Thursday, May 16, 2013

Brace yourself!

Dental hygiene is of utmost importance because the longer we have teeth to bite and chew food, the better life would seem. Maintaining dentures and having to eat mashed up food is not as fun.


I had a pleasant day at the dentist today. It's not very often I'd say it. In nearly all my past visits, I've been told I had cavities and needed fillings. And just when I thought I had run out of teeth to be filled, this new dentist told me my teeth looked good this time! My determined efforts at brushing and flossing (nearly) as per recommended guidelines in the past year paid off.

(Well, I'm very suspicious in nature so I wondered if she was lying. But why would she lie, Shu? I don't know, may be it was fake customer service? Nah, I don't think it's that. Then what is it? You are too suspicious when people give you compliments. Bah.)

Other comments from her, while my mouth was wide open with several tubes prodded inside:

Have you done a cleaning before? "Yes" [It's a bad idea to chat with your dentist, you can get sprayed by a fountain of your own saliva.]
All your wisdom teeth are out and there is enough of space at the back [Woo!]
Did you wear braces before? [mmhmmm.]
You don't need any fillings. [Oh good]

Many years ago, when I was somewhere between 10 and 15 years of age, I had braces to correct my disorganised and (as my mom preferred to call them) "planted" teeth. Like with most decisions parents make for their children, I had no idea what was in store for me, except for the promise of getting perfect teeth. I didn't even imagine in the wildest of my dreams that it would take three bloody years to be done with it. Or that it required going to the dentist every month until the dental clinic at the hospital was like my second home. Or that I had to be super-conscious above my generally conscious nature about things stuck in my teeth after meals. Or that some types of food were out of bounds. Or that braces caught too much attention from nosy bystanders. Or that it hurt sometimes. Or that I had to remove four teeth to make space for the correction plan (because my genetic blueprint had 34 instead of 32 adult teeth in the plan).

Well, there were a few good things about having braces. I was overjoyed when my school crush at the time also got braces a few months after me! It made a solid foundation for endless hours of teasing by other classmates (mwahaha!). Even though it was mostly undeclared feelings at the time, it was comforting to know there was someone in class who understood the misery of having braces.

While sitting in that highly subsidised hospital clinic for nearly 6 hours each time, waiting for my turn at the clinic, I read books, I watched people (doctors, nurses and families of patients) walk by, I watched patients being wheeled in stretchers and wheelchairs and I thought a lot. The rubber rings that needed changing every month came in bright neon colours of green, pink, yellow, orange and blue, so it made for good "show and tell" topics later in school. My dentist who I never got close to in all those three years (she only recognised me by my dentition and not my face) assumed I could not understand English well. So I got to hear plenty of conversations in English of her chatting with other doctor-friends and giving lectures to medical students while I made an interesting specimen for education. One day, as I listened intently with my mouth wide open, she told her students, "The titanium wires used on this patient will be re-used on another patient because these wires are expensive."

O_O

Eventually, after what seemed like forever, the braces came off and I had well altered teeth.

2 comments:

  1. I'm always learning new things about my Shu! Braces! Who knew! Hope those titanium wires were first used on u :S

    ReplyDelete
  2. I know! That's the first thing that crossed my mind then :| Eww.

    ReplyDelete

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