 yuan ($57) on me."
Dr. R said, "You can pay us next time."
This topped my American experience, where a dentist in Brentwood refused to treat me once, because I couldn't pay her $1,000 in full. She made me leave her office in pain. And due to this, I found myself two weeks later, collapsing in a pharmacy in Westwood and waking up in an emergency room at UCLA medical center.
And while I was thinking about my dentist experience in the United States, Dr. R. numbed my gums and shortly after began drilling. Meanwhile, his assistant turned on a computer screen. It was positioned in front of my own face. And then, suddenly, when I heard the sound of familiar film music and I saw a theater curtain opening up with the words Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer underneath, and Tom and Jerry chasing each other, I knew I made a good decision by coming to China despite all the adversities that had come my way.
(Beijing Review May 28, 2008)