Korean Dentistry: Hi-tech in appearance, Medieval in practice

We have recently had the pleasure of visiting the dentist here two different times. We were excited when hearing from others that the price was super cheap here compared to what it can be in the States. We found a dentist office where the dentist spoke some English, although no one else did, and went to have our teeth "cleaned". When we first went in the took some high tech 360 (or would that be 180?) pictures of our teeth. When we were lead back to the dentist's chair, we were able to view our X-rays on a flat monitor that was mounted in front of us. He explored our mouths using a small camera, and pictures of problem teeth could be seen on the screen. It is kind of weird actually seeing a big blow-up of your own cavity. While they wanted to wait to fillings and such done for another time we still wanted to get them cleaned. We should have been tipped off that cleaning here is called "scaling".
We were a little worried that none of the dental hygienists, nor the dentist, wore gloves. Also, none of the tools had little plastic covers like they do here. I know they are very communal about food sharing and I am still wondering if the same thing applies to dental tools. Before the "scaled" our teeth, they covered our faces with a big green cloth. There is only a whole for your nose and mouth. While maybe this was supposed to be nice that we couldn't watch, it made me a little nervous not being able to see what was going on. I am guessing it is there because Korean's are very protective of their faces. If a kid gets a scratch on his face he'll be wearing a bandage for the next two months so as to not leave any scars. As we were blind to what was going on, they started in on one of the most painful dental procedures we have ever had. Instead of cleaning with a tooth brush, they grind away the plaque with a drill like thing (I could only hear and feel it, not see it). It also appeared to be too bad if your gums happened to get in the way of the grinding machine. We will not be doing that again and our teeth can wait for America to be clean.
This past weekend we were aided by our super awesome Korean friend Eula as we traveled to her dentist to see if we couldn't have some better work done. While it was much smoother it wouldn't have been so if Eula hadn't translated everything. Eileen got a cavity filled and to keep the tooth separate they used something called a dental dam (we only know this now because we searched it online.) Here is a picture of what one looks like:
While I am sure it helps to keep the tooth dry, it is a little uncomfortable to have this metal and rubber apparatus across your face for 30 minutes or so. They also had to stick us both multiple times with Novocaine. I have never had to be stuck so many times before! All of our procedures were again done with no rubber gloves, although we did witness the dentist scrubbing in. As it is the day after, we are feeling much better...that is until we have to return again next Saturday. South Korean dentistry: cheap and a cultural experience that we will not miss.