Dentist in Mexico

 I feel bad constantly pointing out how much better my life is in Mexico, because people in the USA are suffering and there are a lot of people I care about there.  As some point it feels like this meme when I compare the Mexico to the USA:

And not everything is better here.  I guess I just stress the positives because I grew up being told that the USA was the best and it sucked everywhere else.  It makes you defensive when you find out you were lied to.

Today I had a dentist appointment and we did an egregious amount of shopping.  At the end of the day we just wanted some good food fast.  Like...drive-thru fast.

Mexico is just not a drive-thru culture.  That's not to say they don't have cars...they do, and in my area cars are as prevalent as they are in the USA.  It's just that they don't look for 'fast food'.  

They're not constantly in a hurry like we are in the USA.  And when they want 'convenient' food, there's plenty of taco stands (and hotdog stands, Elote/tamale stands, burger stands, shrimp stands, sushi/ceviche stands, etc.).

There is fast food where I live, but it's all USA imports.  And because we just wanted to go through a drive-thru and get something good to eat, that's what we were limited with.  

In our city there is one of each of these:  Mcdonalds, Subway, Little Ceasars, Carls Jr., KFC, WingStop. That's it.  Those are all the places that have drive-thrus.

In Tucson I could have enjoyed Taco Bell, Canes, Inn-and-Out, Koreabowl (or whatever it's called), El Pollo Loco, and the list goes on and on.  Choices on every corner.  Also I could get an 8 piece fried chicken from the grocery store, which was always a great option.  

Out here the drive-thrus tend to be clustered in the gringo areas.  It's not cheap food.  (Though I guess that's the same in the USA lately.)

We end up going for gringo options a lot and we shouldn't.  This area of Mexico is a very corn-tortilla centric food culture.  If you order Chinese food you'll get a stack of corn tortillas with it.  Food is just eaten with tortillas.  

But honestly?  I don't like corn tortillas.  Especially these pale ones that are so popular.  They seem raw to me.  And gritty.  I have European heritage and that means wheat products, and wheat tortillas.  They just taste so much better to me...but I don't need one to eat Chinese food with.

In our fridge were stacks of plastic bags filled with 20 corn tortillas (small ones) from all our delivery orders.  We just gave them all to our neighbor so she can feed them to her chickens recently.

But, ANYWAY.

Back to the good.  The dentist.

I went to the dentist because it hurt to brush one side of my teeth.  Nerve is exposed.  In the USA?  It would have been a root canal and a new crown.  For around $1,600, or probably more because it's been 3 years since my last dental work.

Here?  He painted some varnish on the tooth.  It wasn't a cavity.  I didn't need more than that.  He was super nice, too, and loved practicing his English with me.

We've been to the dentist in Mexico before, but it was on the border in a town known for dental tourism.  My mom still got a nice zircon bridge for $3,000 in 2013 or so, but it was very pushy and up-selly.  Kind of like USA dentists...who push you to get work you might not really need, or more expensive work compared to what might be a better cheap option.

I want to mention one more thing on the 'Mexico is better' side.  Next to my house is a pharmacy that I can walk to for my antidepressants, painkillers, and other medicines.  I'd been getting Desvenlafexine from there.  It was 500 pesos for a one month supply...really expensive for Mexico, but I needed it so whatever.

Yesterday I went to get the pills and I got a two month supply for 300 pesos ($15).  I was like: what the heck?

The worker said that someone started buying Desvenlafexine here a while a go so they asked corporate to send them the generic to save them money.

ME.  I was the one who started buying that there a while ago.  THEY GOT ME CHEAPER PILLS FOR ME.  ;_;

I love Mexico so much.