Toothache

I hate going to the dentist. Besides having someone prod around in your mouth with rubber gloves ( some without... Ewwww)you also end up looking like a dribbling mess. Hate it when I have to gargle and end up having saliva dribbling at the corners of my mouth. This aversion of mine to the dentist does not mean I do not go to the dentist. From young I've had to go regularly due to a 3 year comitment for braces to fix my then Dracula teeth. Who would have known vampires would be so "in" now?

Well, last year I hot footed to the beighbourhood Slim River government dentist to have my wisdom tooth extracted due to recurring pain. Besides having the stupid dentist postpone my appointment due to a 'course- or in other words off-day" after I had taken leave, the stupid dentist i suspect also damaged my second last molar.

The wisdom tooth extraction at KK Slim River went as planned after a reappointment. Expectedly surgical extractions are difficult, so I would say the surgery went as it would at any other dental clinic.I wanted to make an appointment to remove my other wisdom tooth but the dental officer seemed scared and kept postponing it. Maybe because I'm a doctor? These dental officers sent to districts are usually freshies with 1-2 yrs of experience and are expected to run the whole clinic by themselves. The dentist I made an appointment with though is the most experienced with 3 years of service and was going to open his own dental clinic in a few months time.

Anyway I felt something was amiss when the said dentist kept postponing my appointment till he left the government sector.

Six months later, the tooth next to my wisdom tooth that got extracted started to feel shaky! It had in fact started chipping off! With me too preocupied with work to detect it earlier, the repeated chewing and grinding of my tooth rendered the chipped weakened portion more and more vulnerable until finally the whole top portion of my second last molar hinged on it's root like an open hat box.

Shit!

How am I supposed to eat meat this way?

And don't say that it's probably my fault for not noticing a decay in my tooth due to pressure from adjacent wisdom tooth. If there was indeed a decay present, shouldn't the stupid dentist detect it in the first place?

With hope in the government dentists all but destroyed by said stupid dentist, I turned to a private dentist in PJ. Chipped portion of tooth was removed.

And today my defective second last molar was removed.Quite professionally done in fact considering it was pretty difficult to remove what's left of my tooth. But of course I had to pay RM90 for an extraction, some amoxycyllin and mefenemic acid.

And I'm glad to have found a dentist I feel comfortable with.

I hope this will be an end to my tooth woes.

PS: i'm not saying all goverment dentists are bad but if you are going to a dentist in a district setting you can be sure that they are very inexperienced. Things should be much better in a tertiary hospital setting.