Patient Affairs
Dear Ms Lin
Thank you for your enquiry.
It is difficult for us to provide you with detailed cost advice on the various types of treatment without having a member of our clinical staff assess the complexity and extent of your oral problems first. We usually advise patients that a consultation is necessary so that the doctor can discuss with you the cause and various treatment options specifically suited to your condition, after the assessment. The number of visits and the procedures involved at each visit will also be explained to you. We ask for your understanding on this.
We will be happy to assist you in arranging for a consultation appointment via email if you wish. To allow us to do so, please provide us with the following information about yourself:
Name :
NRIC :
Contact No.:
We wish you good health.
Yours sincerely,
Agnes Lee
Patient Affairs Executive
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Guess what? I emailed NDC a second time regarding Root Canal Treatment; I even varied the way I ask my questions, with the focus no longer on cost (though I did casually mention that they can give me an estimate of the range of pricing), yet i get this identical formularized reply!
I am beginning to humour myself with such nondescript replies, treating them as affairs delivering a therapeutic touch on patience management.
Looks like Ms Agnes Lee is earning easy money clicking on "copy", "paste" & "send".
DE-non-disclosure REVERTED
Heh. Better news than expected.
Then... ....
When I click on the blue words:
HTTP/1.1 404 Object Not Found
It's so tormenting to learn of data that cannot have its obsoleteness discharged.
IMPACTED!
Wisdom tooth... horizontal eruption... BIG hole... nerve treatment... crown... left and right side...
Those few words will be strung together to form an impactful statement describing my impacted tooth (maybe teeth) which is (are) due to create an impact on my not-that-big pocket!
My wisdom tooth juts out in a horizontal position, knocking into its neighbouring molar (call it A). Molar A & adjacent Molar B have not been the good kids they used to be for almost a month - can't bite/chew since they pained at the slightest contact with cold/too hot/too hard stuffs. The culprit is Wisdom, as expected by the dentist and his dear helper. It houses a cavity ("big hole" Mr Dentist termed it) that is somewhat visible to the naked eye as a black little spot. Molar A was duely affected and now has a even bigger hole where the nerves are even exposed! Molar B, luckily is still safe from harm.
Mr Dentist wanted to refer me to a Mount E specialist dealing with endodontics (root canal treatment) as he accorded the complexity of such procedures to be better performed by another of the same profession who deals with it on a much higher frequency than he does. Yet sadly, the Specialist will only remove the nerves which meant I gotta do up the crown on a separate occassion if I were to incur a smaller loss.
Of course, he advised that Molar A can always be extracted should I not be willing to go for nerve treatment. What an alternative! I am by far only a quarter century old!
So far, I have been focusing on the right side of my mouth. I am more or less convinced now that my left side is experiencing the same problem as its counterpart right. Why? I have been poking at the gap between the Wisdom and the molar next to it, trying to remove foods stuck in between and it hurt badly when i move into one particular spot near the molar! Shucks! Must be another big cavity.
Wisdom Tooth Surgery - $400
Nerve Treatment (root canal) - close to a $1000
Crown - $300
TOTAL = $1700 x 2 = $3400 for both the left and right sides
I foresee another BIG CAVITY coming...
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Few most consoling things I have heard today:
"You looked young!" - compliment from Mrs Chan.
"Still acceptable" - remark from Dr Chan, re my receding gums.
Give the molar a break!
"It is difficult for us to provide you with detailed cost advice on treatment without having a member of our clinical staff assess the complexity and extent of your oral problem first...."
How irritatingly hazy a reply it is towards a request that is innocuously simple! This is the National Dental Centre which if you stepped into its virtual facility, introduces you to a full range of its pricing, going even to the extent of differentiating the charges between a Senior Consultant and a mere Consultant. But when asked about the package deal of a wisdom tooth removal, the above reply is comparatively unsatisfying. Thought liberalisation has set in to educate mortal citizens in making a decided move against or for the conspiracies bowled in by the medical socialites?
Apparently the big boy ain't the only one flashing its arrogance; even small rich brats are stamping their foot on the ground to make proof their allegiance in joining this unprincipled faction, luring innocent beings in the unknown to make their first, and therefore subsequent appointments with them.
"... we don't reveal our prices over the phone..." --- Corporate Dental Clinic (Haig Road) nurse.
Absolute claptraps and unquestionably an act of the "act hi-class" BS bums. I had earlier called up another dental clinic whose nurse provided me with a polite, straight-to-the-point answer. Those rich small/big kids probably still didn't figure out that good service is one that comes with a direct solution or at least an estimable quote, and not just replying and rejecting happily the inquiry in the most diplomatically correct manner!
*BREATHES*
Lie to me!
She had better be joking.
"We can go with her.. haha.. and stay next to her room.."
Finally let known to my parents that I am going to Bangkok two weeks later. Phew! The reaction I got from them wasn't as great as I had expected, especially from my mum. The result of being used to last-minute news from me.
I pray she is lying to me re the above as much as I had lied to her.
FINE ME??!!
Yea.. work's getting slightly better. Didn't get any scoldings so far, and I solved my mailer problem. Thanks to C who's willing to let the business bear the risk and cost of any customer issues that might possibly arise due to in part my negligence.
Tons of stuffs to read. But I can't while the fine night away reading system requirements! Hai.. procrastination - my nemesis to a upward climb. In monetary terms too.
Channelled myself into the NLB website and fooled around with the services available. "Check Account" sounds fun. A click...
I didn't know I borrowed such books! Such fine incurred! And NLB didn't bother to chase me for it?! The website also didn't load complete the page for paying the fines. Haha, fine, don't pay.
G R I M
The good track of happiness eluded me for the past 24 hours. It led me to think that I finally had a chance to visit the library and borrow a book that could accompany me one hour before bedtime. I started off early at 11pm, and before I could move on to Chapter 3, my two right molars on the lower jaw started hurting more terribly than it was an hour ago.
Arrgghh! Lights out at fifteen to 12. The pain was so horrid that I got up in the middle of the night to pop 2 panadols meant for the flu in an attempt to curb the irritating sizzling sensation in the right side of my mouth. Totally distracting and disturbing to a good sleep.
Woke up to a less than delightful morning with my only solace in the slightly succumbed teeth, dunno to panadol or to to the weariness of being resentful. Reverted to using Sensodyne instead of gum-healer Parogencyl or cooler Colgate Triple Action. Just read that the potassium nitrates in the former helps to cover up the gaps that allow stimulus such as cold water / air run into the nerves! Powerful.
Yet this doesn't lessen my gaps in terms of my work. Been lagging behind in reading emails.. been providing unsatisfactory solutions to bosses and faced replies like ".. this is very annoying... die lah, you don't know what I am talking about". It is ever more saddening to know that I went through 2 drafts with my mentor before presenting that email to that Boss. I wondered if she would give that same reaction if my mentor were to relate to her in the same manner he taught me. Pride and prejudice, they worked against me.
Towards evening, I realised a bigger mistake I had committed. Unknowingly I had given my consent for the mailers to be printed without realising that my department might not be able to support such a tedious function that comes written in the mailers! And I haven't even obtain the manpower required to perform the activity! AC sounded a little annoyed as he explained to me the "rules of the game". That was 5pm. At 7pm, he probably felt the harshness in his voice and came over to help unslip my error, or more accurately, mine and my colleagues D and K's. Whatever. It's a blooper still. My blooper.
24 unkind hours. Never felt any more awful than those ghastly twenty four.
MasterCard, you are wrong!
Unlucky: Alamak! Wrong place! It's GV Marina! Not PS! OMG.
Lucky: No cash to buy popcorn. No cash to buy nachos. No POSB/DBS atm nearby. Otherwise I will end up with popcorn dinner by a bench watching passers-by. Unlucky: Impossible to rush down to Marina. Already 7.15pm or more. Show's at 7pm. $15 for Inside Man possibly forgone :-s
Lucky: Phew.. got Munich at 9pm as compensation. 3 hour show = 2 movies = $7 each. Can lah.Unlucky: No queue. Got to the counter, selected movie showtime and seats only to realise that they do not accept MasterCard!
Lucky: I still got my Visa, just that it's in the car. Ran back to the carpark which fortunately is only 1 more floor down.Unlucky: Got queue! Shucks!
Lucky: We still got great seats! Centre row, third row from the back.
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I have come to realise the lousiness of eNets as an online payment solution for people who refused to apply for at least a debit card for virtual transactions! You either risk not being able to collect your movie tickets or give up the money which you have already paid for (or possibly paid for) if you forget the stupid confirmation ID that was given to you at the end of the transaction at the website.
Maybe it wasn't eNets. It must be GV! Yes, I can see that they advocate the use of Visa cards by labelling the logo everywhere around their box office, BUT they don't have to eliminate usage of MasterCard cards! I really don't understand how that organisation functions. It accepts either confirmation ID or NRIC as a verification check for customers who bought the tickets online with debit cards. And the funny thing is they do accept MasterCard if you buy online! Except that you need to pay additional $0.20 above the booking fee. And then why can't they at least use NRIC as an alternative verification check for customers who do not know GV has an idiotic workflow when it comes to eNets payment solution?
Rubbish!
