The Dentists' Visit 18 May 2010 - Part 1

I used to go to this dentist @ Bukit Timah Plaza, recommended by my Mum, too bad he retired in 2005. I remembered tat was a few months b4 my wedding and after he polished my teeth he discovered 1 BIG problem and he asked, so do u prefer to build an attap house ( fake tooth) or Bungalow (Root Canal with Crown). I replied, " cannot see when I smile right? Then I think I will leave the land empty" and so that was the 1st removal of my adult tooth

Lately, when I met up with a pal, she introduced me to this thingy called Undergraduate Treatment Service @ Faculty of Dentisty cos her bro is a student there.

When I shared the low rates of the undergraduate dental treatment @ Faculty of Dentisty with the colleagues some time back , Colleague L introduced me to the Polyclinic Dental Service, cos he said cheap & good and NO NEED to be a guinea pig.."

after all the comments by my loved one,
The hb asked, " u sure or not ?" ( anyway, he offered to pay for me too)
The sis said, " if u r so poor, I pay for u"
The pal said, " will be damn painful i tell u, esp if the undergrad do it..
The colleague commented, " so u r going to b a guinea pig"
The mum said, " if they pull the wrong root ( for root canal) and ur mouth become crooked, that will be the biggest joke..50K also cannot get back ur looks.."


After all those comments , i decided that my dental treatment, esp when i may need Root Canal is best left to those who have graduated ..


Was very fortunate to get an appointment at Toa Payoh Polyclinic esp when NHG has cut down the number of dental clinics..so left abt 5 in Singapore ..and there is always usually long q.

Happened that when I called 2 weeks ago, someone just cancelled the slot and I got it * happy ! *


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The Dental Clinic was located @ 3rd Floor and I was so impressed to see how posh it looks, gave my IC to the receptionist who pointed to her right and said Subsidised Patients' Clinic is next door..

World of difference lor... it is like Class C Ward, with fans

Waited for a short while and soon was directed to this room where all the dentists are divided into partitions. The 1st time I saw was this young guy holding a Canon DSLR and another young guy. Assuming both are understudying my dentist, i assumed my dentist should be quite ok bah.

Dentist asked me any problems and i said Plenty..both sides of my teeth have been hurting since last month.

He introduced the two guys besides me and said they were his "friends" and they need some pics for their undergraduate studies..I said as long as my face is not taken, it is fine lor

So Dentist did his examination and discover I need an extraction , a filling and a Root Canal

Was really upset that my teeth have been causing me so much agony cos I brushed them at least twice a day !

The extraction => for a tooth that has chipped off
The filling => for a tooth that has a filling some years back and is causing me pain
The Root Canal => for my molar which made me jumped out of the dental chair and eyes filled with tears when the metal thingy poked into it

Dentist said Subsidised Clinic dun do Root Canal and refered me to the Clinic next door which charged ard $1200, same as a Private Clinic . So I started contemplating the $25 to $50 treatment done by an undergrad

I asked, " Can I checked with you something, if I were to have my Root Canal done by a not so good or inexperienced dentist, will it caused any side effects, i.e crooked mouth, damage to my nerves ?"

Dentist looked amused and assured me not at all..that my mouth will not go crooked ..

So I explained, " cos my pal's bro is doung his undergraduate studies and is providing undergraduate treatment

the other two young chaps commented, " Undergrad cannot do Root Canal for Molar, cos it is too complicated

I asked Dentist, " what if I extract this Molar Tooth?"

Dentist , " you may have difficulty biting your food in future ..cos it is ur Molar Tooth"

I commented, " I can still use the other side right ? so how much is extraction..

Dentist, " $20"

I decided to think abt it and the immediate task is to do up the filling for another tooth b4 it bec a Root Canal case as well..

Dentist keeps asking me, " is it too high?"

I replied, " seriously I dun understand wat u mean , this is the 1st time I get asked this qn when doing a filling..

So the Dentist tried again & again , and then I heard this crack sound..

He asked me, "how is it now"

I replied, " Not too good, i heard a cracking sound, "

Guess wat ? part of the filling has came off ?!

Anyway, Dentist did it again and it was finally secured..

He still commented, " jialat, exceed 20 minutes already"

GOSH

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Until now, I am still puzzled, , surely the Dentist located @ the Polyclinics have graduated right ?! and omg they are actually allocated 20 minutes per patient? No wonder my tongue has blood when he showed me the mirror to look at my filling..
too rushed the job i supposed