Not once did I not get a scolding from her. She would prick and pry into my mouth, with no regard whatsoever to the terror and fear I was feeling then. I still can hear her high-pitched scolding voice even today.
All my friends hated to visit this clinic. Each time the beige dental cards were brought to the class, we would all shut our eyes (and ears) and pray that we wouldn't be the ones to be summoned. Many times, my prayers were unanswered.
So I really dreaded dental visits.
There was one visit that I particularly remember. During that awful visit, the high-screeching voice went scolding non-stop, "Now you have 2 cavities! How?! Today I can do filling for one only. The other one, I will do the next time!"
The fillings were always painful and agonising. I would freeze completely on the chair, hoping and hoping against hope that the drilling and scolding would stop quickly. Neither did.
When I was finally released that day, I told myself, "Pui! I am never going to let you drill me again! You stupid woman!"
I went home, and for the next few days, I scrubbed and brushed my teeth like crazy. The dental nurse had pointed out to me where the next drilling would be done at, so I 拼命 brush and cleaned and gargled and scrubbed the best I could at the area.
When I was next summoned to the clinic, the ever-eager-to-drill woman was stunned. She could no longer find the remaining cavity! Yeah!!! I was so elated that I almost started feeling thankful to her for sparing me the expected drilling. But I never told her my secret - what for, right? Let her remain puzzled, lor!
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When I went to TKGS, the dental clinic was manned by a dentist. I mean, a real dentist. As in, a qualified doctor dentist! I was so happy that it was no longer those scolding-non-stop dental nurses that I had to deal with in BPS. Doctor dentist, and a kind, soft-spoken and gentle one at that! Wow! What luck!
So, I looked forward to my visits at this clinic which looked similar to the one at BPS but was located next to some Malay jaga family at the far end of the school compounds. And boy, was I relieved to realise that scolding was not an essential part of my visit to this place.
But my joy was rather shortlived. At one visit in Sec 1, the dentist told me that I had some problem in my premolar. I went, "Ha?!" But I had felt no pain whatsoever! Nor did any of my teeth feel shaky or something!
She didn't say much, but pointed out that the 'extra' piece of flesh on my gum (which I had had for as long as I had remembered) was not normal. There was some infection that had to be cleared up! Ha?! Again, I went, "Ha?!"
In those days, they never asked for what is permission or consent or even bothered to enlighten patients (especially since we were non-paying school children patients) on what we were to expect. What turned out to be treatment was pure agony. No, it was AGONY.
I was sent on many repeated visits to the Outram area - I cannot remember whether it was the School Dental Service or the Dental Centre. But either would have looked and felt the same anyway. So the location didn't matter except that Mother had to take me there every week or every other week on a long-winding bus service no. 61. I always had to try not to get carsick while travelling through the various estates before reaching Outram.
In the dental chair, I sat and waited and tried hard not to hear those drilling and gushing and don't-know-what-else they did in my mouth. It was tiring to keep the mouth open, too. At times, it was many times more painful than the drillings at the BPS dental clinic. At times, it also smelt bad everywhere - I think they used extra strong medicine somewhere.
But all these pain and awful experience paled in comparison with the shock and chill that ran through me during the final (or was it almost final?) session. After some drilling (they drilled on every session!), the dentist poked what looked like a giant sewing machine needle right into the tooth and sent me to the x-ray room somewhere down the corridor with the needle still stuck in me! Imagine how scared I was when told to hold the needle in position while moving from one room to another!
I almost collapsed when I returned to the dentist, holding the x-ray film in one hand and the needle in the mouth in the other! The x-ray clearly showed the needle piercing right through the tooth all the way to the jaw!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Then, thankfully, the dentist became very satisfied and started to patch things up. I think I went for a review after that and was discharged from this Outram agony house.
I went back to the TKGS dentist, who continued to look after the dental health till I graduated from TK. The subsequent visits to her clinic remained pleasant and relatively stress-free. Phew!
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It's weird but no one took care of our teeth during our JC and University years. I suppose they assume that by then, after all the years of drilling and prying and scolding and nagging, we would have learnt to take care of our teeth ourselves. I did. So during those years, I never had any more dental problems.
In fact, one of the dentists I had visited after I started working, had commented, "You know ah, with your kind of cleanliness in the teeth, the only problem you are likely to have is receding gums! Because you brush too well!"
His words struck fear in me. Because sometime last year or the year before, I noticed that my teeth do really look longer these days. The gums do seem to have shrunk, too.
So, I now use toothpaste for sensitive teeth and soft brushes to gently brush my teeth. I hope whatever gum recession there may be, will slow down.
*sob* *sob* (It's so unfair - first, we get scolded for not brushing well. Then, when we brush well, the teeth/gum start acting up. Sigh.)
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When WY was small, we decided to let him visit the paediatric dentist so that he could be eased into regular dental visits. On YP's recommendation, we chose a Dr Mok at NUH. She is really great at handling children, putting them at ease in her sticker-filled room and rewarding them with stickers etc at the end of their visits. She also chatted with them (kids talk) while she busily checked their teeth.
When WF also came to the dentist-going age, we also let him join in for the visits. The little one is always thrilled at getting on to the dentist's chair - I suppose the pampering he gets (with the dental assistant first gently putting on the paper napkin and dark shades for him) makes the experience exciting. And he loves the feeling of extra-clean teeth after the polishing he gets on his teeth.
All went fine until some time in 2007. When the dentist checked WY, she started to frown. She explained that WY has what is commonly called 'XXX's Premolar' (I think it is Tay's Premolar')and that we would have to do something about it as best as we can now so as to prevent future problems.
Basically, this is a condition where additional pokes or 'spikes' grow on the grinding surface of the tooth. The condition runs in the family and is prevalent in Asians and hence until in the recent decades, it has never been recorded in dentistry literature written by Western doctors.
The problem with such pokes or 'spikes' is that if they should break before the nerves in the tooth grow sufficiently down towards the roots, there will be an opening in the surface of the tooth through which bacteria may enter the tooth cavity and proceed to infect the tooth pulp and tissues. If the pokes or 'spikes' break only after the roots have grown down towards the roots as they should when the tooth matures, then the roots will be sufficiently protected by a 'closed' crown internally and therefore the risk of infection will be minimal.
The tricky part of this condition is that because the pokes or 'spikes' are generally tall and thin, chances are that they will break sooner or later. And so, the critical thing is to identify and manage them quickly and as soon as possible (before they break).
Should they break and an infection sets in, it will be necessary to treat the infection by way of a root canal treatment. This means drilling through the tooth and treating the infection with antibiotics before clearing out the tooth pulp along with the infected tissues. Then a course of oral antibiotics will complete the treatment.
Upon hearing the dentist's explanations, it suddenly dawned upon me that that was most probably what had happened to me when I was in Sec One! I probably had the pokes or 'spikes' which broke, resulting in an infection which caused an 'extra' flap of skin to grow on the gum next to the tooth! And hence the root canal treatment at Outram!!
Oh man! It's like suddenly realising what it had been all about after all these years of wondering what the term 'Endo...' scribbled on the appointment card meant! And having been through this treatment process, I certainly don't want WY to go through it if we can help it!
So, on the advice of the dentist, some dental material was 'glued' onto WY's 3 premolars whose pokes or 'spikes' were still visible such that the pokes or 'spikes' were now surrounded by a wall. The idea was to support the pokes or 'spikes' so as to delay any breakage of the pokes or 'spikes for as long as possible.
The pokes or 'spikes' on WY's other premolar appeared to have already been broken, so the dentist tried to do her best to 'save' the pokes or spikes remaining. For WY's subsequent visits, the dentist always checked the 'mounds' and found them in place. So we were comforted.
But since some time last year, WY started complaining of 'sensitivity' in his teeth generally. He thought it was because he had been brushing too hard and was beginning to feel the effects of some receding gums. So we switched him to using Sensodyne, the toothpaste widely recognised to be good for sensitive teeth. Initially, I wanted him to try the toothpaste I am now using but he preferred Sensodyne, so we stuck with that.
About a week after WY's regular check-up in July this year, WY started to complain of pain at the premolar when he bit on his food. So, we hurriedly got an urgent appointment with the dentist to check it out. I really appreciate the dentist's understanding and making the efforts to see us even though her schedule was completely packed as usual.
WY was sent for an x-ray. When he returned with the film, the dentist found to our dismay that there seemed to have been an infection at the area adjacent to the roots of the premolar whose pokes or 'spikes' previously seemed to have been broken. WY's complaint of this tooth feeling 'shaky' was also consistent with the dentist's observation.
I was heartbroken. I mean, we did all we could and in the end, it still seemed inevitable that the root canal had to be done. Also, the heartache was that every one of WY's teeth is strong and good, with no cavity whatsoever! To deliberately 'kill' the tooth now is such a cruel thing to do, right?!
But alas, there was no other way to go about it if WY needs help to clear up the infection. So, after extensive discussion with the dentist, we made an appointment with the root canal treatment specialist at NUH referred to us by the dentist. It was tough scheduling this appointment because of WY's examiniation schedules. But the dental assistant was very helpful and thoughtful, so we finally settled on the first appointment on Monday next week.
Just yesterday, I checked with WY how his tooth is now. He said the pain doesn't seem to be there anymore although at times, the tooth feels a little 'numb'. The tooth also no longer feels shaky like before.
I hope the infection has cleared up or is in the process of clearing up. And by the time the specialist evaluates him on Monday, it will be gone and no longer necessary to go through the agony I had been through years back.
Update:
At the visit to the root canal treatment specialist, the doctor examined WY's teeth and ran a 'cold test' on the affected tooth and 2 others (so WY could compare the feeling). Conclusion was that the affected tooth is really 'dead' in that the nerves in that tooth were not responding to the 'cold' cotton-bud tip. In other words, a root canal treatment is unavoidable.
The doctor probably sensed my reluctance about the treatment, so she went on to explain how the dead/dying nerves will become food for the bacteria and continually 'feed' the infection etc.
As the doctor proceeded with the anaesthesia shots (she injected in small shots), she massaged the gums and spoke to WY in a gentle and reassuring voice. At times, they both even cracked small jokes!
What a contrast this seemed to my own experience of root canal treatment at the government clinic in Outram! How fortunate WY is!
Anyway, the 1st session involved the removal of the nerves (with a kind of miniature needle-like brushes of varying sizes), putting in the medication to 'kill' the bacteria and to entice the roots of the tooth to 'close' and finally patching the tooth up with a temporary filling. The plan is that in about 3 months' time, the dentist will review and if the roots are 'closed' and the infection is cleared, proceed with the next stage of the treatment, ie removing the medication and putting the permanent root canal filling. That will mark the end of the treatment.
So, our next appointment will be in December. Hopefully, everything goes smoothly.
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