Having heard horror stories about dentists here in Japan (without even taking into account language differences) for years, I was very reluctant to have a go at it. You hear that they stop training and upgrading equipment, don’t clean any of the instuments, drill/pull the wrong teeth, suddenly and without discussion perform procedures without anesthetic ..  But, it’s been way too long and it suddenly became urgent. So, I trooped off to Ginza just down from Harry Winston and had a pleasant surprise. Hitomi Hayashi, D.D.S. is a pleasure to be around and very very gentle. Her main concern is no pain and she certainly lives up to that. I kinda got lost and called and she, herself, walked down to the Apple store to walk me back to her office which is very modern, comfortable, and calming. It was my best trip to any dentist anywhere.

Her English is good but I cannot resist one anecdote. I was all nitroused up and she was asking the usual questions when I heard “you know about the bacteria in the mouth, when you brush your teeth do you notice any breeding?” In my gassed state my mind locked up. Breeding? How could I notice something like that? I don’t have a flexible microscope. She repeated again a few times breeding … breeding? It finally struck me when she said “sorry my pronunciation for some words is not so good” … click … bleeding!

Please comment if you’d like to visit her and I’ll get back to you by private email (I think I get a toothbrush or something if I refer folks – hehe). Also I’d be interested to hear of your experience with either her or other dentists in Japan.