スミス英会話相模原校

相模原には英語を話す歯医者があります。相模原に長く住んでいるうちに3つの歯医者を見つけました。ひとつは、小田急線相模原駅の近くにあって一番気に入っています。しのはら歯科医院が長い間私のかかりつけ歯科医です。とても大きい歯科医院でスタッフの多くが歯の問題について理解するためには十分な英語を話します。10年程前に起きたおもしろい話をしましょう。

English speaking dentists in Sagamihara exist. I have found 3 of them in my years of living in Sagamihara. One in particular, located near Odakyu-Sagamihara Station has always been the best for me. Shinohara Dental Hospital has been my go-to dentist for many years. It is very large and many of the people on staff speak enough English for me to understand any problems that I may have with my teeth. I’d like to share a funny story about a problem I encountered about 10 years ago.

Sometimes I select an English lesson for my students related to injuries and ailments. Part of that English lesson includes the word “toothache” which most of my English students don’t quite understand unless I give them a clear example. They confuse it with “cavity” (mushiba). Cavities are easily repaired and mostly pain-free. A toothache is very painful. I went to Shinohara Dental Hospital in Sagamihara with a toothache.

I went to this Sagamihara Dental Hospital with the intention of getting the tooth extracted since I knew it was located in the back of my mouth. X-rays were taken. Dr. Shinohara showed me a magnified digital photo of the tooth and explained to me in near perfect English: “As we get older, our teeth begin to crack. The cracks are not visible to the naked eye. Sometimes bacteria gets into those cracks and travels down into the gum, which causes an infection- a toothache.” I asked him to pull the tooth, and he smiled. He could not do it. I didn’t understand why.

At the time, it was Monday. He said, “I’ll give you some pain medicine. Come back on Saturday when our oral surgeon is here and she will extract the tooth.” I went home, took the medicine, but it didn’t relieve the pain. The next morning I notified Smith’s School of English Head Office that I would not be able to teach that day and they closed my schedule and notified my English students. I went back to Shinohara Dental Hospital and asked him to please “pull the tooth.” Dr. Shinohara smiled and asked me to wait a few minutes. I still didn’t understand his smile.

About 15 minutes later he came back and said some funny things to me in very good English. . “My wife and I are both dentists. We worked in SanFrancisco for about 10 years. So I know that Americans are not patient people. Americans also have very strong teeth compared to Japanese, so it is not easy to pull the tooth. I understand your impatience though.” With that he directed me to a nearby hospital in Sagamihara and told me to go to the oral surgery department. “They will pull the tooth today.” Then I understood why he was smiling.

Having that tooth pulled was a very unpleasant experience, needless to say. But it got done that day thanks to the great service that Shinohara Dental Hospital provided. Having an English speaking dental clinic is very valuable to any foreigner living in Japan. The technical terms are difficult for us to understand in Japanese. The Shinohara staff and dentists relieve a lot of our anxieties because we can easily understand what is going on. I am very appreciative of this dental hospital in Sagamihara.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention a special student here at Smith’s School of English Sagamihara. She is a dental hygienist and also has foreign patients from time to time. She works in a dental clinic near Fuchinobe Station in Sagamihara. Please read about her here.

Thank you for reading. Trial English lessons are always free and fun! Come visit me at Smith’s School of English Sagamihara anytime!

Jim