slosh down the pepper!

Endodontics 101

So.... I was off to the dental clinic.. alone. It was a nice clinic alright. Spanning across 3 units of floor space, it was pretty huge and nicely decorated with its warm yellow lighting and cheery nurse uniforms. Almost every uniform looks slightly different with its cartoony design on the blouse. Many of them seem to come from the Philippines & Indonesia - a pretty typical sight in the health industry, especially private clinics & hospitals.

What really took my attention was the dentist & the facilities they have. Placed at the ceiling was a huge 30" flat screen high definition TV! It could have been a really wonderful experience if the dentist and the dental operating lamp didn't block my view 80% of the time. Anyway, I guessed I didn't really miss out much since it was some Channel 5 program showing snippets of football matches, in muted mode. That was not the only flat screen around in the room. Placed on the right of the operating chair was a 15" or 17" LCD monitor which captures my xray! It's the first time I have seen my own tooth, enlarged up to 20 - 30 times! Really big hole by the side where it was impacted by the stupid wisdom tooth which I finally removed it on the 2nd of May, one day after coming back from Bangkok.

Oh, and the dentist was a dignified looking young man at his thirties. I thought he looked a bit like the man who acted as Taiwan's president Chiang Kai Shek (蒋介石) in the movie, The Soong Sisters. Very short hair, somewhat looking as if it's ready to bald once he hits forty, bright eyes paired with brooding eyebrows, fair yet shiny glowy skin. And he comes with a slight english slang! Pretty charismatic...

"Difficult", he commented on my condition, but luckily he said he will try anyway, to help me save my tooth. The seemingly excruciating procedure took about an hour.

Step 1: he dabbled the cylindrical cotton bud with a pinkish colored analgesic balm and rubbed it onto the affected area. It's got a sweet cherry flavor! I certainly appreciate the balm, if not for the added flavor. It helps to lessen my pain at step 2.

Step 2: he pulled out a long cylindrical needle and started jabbing my gums. That hurt a little, particularly when the thin needle teased my tongue accidentally. Oww! Hehe.. then he will go on his "sorry.. sorry" with his strong, rich-bodied voice. I also like it the way he rubbed the inside of the mouth as he poked at my gums. Simple little technique, but does wonders to minimize the resultant pain from the jabs. Other dentists should learn this!

Step 3: he took out a green colored plasticky thing called the 'rubber dam' and place it over my mouth, forcing open my jaw. "for your protection"; I was wondering about his words until I found out later that the dam is to prevent saliva from getting into the cleaned out canals.

Step 4: the drilling began. :-s That was a little painful; he was attentive to my frowning of my brows and stopped momentarily to jab more anaesthesia. One slightly more painful jab was when the pulp was exposed, and he threw in a big drop to numb the nerves before removing them. I couldn't really tell when or how he removed the pulp since I couldn't see it. The rubber dam, together with the goggles they made me wear also didn't help to make my movement any easier.

Step 5: the drilling stopped. He used an ultra thin ribbed wire-like instrument to clean out the root canals by manually pushing the wire in and hand-turning it rapidly. I could actually feel it when he did that. No pain at all. Just a little creaky sound and discomfort as he pressed the rubber dam against my jaw. He continued pulling the wire, pushing it back again, and then pulling it out again, tweaking it a little and putting it back again. Towards the end, he would attach the wire onto the drilling equipment and starting drilling at the root canal. He did that for more than 10 times, and only once did I see something whitish hanging onto the tip of the wire-like structure. Must be the pulp!

Step 6: patching up! He applied some sourish acid-like substance onto the teeth and it spilled into the mouth, causing to choke on the horrible tasting liquid! Yuck! Luckily, still painless. After covering the hole with a temporary filling, he went on to explain to me that he would place an octagram (bascially, a ring-like structure) around the tooth since it is weakened by the lack of an internal pulp. The ring will last me through the next few weeks till I get a crown done. $35.00 for that!
Take a real close look at the temporary filling. Looks like a piece of bubble gum stuck there... The blue dots are probably some listerine leftovers hanging onto the uneven surface of the molar... cool huh, my w800i!

Step 7: prepare myself for a follow up 2 weeks from now.

Step 8: made payment. $455 for the first visit!!! The joy at experiencing minimal pain from the procedure translated into a sharp agonising heart pain!


Take a further look! No no... not at the other teeth with a yellowish discoloration.. I dunno why too.. i just brushed my teeth leh! :-s
Anyway, focus! Focus on the octagram! It fits snudgly.

posted by slingwoof @ 10/15/2006 02:53:00 AM