distraction

i have not been able to write anything for this past few weeks due to a lot of distractions; one involving some very disturbing yet appealing changes that have been waited upon; the other depriving me of sleep and making my eyes wary by forcing them to follow one ball chased upon few guys in shorts on the coloured box.
between here and there however i have been collecting some contents that might interest young parents: lets hope azzuri goes through and the good mood will flow into good article.

forza italia! :)

in too deep

choices, choices, choices.

pumps: red? blue? purple?
football: man u? liverpool? chelsea?
cars: toyota? mazda? honda?

teeth: cabut? cabut? cabut? *huh?*

YES!
we do have choices when it comes to the health of our teeth. all the choices available is to eliminate whatever discomfort that we have. be it just a small hole, or major pain in the (ermm..) oral cavity... YES! we have!

a small to medium-sized hole on our tooth will present itself as a slight discomfort: during eating, drinking... especially hot or cold or sweet. its solution is simplest of all: filling! because the cavity is small, only involves the enamel and a little bit of dentin and very far away from the nerve, pain during this type of treatment is zilch!

a medium to large-sized cavity will cause a more apparent discomfort. added to that is the feeling that there's always some food stuck at that area whenever we eat, and it is becoming more and more difficult for us to take the food out. the other sign would be, whenever we floss, the floss gets stuck. the solution again, is filling. but apart from the normal filling material, we will also add a medication (a calcium hydroxide material) that will stop the caries from going deeper and nearer to the nerve by promoting the production of secondary dentin, which is a harder, stronger layer as compared to our primary dentin.

a large cavity may well has your pulp (the chamber housing our nerve) involved already. you will have: - hell of a pain, accompanied by swelling of gum, and the occasional facial asymmetry. Solution: root canal treatment. basically we will take out all the nerve and blood capillary that supplies that particular tooth; clean the canal area and fill it up with a type of rubber. it is almost the same process as mummification: we embalm the tooth so that the tooth is dead, no sense whatsoever, but still can remain in the mouth and still can be used to chew.

if all these fail, then you can consider extracting the tooth. but, you can also consider redoing the treatments.

choices, choices, choices. its all up to you. how much value do you put to your teeth? or should i say, how much value do you put in comfortably and without worry eating the satay kajang.. pizza... nasi dagang... soto ayam.. mee bandung muar... roti canai... lamb chop... strawberries and vanilla ice-cream... lobster thermidor... cupcakes....




choices, choices, choices.

euro: italia! italia! italia! :D

the very first time

I hate horror movies. When i become a dental surgeon, that hate evolves to despise. I totally despise horror movies, one in particular. Why can’t they make gross movies about lawyers? Engineers? Accountants? Why can’t they produce ‘DrakuLawyer’ or ‘The Engineer of Death’ or ‘Ledger of Blood’? First impression always counts, doesn’t matter what anyone believe. And the first impression the world population got about a dentist is horror.

*sigh*

Enough babbling. Seriously, going to the dentist is NOT excruciating anymore. Pain during dental treatment is an outdated perception, an old story (just like the movie). Modern technologies, updated equipments, improved techniques; all with the same aim:- to lessen, if not eliminate, pain. Do you remember your first visit to the dentist? is it bad? do you want your child to have that same bad experience?

So, how are we going to wipe off the phobia? Especially to our children? When the whole world practically is against us?

1. Make your child’s first visit a very comfortable one. Instead of scaring them away, we can always give the impression that a trip to the dentist is a joyful one; just like a trip to the zoo. Be positively enthusiastic; children can always sense if we are fearful.
   
2. Bring them early in their life, and bring them often. They will easily get use to the clinic’s surrounding. Bring them as early as their first tooth erupted. Bring them whenever you yourself or your spouse or your sister has dental appointments.
   
3. Bring all family members. Children always like to copy their siblings, and they always like to do things in groups. It is a family trip, after all.
4. Do NOT mention the word ‘pain’, ‘needle’, ‘jab’ or anything similar before the trip. They will chicken out even before the war begins.
   

We will also try to make your child’s first visit be as comfortable as possible. We do not usually do any treatment right away; we will just introduce the instruments to them. We will usually show them that our tools are not going to cause any pain, that it is just water and air. We will also let them experience our ‘robotic’ chair- boys always love it.

Nowadays, dental clinics are designed to be very people-friendly and comfortable. We always have children’s section where they can play with toys and further ease their minds. Clinics are now devoid of that ‘hospital-ly’ smell, thanks to ambi pur and aromatherapy. We ourselves do not like pain. We certainly do not want our patients to experience pain.

Ease your minds, don't believe the propaganda. Dentists don’t bite. Seriously.