My other experiences with dentist concerns all 4 of my wisdom tooth. Well 3 of them were uneventful save for one as I need to go for surgery instead of normal extraction.
It was really disheartening as I was hoping that given time, the tooth will come out normal but lo and behold, not only did it not come out, it even pushes the rest of the tooth into misalignment.
So finally after getting into college, I mustered enough courage to seek help from the dentist.
To cut the long story short, the stuffs which I have learned from this experience are:-
1) if you have small jaw and the wisdom tooth is coming out, it's
best to remove it asap before it affects the alignment of other tooth.
2) Why did God create us with wisdom tooth when we end up removing them anyway. Well that was cos when human were first created, they were created to eat meat (some may debate on this) so human need all the tooth that they can get to bite, chew, crush - basically perform the function of a food processor.
But since now, most of the food we consume come processed (think McDonald's, KFC and Pizza Hut) we dont need all these extra teeth.
3) If you thought since it's not giving me any trouble why bother to remove them, well think again. Cos wisdom tooth are located way at the back of the jaw, most likely it will be neglected in terms of maintenance and hygiene are concerned. So you'll most likely to have tooth decay and cavities there.
If left unattended for a long time, when you finally decide to extract them, the tooth might be structurally weak that the moment the dentist apply force to it, it'll just snapped and leave the root in your jaw.
So now you'll have to go for surgery to remove the root. What if you do not remove the root you say - well then the root will continue to decay until one day you'll experience the problem that have tormented our ancestors - toothache - so much pain that you feel like slamming your face to the wall so that the new pain will act as a distraction to the one in your tooth.
4) when looking for a dentist to do this surgery,
pick a male dentist! Why? Cos mine was a lady and she didnt have enough strength to forcefully pull it out. So she kept drilling and drilling so I ended up have no pain during the surgery but suffered with pain and swollen cheek for 1 week.
My sister on the other chose a male dentist and she had pain during the surgery but no pain after that cos the dentist made it painful but short. So take your pick - suffer during
or after the surgery.
5) Ultimately what I learn - when dealing with tooth decay - time really does matter cos
tooth problem can only get bigger, which translate to more expensive procedure.
This was the case for me when I have one cavity which the dentist deemed to be to big for normal filling. So I had to do crowning. Being just a student at that time, I just didnt want to burden my family with this extra expense so I just lived with the temporary filling.
After time, this temporary filling gave way and this time, instead of going for just crowning the dentist said I need to go for root canal as well cos the nerve in the tooth had died... If I proceed with crowning without root canal, these nerve even though dead might inflamed and create problem for me in the future.
At that moment, I seriously considered just extracting this tooth instead of spending twice the amount of money on it but after much deliberation, I guess even one tooth is worth saving as extracting it without using dentures will affect the alignment of the other tooth (it's going to move and shift whether you like it or not).
Wearing dentures is also a lifetime hassle cos you need to keep it clean and all. There are also 2 types of dentures - metal and ceramic both with its pros and cons.
Having learned all these lessons, I still dread going to the dentist. Alright alright, I ring Dr Wong tomorrow and make an appointment for my dental checkup. I am really keeping my fingers crossed that I will be given a clean bill of oral health.
