Posts: 415
Threads: 83
Joined: Jun 2009
Just some helpful information: I had two root canals done at Kuhio Dental and had to have them re-done by Dr. Brian Sakamoto, who is a wonderful root canal specialist. The dentist at Kuhio Dental re-imbursed me most of the money I paid him for months of inconvenience, pain, antibiotics and failed procedures (they even left a piece of metal in my gum which Dr. Sakamoto had to remove). Moral of the story: go to Dr. Sakamoto for root canals. It costs twice as much but is WELL worth it!!
Posts: 2,898
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Joined: Mar 2006
Thanks everyone. Just got back from Portland and all my dental work completed. There must be a dentist om every street corner there. And they all desperately want your business. Just wanted to say I'm sold and decided to make my dentist in Portland even though I live in Keaau. I'll keep my cleanings here in Hilo...but any work will be done there. The airfare is really good from Kona all year long (about $199.00 each way) and with "quality dentists", much lower dental costs (no sales tax) and a free place to stay (family lives there)... I can say it's worth it in the long run. Yes I could probably have found something similar in Honolulu but with the airfares to Honolulu almost as much as a trip to the mainland and the cost of dental work almost a 1/3 to 1/2 more... I'll stick with dental (and medical for that matter) trips to the mainland and get the kind of care I deserve......not what I have to settle for here. Besides.....I get frequent flier mileage to boot. [
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Posts: 1,930
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$199 kona to portland? Looking on orbitz and expedia, more like $300 one way.
Portland is over 600,000 in an urban area with several medical and dental schools. Hawaii island is an isolated rural community of 195,000, no medical or dental schools.
The crowns are being made with CNC machines, not 3D print. They use a 3D scanner and it takes about an hour to machine it. They have been in use on the mainland for over a decade. Here, not sure if anybody is using them. In China, they are starting to grow living teeth in petri dishes.
Most of the population here are the generation after the plantation business model collapsed. They generally don't have any dental insurance and they don't have cash. Doctors and dentists come here on a lark, see if they like it or can make it work, usually not. Tourists pass through, need medical or dental care, skip out on the payments. That is why most places here require a credit card up front.
Nobody is interested in improving general conditions because they are dying from geothermal poison or more concerned Wakea may be threatened by a telescope or that GMO is causing all the unicorns to lose their horns.
Misdirected priorities can cause irreparable damage, sometimes unrecoverable. The people have spoken, so let it be done.
"Aloha also means goodbye. Aloha!"
*Japanese tourist on bus through Pahoa, "Is this still America?*
