The Dentist

I always have this unrealistic fear towards dentist.

If I close my eyes and think about the dentist, the image of a man in white suit wearing a hideous looking wielding mask, holding the dental hand piece, vividly emblazoned in my mind. The white ceiling; the sight of all the sharp dental burrs; the smell of antiseptics; the feeling of helplessness when you open your mouth wide in total surrender  to the dentist (and he can do whatever he wants)... that pretty much sum up to my fear towards the dentist.

I remember when I was young, I would avoid anything to go to see dentist. There was one time when my tooth was unfortunately decayed and loose, but I was too chicken to go to see dentist to get it pull out that, I  came out with the most ridiculous d.i.y plan for extracting the tooth. I kept it a secret from everyone, especially my mom and dad, except my sister, whom I dragged into the evil plot by threatening her that either she help me in this or she will see my die of toothache. 

First, I tied a string at the loose teeth and tied the other end of the string at a door knob. After said a little prayer for God's know how many times, at the count of 1,2,3, my sister opened the door in the counter direction with a brute force, and wala, the tooth was out. 

I have to say the plan was quite effective, however the mentioned act is performed by highly skilled professionals, so kids, do not try this at home. I'm lucky in the sense that the tooth was dead and was wiggly, jiggly loose. If the tooth is just rotting and not dead, I will definitely experience a lot of pain because of the exposed nerve. Well, ignorance can be a real bliss sometimes. 

Ok, back to my story. What i am trying to say is that I am a self claimed adontophobic. I lived in total avoidance when it come to dental care for the past 20 years and to be really frank, i havent seen a dentist since the day I left my primary school. Those days the dentist used to come to the school occasionally to check out the children's teeth and made all of us lining up beside the longkang (drain) and forcing us to brush teeth in front of everyone. So the moment I'm out of the school, it marked the beginning of my abstinence from dental care.

In stark contrast, Peter believes that dental care is absolutely important, and would religiously go to do dental examination every year. He would make an attempt to remind me to go for dental checkup every now and then to the point of booking the dental appointment on my behalf. This year, i have finally agreed and resolute to go for a dental checkup in the beginning of 2012. Sigh, what we do for love.

Anyway, i went for the dental checkup at a small dental clinic near my home at Melawati. Not just once, but twice. The dentist was a friendly middle age man, whom i shall refer as Dr. M. Firstly Dr. M examined my entire oral cavity and took some photos using his impressive oral camera which pretty much look like a pen. Surprisingly, he then explained to me that my teeth was actually kinda of healthy, but with alot of plagues. There was no cavities except my wisdom teeth were misaligned hence they might squish or damage the second molars and increase their vulnerabilities towards gum disease/ cavities in future. Besides that, nothing serious.

Dr M started to do the scaling on my teeth by using a hand piece which looks very dangerous and life threatening. All the while, i kept on hearing the sound of the metal grinding and crushing towards the calcified structure, that alone, sends shivers down my spine.

To be frank, it was pretty pain at some point due to the stubborn plagues. Although the nurse kept on sucking out the fluid in my mouth using this long tube, but I can still taste the metallic taste as though my mouth was full of blood. But again, I've always have problem of gum bleeding. According to Dr. M, the bleeding was caused by inflamed gum which in turn caused by stubborn plaque known as tartar clouding the edge of the tooth (and makes it feel flat). He kept on scratching  the side and edge of the teeth with the hand piece until there was a clear demarcation between the teeth and the gum. I was tense, I was on the edge, but in short, I survived the whole event, and that includes the second appointment 2 days after for the scaling of the upper jaw.

I'm still trying to get used to the feeling of having gaps in between the teeth and able to feel with my tongue the clear contour of each individual tooth edging to the gum. It did make me feel good knowing the fact that my teeth is clean a.k.a free-of-plagues now, but moreover, i felt pretty much empowered for being able to conquer the ridiculous fear which had haunted me for more than 20 years. And that itself is worthy of all the pains which I've went through.