39yo Mother of 1. In D.R Right Now!!! Mommy Makeover & Veneers - Dominican Republic

I guess you guys know what I am going to say:

My tooth chipped (my veneer) literally a couple of days before I was going to speak at a conference. I tried not to let it get me down, but 6 months after spending all that money, I am more than disappointed.

I told Dr. Pascual Nova and he just sent me a sad face and said come back let me fix it. I thought that was a little unkind as I would have to pay to return. I asked for a refund on the tooth as that would cover the cost of a flight back then I would also get the missing tooth put back. So pay for the flight (the same cost as the broken tooth) then I can come and get some more work done. He didn't agree to that.

It's now been 3 weeks and the fillings he replaced have become filled with CAVITIES. I am literally in agonizing pain (the whole of the right side of my face) the cavities are in the top and bottom of my right sided molars.

I've made an emergency appointment to go see a dentist locally. I am now at the point where I am willing to take a loan out to get it fixed it hurts so bad.

I regret giving Dr. Nova my $4500+ for him to learn on my teeth.

I keep telling myself in a year or 2 or 10, I would totally forget about this ordeal and laugh out loud again.

It's funny how saving money doesn't really save you money a lot of the time. I rented a smile for 6 months.

Notice how the before photo has my 2 teeth on either side turned out and he straightened them? It's hard to see it in this picture but the 2 teeth at the sides (my incisors) on both sides were turned out, he only shaved a little so as not to do a root canal. I wish I took a side view so you could see the protrusion. But anyway, he fixed that.
I text him this morning: ' I think I like my chiclets' he took it in good humor.
I think we are on the border of chiclet nation, if we do the bottom and the teeth are not too thick, then we just might get away with it.
My room mate screamed when she saw me and said how much? I said $2000 (didn't want to give her the full price) her face fell, ' $2000 for only that!?'
(She thinks it's zoom whitening) I said yes and she looked at me as if to say (that could give you new boobs and an ass if you know where to look)
I smiled.
I should have said $200

For anyone who cared to know how the Dr. Nova series ended, well here goes:

Our last discussion was on Saturday last week, when I was thinking of canceling and then not much else in between. 2 days ago (Thursday) I sent him a text saying, 'my flight leaves Saturday (today) I hope we are all set for tomorrow'. He wrote back 'I hope so too.'

I thought.....'hmmm' he said come in at 11:30 tomorrow.

I tossed and turned all night, didn't fall asleep till 7am, so I woke up at 11:30 and sent him a text saying I was coming. He said 'no, don't. I will call you when it's ready. '
I was relieved. I felt so tired. I went back to sleep. Woke up around 1:00pm and literally sat by my phone and watched the clock till 7pm. I sent him a text and said, 'we tried, but the lab must be closed by now and I haven't heard from you.....what do we do now?' He text back 'it's ready, come now'

I was the only one at the house. Didn't know how to call a taxi. Santos, the guy who took me to cecip on Wednesday, had given me his card, so I figured if I called him directly and spoke only English, he might know it was me and come. So I logged into my skype and called him and said 'santos, un necessita taxi......I am the lady you picked up before in Los Rosales, Mi Casa. Un necessita un Taxi mi Casa.' He said 'ah! Si! And some other things hung up. I wasn't sure what was going on so I text dr. Nova and my room mate to see if either of them could call. 2 mins later, santos was outside! He understood my spanglish! I was so elated, I almost burst into tears of utter relief and victory.

I ran in, grabbed my money purse and dashed out the door.

When I got downstairs, I showed him the address and the number, he called dr. Nova's office, confirmed it and off we went. A little way in, he started querying me for not calling him to take me back after my cecip drop off. I understood the hand signals after thinking he was asking me to call him this evening when going home. When I kept saying Si and he kept repeating himself I realized he was talking past tense not future. So I gestured that the people at cecip took me home.

We arrived at Dr. Nova's at 7:30pm, santos motioned for me to call when I was done, Si, I nodded and walked in.

Nova looked exhausted. The moment I walked in he said, 'the first lab gave me something, I didn't like it, so I had to go to another lab. That's why the delay. We just finished at the 2nd lab'. Ok, I said. 'I haven't eaten all day' I added. He said 'me too! At the end we get sandwiches. Real dominican sandwiches' I said ok.

I sat in the chair and he begins to talk. He put them on with a weak glue so that we could take pictures and look at the teeth. I did, but the glue doesn't give you the final look, but I had an idea of it. I can't remember much of whatelse he said, aside from balnco (white) I just remember that we didn't begin the process till 9pm, at which point he said, 'relax, you will be here for a while'.

At around midnight santos calls to check if I have once again betrayed him, but the dental assistant tells him, no. We are still on it.

At 1am (yes, you read right) we finish. We were all ready to get tf out of there I didn't even bother inspecting it too closely. It was the end of the affair. Time to go home with whatever I gained from the experience. A close inspection will do you no favors at this point. So I get up, we all stretch and twist and turn and I settle my bill. I did remember to tip my dental assistant, if for nothing else, she didn't get this job to go home at 1am. She was glad, I was glad and my taxi, santos was outside.

They give him the address to where I can buy my dominican sandwiches and we leave. Santos kept trying to get me to bear all (he kept gesturing for me to smile) but I pretended I didn't understand. 'No habla espanol' I kept insisting.

We stopped for Dominican sandwiches but it was a street food place with no signage. I was thinking I could walk up and say 'número cinco' after I looked at the picture menu(like McDonald's) but there was nothing. He had told me to ask for papaya k (a drink, like papaya milkshake which was delicious) and a sandwich. So I said 'I don't speak Spanish' to the guy at the counter and he gave out a whistle as if to say 'bloody hell' and said something and they laughed and handed me a menu card, all Spanish. I knew chicken was pollo. So I was just about to say pollo or point to the most expensive item on the menu card ($5) when a lady walked up and sAid ' I speak Liddel ah English'
relief.
'What kind of sandwiches do you have?' I asked, pushing my luck.
'Chickeh, porh, cheeh'
'Chicken please' I said 'no cheeh?' 'No. Gracias......and papaya k'
She nodded and went away 2 minutes later my order was up. The entire place was abuzz with what looked like hookers and johns and they all stared at me the entire time. But hey, I gotta try dominican sandwiches. I pay like $6 and go back to the car. I would usually offer the taxi something but not in Spanish, not at 1am and not at this part of town lol.

I get into the taxi 'gracias. Mi Casa por favor- thank you, my house, please' I know I totally butchered the Spanish and it should probably go in a different order, but .........shrugs.
then he puts something in his navigation and I was thinking, 'huh?' He obviously lives/works close to where I live it doesn't take him 5 mins to get there when called, he knows where the sandwich place is because dr. Nova didn't have to give directions, why does he need the navigation to connect the two?

So I say with a level of controlled alarm and suspicion 'Los Rosales?' He said si.
The directions came up and showed arrival time at 4:22am.
I look at the dashboard, it's 1:15am. So I show him the time on the navigation '4:22? ' I ask. He shows me the dashboard like no 1:15. So I'm shifting in my seat a couple of times, muttering to myself. So he turns off the navigation.

Then we start driving under tunnels and I'm like 'good lort.... I have never seen tunnels in DR before, is he taking me to his village? He knows I don't speak a drop of Spanish' I could get rapped or mugged or raped and mugged and there's nothing I can do. It would probably take me days to walk back into town. I don't know anyone's numbers so if they steal my purse with my phone I can't contact dr. Nova or caro, I only know my family's number and I can't call them after a [RS bleep] and mugging in DR.......' My mind was racing as we went under tunnel after tunnel.

'Why did you bring your money purse. This is all you money, if they take it, you can't even get another taxi home. Your wallet with all your credit cards are in here, so you can't get a different flight if you miss this one, your passport is in here! What were you thinking? Why didn't you take only Nova's money..... But he knows nova has his number, surely he won't take the risk. But girls get raped by taxi drivers all the time.... Especially overseas..... What were you doing out at 1.'

He stretched out his hand to hold mine looking at it, I panicked some more and was just about to jump out of the moving car when he pointed at the map on the navigation 'independencia...... No Rosales' and I remembered that los Rosales was an area off independencia.

I exhaled and let go of my grip on the door handle.

Lmao @ the thought of jumping out of a moving car, on a deserted highway, at 1:30am.
#crazyamerican #hadtoriskit

Anyway, at 1:35 I was home. He motioned for me to call him, I didn't think I could take another hair raising ride (even though he probably didn't give me reason to, aside from wanting to hold me,and that could be cultural) I said Si. He wanted for me to get in, which I did, waved and went to look at my teeth.

What do you think guys?

They aren't chiclets per se. They are imperfect, a little worn, they look like I've had them about 30years but they are blanco. Like I wanted. So I cant't really complain. I decided that I liked them. The contrast between top and bottom is something to behold, but what can I do? It was all so rushed and unplanned and impromptu.

So, I think I will do the ablation when I get back to America (flight is this afternoon) then return for sx and my bottom grill in December maybe? If I don't get laughed out of town with the 2 tier, white chocolate and lemon colored teeth.

So there you have it! My room mates just got in from clubbing last night, it's (9am) lol I do like DR. I'm excited to go home, but I'm looking forward to coming back with a little more Spanish under my belt and hopefully a lot more wisdom!

Best wishes to all of you.