Dentistry in Guinea

So I called Traian from Labe and he told me to come to Conakry to go to the dentist. I arrived yesterday (after an 8-hour bush taxi ride, sans my pooch who is staying with John - THANKS JOHN!). First thing this morning I went in to meet with him and they made me an appointment with one of the PC-approved dentists here and Traian went with me to explain everything to the dentist.

When we arrived at the clinic, Traian told me it was "one of the luxury clinics in Guinea". Want to know what that means? Think university health center. The dentist is a Lebanese dude who went to dentist school in Senegal. He was nice. He tapped on my tooth and blew air and water on it (which predictably hurt like hell) and took an x-ray, which he developed by hand in this red plastic box.

Then he said that the diagnosis is not good and showed me the x-ray. Basically, I don't need a root canal, as my roots are not infected. What is infected is the gum and bone area all AROUND my roots. Which doesn't seem better to me at all. He said that he would have to, like, cut open my gums and clean it really well and then my gums would be below my roots or something. I am still confused about this. He also said I'd be best off going back to the States to fix it. Traian is waiting to hear back from the head West Africa doctor on whether I can have this procedure done in Guinea or if I need to be sent to Dakar, Senegal. He said this is the first time they have ever had this diagnosis in his five years as PCMO so he doesn't know the protocol. I find this very reassuring.

So that's what I'm waiting on now.

At any rate I will be in Conakry until at least Wednesday so give me a call!

UPDATE: So the decision has been made to send me to Senegal for at least 2 weeks (but Traian said that's if there are no complications, if there are complications it could be longer). However, there is still no decision about exactly when I will be going or if I will be going back to site beforehand or not. I doubt if I'll get to go back to site because it would take me 2 days to get there and 2 days to get back and even if they didn't have me flying to Senegal until Sunday it still wouldn't be worth it (travel to site Wed and Thurs, have to travel back Fri and Sat). Hopefully there will be more info tomorrow (Weds).

Dave, where's my phone call?