Suman Dao.
Saraiya is the owner and operator of Saraiya Dental Health Clinic. She claims that she started the business in 1999 because her father could not afford to have children due to poverty, and is now the only proprietor of a small shop in Gijon. She claims to have made a total of 5500 pesos in the first three years, and since then a number of people have come to the clinic, who have made large deposits in order to get their teeth checked by a dentist who claims to be one of the best in Spain.
Saraiya describes to me the day-to-day working conditions and routines at the clinic: “In an average day, we will see 1,500 people. We need six people to perform the procedure, and two people will go on to the next procedure. That’s 10 people a day.”
The clinic is on the sixth floor of an office building in the town of Santuario. It feels very special. Saraiya tells me that this is a medical clinic, and not a dentistry one as most are, but an oral health clinic which “treats” people with painful gums, cavities, and other serious issues. If a patient has been waiting for over a month for a dentist, her chances of getting well are almost 100%, says Saraiya.
“There is a waiting list, and the dentist has to travel from one province to the other in order to visit the clinic. After that, she has to travel again to the clinic in the same province. You are not allowed to have a tooth removed without the permission of at least six people.”
The “Doctor”
One of the things that is fascinating about having worked at such an expensive clinic is the way that people have been treated and cared for. Many of the patients are elderly. Some have undergone surgery, and many have been complaining about severe pain for months. “We are not in a business to give people painkillers, because to them it is a nuisance,” says Santuario doctor, Luis Jancun.
While there is an abundance of advice about treatment at the clinic, they have been accused of not providing good dental work. There have been accusations that they were not giving the right treatment for patients who wanted it.
One patient who went to the clinic told me that her dentist told her that she needed