Good Dentist in Tokyo

When was the last time you
had your teeth checked?

Update: (February 25th, 2012) A couple of people in the comments section have been to the clinic mentioned in this article since it was published, and it appears that the place now has new ownership. 

Lots of people are scared half to death of going to the dentist. The language barrier, the alleged tendency to draw treatments out over several visits, old school techniques (metal fillings)--all of these help ramp up the panic quotient when a non-Japanese feels that it's time to have a cleaning or a crown replaced.

But many expats in Japan wait until it's too late and the throbbing pain has spread from the lower hinge of the jaw to the upper. Count me as one of those people. I needed a root canal and quick, and I'm happy to report that I guessed correctly the first time on my choice of surgeon.

Dr. Naoko Freeman runs a dental clinic near Nishieifuku station on the Inokashira line between Meidaimae and Kichijoji stations.

The bit about treatments being drawn out over several treatments appears to be true, at least when Japanese health insurance is involved. But worries about communication (English and Japanese) and prehistoric equipment do not come into play.

The clinic is clean, modern,
simple and comfortable.

Here's how my treatment went:

Visit number one was on short notice. I was x-rayed, had my molar hollowed out and temporarily sealed, and sent on my way within 40 minutes.

The second visit was to check to make sure that the infection was completely gone and to replace the temporary filling with a slightly more robust cap. On my way in less than 30 minutes.

My third visit to see Dr. Freeman was over in about 15 minutes. More x-rays were included in this visit to make sure that the bottom part of the filling wasn't going to cause any problems. An impression was taken so the good folks at the lab could fashion a filling for me.

The fourth visit was when the ceramic filling was put into place and I was given the all-clear to eat hard food on the right side of my mouth again. The ceramic filling, which looks quite natural I must say, was not covered by national health insurance and the fourth visit cost me about ￥30,000. I actually paid for it ahead of time (at the end of my third visit), so I didn't pay anything when I went in for the fourth time.

I also went back a fifth time to have a couple of far smaller problem areas treated, but this was not related to the tooth that brought me there in the first place. This took about 30 minutes and cost less than ￥2,500 with insurance. Some of the visits cost less than ￥1,500.

Overall, I was impressed with the speed and professionalism of the dental services provided by Dr. Freeman and her staff. Communication is not an issue as the secretary can handle emergency calls, appointments and administration quite easily in English. Dr. Freeman herself spent part of her dentistry training in Australia, and is quite fluent in the English language.

Dr. Freeman's clinic can handle all of the regular cleaning, crown and filling procedures as well as root canals and other more invasive treatments. Her clinic also administers teeth-whitening procedures.

My one quibble is with the drawn-out nature of the treatment for my primary dental issue. I'm pretty sure that it would have been completed in fewer than four visits in other parts of the world although I do appreciate Dr. Freeman's desire to make sure that no bacteria from the root-hugging cavity had managed to survive the initial stages of treatment.

And I can't complain too much about the price. I've heard that it's possible to get a lot more dental work done at a clinic if you don't use national health insurance, but you pay heftily for such efficiency. As mentioned earlier, my most recent treatment in which two small areas of concern were drilled and sealed cost less than ￥2,500. Personally, I'm reasonably content to take the slow approach to dental therapy if the cost is going to be so low. I have no idea what such a treatment would cost in the states, but I imagine it's several times what I paid.

For those with easy access to the Inokashira Line in western Tokyo (Shibuya, Shinjuku, Meidaimae and Kichijoji stations are the major transfer stations in that area), Dr. Freeman's Nisheifuku clinic is recommended.

The clinic is the second door on the left after
reaching the second floor of the building.

Call 03-5378-2228 for an appointment.

Website here.

Tips: Nishieifuku is a local train stop. In other words, if you take a train from Kichijoji or transfer at Meidaimae, make sure that you catch a local (kakuekiteisha).

The map (scraped from the clinic's website) mentions a photo shop as a landmark (across the street from Lawson). However, that building has been demolished. Accurate as of November 2010.

Good Dentist in Tokyo

Frum on Republican Party's Waterloo

An interesting post by former Bush speech-writer, David Frum, on what the Republican party's posturing in the healthcare reform debate means heading forward.

A quick selection:

At the beginning of this process we made a strategic decision: unlike, say, Democrats in 2001 when President Bush proposed his first tax cut, we would make no deal with the administration. No negotiations, no compromise, nothing. We were going for all the marbles. This would be Obama’s Waterloo – just as healthcare was Clinton’s in 1994.

Read the rest here.

And while you're at it, read Karl Miller's dissection, culinary-style, of Krauthammer's thoughts on 'Obamacare'.

Frum on Republican Party's Waterloo

I can hear them clearing their throats (a day without my iPod)

Left the apartment yesterday without my beloved iPod. It wasn't on purpose, it just happened. Before getting on the train I debated returning home to retrieve it, but I decided against it.

I decided that it might be a good experiment for me to attempt to make it one full working day without the aid of my mp3 player.

Boy was that a stupid idea.

• The whole ride to work I got to listen to people sniffling and sneezing like there was a ragweed patch in the middle of the train.
• In the shops I had to navigate the incessant "Welcome to our humble store!" and other sales-related, but automated, jingles that routinely assault shoppers' aural faculties here.
• In Vie de France (a bakery/cafe) I was treated to a teenager barking into her phone at her obviously at-fault boyfriend. For 25 minutes.
• On the return trip home, the business guy sitting next to me repeatedly cleared his throat as though he was intending to spit something large down a drain that I couldn't immediately perceive. However, the drain appeared to be in my general direction.
  

So let's just say that I learned my lesson. If I happen to leave the apartment without my music again, then I'll be scurrying back home before you can say, "Christopher is a lame-ass twerp". But even if you do say it out loud, which some of you will, it won't matter because I'll be listening to Murs.

I can hear them clearing their throats (a day without my iPod)

Japanese Suicide Rate Remains Steady

2007 was the 10th year in a row in which the number of people who committed suicide broke the 30,000 mark.

The National Police Agency reported 33,093 suicides last year.

Most reports cite unspecified social pressures driving people to take their own lives. Very little seems to be discussed in terms of what can be done to help relieve said pressures. For years, the economy has been blamed for these unfortunate deaths. However, now that the economy is relatively stable (compared to the late 90's), it's obvious that the economy doesn't deserve the bulk of the blame.

Akita prefecture has been training its health professionals to recognize the signs of depression (isn't that a course in med school anyway?) since 2001. However, that northern prefecture of Japan has consistently had one of the highest suicide rates in the country.

Last year Akita had the second highest rate (suicides per 100,000 population) at 37.2 while Yamanashi, a prefecture nestled between Mt. Fuji and Western Tokyo, had a suicide rate of 39.

While the extra awareness on the part of doctors and nurses doesn't seem to be doing much, maybe the best way to reach people suffering from depression is to actually grab them.

Emergency technicians in the southern city of Fukuoka managed to stop a 38-year-old woman from jumping off the 12th floor of an office building in Hata-ku.

Their plan of attack was simple. They talked calmly to her until she took her eyes off them and then they lunged and grabbed her by the belt. Daring and crazy up on that ledge? Yes. Effective? You bet.

Now let's just hope she gets the help she really needs lest she climb back out there and try the same thing again.

[photo courtesy of Mainichi Newspaper]

Japanese Suicide Rate Remains Steady

Hospital Rejections of Emergency Patients Endemic

Update 1 [March12, 2008]: The Japan Times spent a little extra time crunching the survey numbers it seems. Apparently there were more than 24,000 instances where a patient seeking emergency medical care was denied admission by at least three hospitals. Of this number, a little more than 14,000 were classified as "seriously ill". 8,618 cases involved individuals aged 14 or younger, and 1,084 involved pregnant women.

Original Post:
I commented on this last year (click here), but now there's more information coming out about the practice of hospitals rejecting patients in Japan.

A recent survey revealed that more than 14,000 patients requiring emergency medical attention in 2007 were rejected by at least three hospitals, and a little over 1,000 were denied by at least 10.

I actually saw a late-night news program/documentary about this same topic on TV last week. They interviewed some health professionals who mentioned that they had been coached on the best ways to reject patients. They showed several clips of ambulance dispatchers calling hospital after hospital and the voice on the other line giving one excuse or another for why they couldn't accept the patient.

Several times it sounded like the person on the other end of the line just couldn't be bothered to deal with any extra excitement at that hour of the night. To be fair, however, I saw footage of an ER on the news this evening, and they were clearly understaffed. Obviously, some of the rejections are warranted.

In the article, it was reported that one woman was rejected by 49 hospitals before finally being admitted (her fate was not noted). The survey did not keep track of how many people died as a result of the hospital rejections, but such cases have been publicized recently.

In December, an 89-year-old woman died after an ambulance crew spent two hours trying 30 hospitals before finding one that would accept her for treatment.

The news program that I saw on TV mentioned that while being an ER doctor in the United States is a position that commands a decent amount of respect and pay, the same can not be said for the situation in Japan. Naturally, not that many med students plan to become ER doctors.

I would love to see comparable numbers for hospital rejections (patients being denied admission), specifically with regard to patients requiring emergency treatment, in the United States. I'm sure that it happens--I just want to know how often. And how often is insurance a factor in whether or not a patient is admitted to a hospital?

Anyone have any info on this?

Hospital Rejections of Emergency Patients Endemic

A family that dines together, smokes together

I don't have any stats to back me up, but I bet that the number of 4-year-olds in Japan with emphysema is astronomical when compared to children in other developed nations.

If you smoke in your kid's face at home that's your business. I still call that child abuse, but you're fortunate in that most governments don't agree with me.

But when you drag your two-year-old into the smoking section of a fast-food restaurant and puff smoke in her face for half an hour, then you might as well be one of those over-worked and drunk fathers who kicks his kid in public because he didn't get a good grade in his history class.

I'm complaining about parents right now, but it's a grandmother that shocked me today. McDonald's, as so often is the case in Japan, has a smoking section that isn't actually partitioned off from the non-smoking area (ie. the entire restaurant sometimes smells like it's a part of the smoking area). The picture to the right was taken with my camera-phone, hence the lack of clarity and bad lighting, but it shows a grandmother (facing the camera, cigarette in left hand) smoking in her granddaughter's face.

Of course, the mother is equally to blame here because she's allowing her little girl to be subjected to this. I was just passing through and didn't want to stick around and check, but I noticed two ashtrays on that tiny table, so I wouldn't be surprised if the mother (back to the camera) was smoking at the same time.

I know I'm shoveling forth a steaming pile of righteous indignation right now (and I've done it before), but let's think in practical terms for a moment. How many seconds off the little girls 200m will this equal when she goes to school in three years time? The school sports festival, while normally the highlight of the academic year, becomes the most embarrassing weekend of the child's life. Not that the 200m is the most important event at the sports festival. Tug-of-war is where the youngster's nicotine addiction could really do her in.

But then again, with this much infantile (pun intended) secondhand smoking going on, she'll probably finish in the middle of the pack.

A family that dines together, smokes together

I told you eating dolphin was a bad idea!

This article in the Guardian talks about how school children in Taiji, Japan are being fed dolphin meat that has alarmingly high levels of Mercury.

I have complained about the practice of hunting dolphins before, and it was also discussed at length in the comments section of this post over at TPR, and now finally some people close to the hunt are breaking rank and sounding the alarm.

Not that anyone in the Japanese media is paying attention.

I told you eating dolphin was a bad idea!

School's Out

Today it became painfully obvious that the measles vaccination is indeed a good idea.

After my first lesson of the day finished (3rd period Academic Writing) I was informed that the entire next week of classes had been cancelled. The students rejoiced, and I was left to figure out how I can stay on top of all of my grading over the next week or so.

The measles, from what I've heard, are only fun for those who don't come down with them. And it seems that MMR (measles, mumps, and rubeola) shots are not as common in Japan as one would expect. Measles outbreaks tend to occur only in developing countries these days, but there is a large population of individuals in Japan that is not immune to the virus, so Waseda University is officially off-limits (for most people) until next Wednesday at the earliest.

It was reported that Waseda has had 30 reported cases of the measles so far this spring. To put that number in perspective, in 2002 there were 44 cases reported nationwide in the United States.

The whole economy that revolves around the tens of thousands of students from Waseda University has been put on hold for at least seven days, and there's no guarantee that the one week break will stem an epidemic.

Since many students cannot change their work schedules at a part-time job on short notice, they are finding it difficult to fill their windfall of a vacation. Many "circles" (university clubs) are using the extra time off from school to do some extra drinking. The measles virus has an incubation period of between four and twelve days, so the drinking parties are probably not going to help the situation much.

To make matters more exciting, a friend of mine who works at a hospital here in Tokyo said that they are already out of measles shots. Nice nice!

School's Out