Hi all -

I am hoping someone can help settle an argument my wife and I are
having.
My wife is from Japan & we were discussing dentists in Japan.  My
understanding was that Japanese dentists have you come back many many
times for a proceedure that American dentists would normally do in 1
visit.  My wife is going in to have her wisdom teeth pulled (here in
the USA) and she was very surprised that they'd do all 4 at once.  She
claimed that it isn't the "proper" way to do it and that Japanese
dentists would do it the right way - by taking out one tooth per
appointment - thus the proceedure would take 4 visits.

What I would really love to hear is the facts from a Nihon-jin rather
than a gaijin.  My wife will most likely not listen to anything a
gaijin says about Japanese dentistry because "only a real Japanese
person truly understands how things work in Japan".  So, even though
I've read about the problems and have a good understanding, she will
not listen to anything I say - I'm biased towards the USA and our
system of dentistry.

So can someone help me settle this?  Explain why they take so long in
Japan and if possible, I would like to know if Japanese dentists think
that spreading proceedures over several appointments is the "best" way
to do things, or do they do it because that's how the system works (or
something else maybe?.

If possible, please CC answers to my email address - I rarely can
check Usenet because I can only use Google to access it anymore.

Thanks

Paul