Have you been to a dentist here in Salalah? Fun, was it? Occasionally in the Salalah Facebook group someone will ask for a reference for a GOOD dentist. Suggestions are floated, and everyone continues as before.
I've decided a good dentist in Salalah is a bit like the unicorn. Beautiful to behold if seen, but ever elusive. What is my evidence you say? Welp, it's my tooth. A few weeks ago, my back molar started to hurt if anything hot or cold touched it. I put up with that for about three weeks, hoping the situation would magically heal. I really freaking hate going to the dentist. I hate the smell of ground tooth and I hate fingers shoved in my mouth. I hate the Novocain needle, which to me feels as big as a pike. My stomach clenches and my hands spasm as soon as I hear the drill start and that awful tooth dust makes its way up my nose.
However, you can only go without hot tea for so long, so off to a (recommended) dentist I went. He ground out the old filling and replaced it with new. I believe he was amused, or at least bemused, by my quivering hands and spastic toes as he ground away. His assistant, an especially merciless Filipina lass, yarded the water suckie thing around at will.
The tooth is worse. It hurts all the time now. I took it upon myself to go to Muscat Pharmacy and get antibiotics (no need for a prescription here) and today the tooth is better.
My experience isn't unique. A good friend, in terrible pain from a rotten tooth, when to another dentist (of good repute) and had it pulled. Well, he thought he would have it pulled. SHE PULLED THE WRONG TOOTH!!!! She numbed up that side of his face, then asked him which tooth hurt.
Did you hear what I just said? She asked him which tooth. Is it me? He was so numbed he pointed to the tooth next to the rotten one, and hey ho, she pulled it. Leaving the bad tooth happily in place. Oddly he blames himself. I said no, any damn dentist worth anything knows what tooth needs to go. Or heaven forbid, how to save it. Teeth are pulled here willy nilly with no thought to how that...oh never mind.
ANOTHER good friend got a brandee new cap from the bestest dental clinic in Salalah. It cracked two months later while she chewed on..oh...a pancake or something. I was there.
If you are a dentist here in Salalah, and you are reading this, please be the unicorn we seek. A dentist who takes an xray to see what the actual problem might be. A dentist who knows when a tooth can be saved, even if it does call for shocking amounts of epoxy or whatever the heck it is you people use to build teeth. A dentist who charges a reasonable fee for work. Meantime, I am keeping my head low and hoping the antibiotics work.
I've decided a good dentist in Salalah is a bit like the unicorn. Beautiful to behold if seen, but ever elusive. What is my evidence you say? Welp, it's my tooth. A few weeks ago, my back molar started to hurt if anything hot or cold touched it. I put up with that for about three weeks, hoping the situation would magically heal. I really freaking hate going to the dentist. I hate the smell of ground tooth and I hate fingers shoved in my mouth. I hate the Novocain needle, which to me feels as big as a pike. My stomach clenches and my hands spasm as soon as I hear the drill start and that awful tooth dust makes its way up my nose.
However, you can only go without hot tea for so long, so off to a (recommended) dentist I went. He ground out the old filling and replaced it with new. I believe he was amused, or at least bemused, by my quivering hands and spastic toes as he ground away. His assistant, an especially merciless Filipina lass, yarded the water suckie thing around at will.
The tooth is worse. It hurts all the time now. I took it upon myself to go to Muscat Pharmacy and get antibiotics (no need for a prescription here) and today the tooth is better.
My experience isn't unique. A good friend, in terrible pain from a rotten tooth, when to another dentist (of good repute) and had it pulled. Well, he thought he would have it pulled. SHE PULLED THE WRONG TOOTH!!!! She numbed up that side of his face, then asked him which tooth hurt.
Did you hear what I just said? She asked him which tooth. Is it me? He was so numbed he pointed to the tooth next to the rotten one, and hey ho, she pulled it. Leaving the bad tooth happily in place. Oddly he blames himself. I said no, any damn dentist worth anything knows what tooth needs to go. Or heaven forbid, how to save it. Teeth are pulled here willy nilly with no thought to how that...oh never mind.
ANOTHER good friend got a brandee new cap from the bestest dental clinic in Salalah. It cracked two months later while she chewed on..oh...a pancake or something. I was there.
If you are a dentist here in Salalah, and you are reading this, please be the unicorn we seek. A dentist who takes an xray to see what the actual problem might be. A dentist who knows when a tooth can be saved, even if it does call for shocking amounts of epoxy or whatever the heck it is you people use to build teeth. A dentist who charges a reasonable fee for work. Meantime, I am keeping my head low and hoping the antibiotics work.
Hermey, where are you?
As for cake, a coworker requested an orange cake, not too sweet. He actually wanted one that was "tangy." I don't really know how to make something very tart in a cake, but I went with this recipe:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
3 eggs, room temperature
1 cup orange juice
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. grated orange rind
2 tsp. orange flower water (optional)
Grease and flour 2 8 inch cake pans. Preheat oven to 350F/180C.
Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time and blend on medium high until light and creamy. Sift dry ingredients and add alternating with orange juice by thirds. Blend in orange zest and flower water, if using. I live in the Middle East, so I threw it in there.
Divide cake batter between two pans and bake 20 minutes, or until toothpick tests clean.
Cool ten minutes, then remove from pans to a wire rack and cool completely. Spread some orange marmalade between the layers and dust with confectioners sugar.
Their cake.
My cake.
In my defense, there is a hot spot in my oven now that the gas cylinder is new. People at work ate it anyway. I should call myself the Salalah Ugly Cake Lady. meh.
I realize my blog has pooped out a lot. Most bloggers are dead in the water within six months. I shall continue.....mock me not!
Last night I made my husband a strawberry cake with whipped cream. Maybe I will even get a picture and write about it tomorrow. It could happen!
Wish me luck on the tooth.
Love,
Felicia El Aid
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