Unwritten

Hmm... A follow-up post.

Had an appointment with the orthodontist yesterday. A truly helpful and delightful and nice woman. Okay, so orthodontics, to simply put it, means "the moving of the [position of] teeth" (with braces of course. That's my own definition by the way).

Before that, I went to a government polyclinic's dental clinic at Kelana Jaya for teeth-scaling and a referral letter to the Shah Alam branch (the only branch in the whole of [large] Petaling Jaya that does braces). Only to be told that there was a waiting list of FIVE, SIX YEARS!!! Oooh... Love the efficiency! They have only 2 orthodontists there. There is a huge difference in price though. Government price is about RM1000++, private clinics charge about RM4000-7500 depending on severity. A difference of about x4 - x7.5...

Actually, the visit was more of consultation, I haven't decided anything yet. So the appointment was at 2:30 p.m. But we waited and waited outside because of the clinic's thriving business. About 3:10, we were called in by the nurse to meet a certain Dr Wek. Anyway, she's young and good looking and an ideal dentist, friendly too.

She started off with "So, young man, you are unsatisfied with your teeth? You want to do something about it?" And I was like "No, I don't want to do this. I'm totally forced." I didn't say that out loud, though I gave a few (rather lame) "Hehehe..."s.

Anyway, she got straight down to business. Asked me to bite my teeth together. Then she examined for a short while. She said that the distance between the upper teeth and lower teeth is a good 10mm apart. Wow! She said people with normal teeth usually have a distance of only 2mm, and if mine were only 3, 4 or even 5mm, she can "tipu-tipu" and do the braces for me.

Then she went on to say "the problem lies in his lower jaw. It's very short. It doesn't reach the upper jaw to match with the upper teeth". She explained that my upper teeth looked like it was jutting out because of the illusion cast by the lower teeth. In fact, it was the upper teeth that is normal, and the lower teeth is the one that's abnormal.

In a scale of severe to non-severe, she said, I lie in "severe-severe". It was "Class Two". Okay, the "severe-severe"'s doubling effect was already bad enough, the "Class Two" made the whole thing sound worse. Guys out there, so much for I never noticed your teeth! SEVERE-SEVERE okay!!!

She said that she wouldn't recommend braces because this would mean bringing the normal upper teeth to the abnormal lower teeth because the lower teeth can only move by this much (a few mm) as my jaw is too short...

Two options, she gave. One, modify my jaw growth. Unfortunately, I'm past the best age to do it. The start of adolescence was the best time to do it i.e. age twelve. Second, SURGERY... [funeral bells] I totally had NO IDEA it was so serious... :(

She insisted that she could do the braces, but it was up to me. Whether it was fine to bring the upper teeth to abnormality. Then, she took pictures of my teeth with a digital camera at different angles. Later on, impressions of my teeth were taken, with something green in colour that had the feel of plasticine and smelled like toothpaste, both my upper teeth and lower teeth. Then, the "biting" position of my teeth was taken, with something with the mixture of gum AND gum. Gum 1, the gum in my mouth. Gum 2, it tasted a little like chewing gum, it was soft too... And pink.

The last surprise, I still have a milk teeth!! A baby premolar. It was recommended that I take an X-ray of that tooth as some people are borned without a permanent premolar. I am one of those people, as shown after I took the X-ray... So, it was suggested that I keep that tooth as long as possible. At most 8 years, the dentist said. Then, I should seek for dental implant, which by the way, cost RM5000 (or maybe even more next time, due to inflation) per tooth.

That's about what happened there. Educational and enriching. Interesting too. Wonder if orthodontics would be a good career choice. I would have many customers, with me and my model teeth. An orthodontist whose teeth fall into the "severe-severe class two" category... Lol... Paid a hundred ringgit for consultation and twenty-five ringgit for the X-ray shot. Erm... The End.