Removal of Stitches

Removed my stitches on 27 April 2010 5.30pm. The doc injected some pinkish liquid into my wound/gums area... it swell and hurt alittle... he said was for antiseptic purpose.. anyway, the pain was bearable... within seconds, the stitches are cut and removed.

The whole recovery process went well... It really helped with the medicine and mouthwash etc... though i am quite worried about chewing on that side of the mouth but it doesnt affect much though.. with braces on, i still get to eat pretty much all the things i want except for hard or leafy vegetables... they can be quite challenging... so far i dun have much issues with meat.. fish is easy to chew... chicken, beef, pork are alright.. i had KFC last nite.. the chicken, mash potato, cheese fries are great but i gave up on the coleslaw half way... simply too hard to chew... and stuff like the bittergourd in yong tau foo is also a no... so sad... i tried to bite it off but i couldnt...

Now, my braces is actually quite yellowish due to staining... the ceramic brackets actually dun get stained.. it is the rubber bands that is on the brackets that turned yellow... they will be changed in my next appt anyway.... "accidentally" ate curry last week... 4got all about it.. after i finished then i rem... and then plus a few cups of coffee here and there... actually i also dun really care so much liao... just eat first then brush after that lor... cannot remove also like dat..

Life is short....being focus on the goals is important but must enjoy myself too... haha

Next appointment (1st Adjustment) : 5 May 2010, 2pm

Wisdom Teeth Extraction

I had 2 wisdom teeth removed about 4 years ago... and I'm left with 2... actually the initial intention was to remove all 4... but somehow or rather, this 2 does not hurt at all so i procrastinated and also due to the long MC (5days) I'll get... i need to do some planning .. i cant be away from work that long .. stuff like that.. dragged until now i had to take it out for the braces...

I had the procedure done under LA yesterday morning... it went well generally... except for the drilling which i didnt expect.. coz my 1st wisdom teeth surgery didnt require any drilling... only cutting up the gums and pulling out the tooth.. it could be because that the tooth is impacted and growing at a 45 degrees direction on my bottom right side of my mouth instead of upright 90 degrees so the dentist could  not pull it out normally... anyway, teeth is hard so you can imagine how tough it is to drill... there are no sparks (thank god)... just the awful sound, Dr Ooi even gave me a headphone with nice jazzy music playing to soothe me... as much as i like to relax... i couldnt... 

The drilling took a while... but i couldnt feel when he took the teeth out.. before i realised it, he told me it's over..the top right wisdom tooth was a breeze.. 30 seconds.. it's out by normal extraction...

I am recovering well... had anti-biotics, painkiller, anti-swelling medicine to take.. it's recovering much better and faster than the premolars extractions i had earlier.. thank god, i have a exam next tues... i need to get well fast to concentrate on my revision... meanwhile I'll be on leave at home til next Tuesday... 

Wish me luck for the exams...

Ciao~ !

Next Appointment (Removing of Stitches) : 27 April 2010 6.30pm

Next Appointment (First Adjustment ) : 5 May 2010 2pm

Braces - Day 7

Wearing braces for 7 days already.... maybe i will take some pictures tonite but i doubt can see much progress but i notice my right canine had shifted alittle.. more along side its neighbours.. i hope i can capture it later...

My gums are not really that sore now... but extremely sensitive... teeth is still shakey... the sensitivity only came in the recent weekend... no matter what i eat or drink, cold... hot... especially sweet stuff.. like soft drinks or milo or just cool plain water.. i can immediately feel the sharp pain on my upper right side of teeth and gums once it gets into contact with my gums... the feeling is so high.. initially i tot i had a decayed tooth or what coz i nv had sensitivity issues... last night went into flowerpod forum to seek help.. glad there are a few podders who assured me that this is normal and the pain can be lessened with the toothpaste for sensitive teeth.... will get a tube tonite after work... but anyway to play safe, I'll be visiting Dr. Ooi this coming wed anyway.. i will ask him to do a thorough check..

Oh well... my 1st weekend with braces was alright.. on sat, i attempted to eat Wanton Noodles... but after i drank coke and got the sharp pain.. my appetite for food disappeared ... i settled for some cake for dinner.. Sunday was good, i popped a painkiller before i went out... so for lunch i had taiwanese braised pork rice at vivocity foodcourt.. it is really delicious, i will definitely return for more when my teeth gets better... managed to munch some nacho chips during movie, catched Shutter Island... thumbs up for the acting!.. nice.. dinner i had minced pork and liver porridge.. satisfying...

My extraction for remaining wisdom teeth is this Wed..nervous!

Braces - Day 5

Can feel a few of my teeth loosening... the feeling is quite scary actually coz i vividly remember those nightmares i had when i was kid that all my teeth loosen and drop off... i'm eating and brushing with extra care now... except for the few loose teeth... i have more confidence and adapted to the new brushing style... as brushing teeth with braces is a whole new difference story as compared to brushing normal teeth.. the brush strokes and angle of toothbrush head need to be adjusted... cut the story short.. now my single brushing and cleaning routine takes at least 15 minutes... it is much more than the 3 mins before i had braces...

Now my mouth can close better without stretching so much of the lips... haha... i think i must have looked very funny on the 1st few days...

Tried drinking Ensure last night for some additional nutrients...but find it too sweet for me.. bought the vanilla flavour.. taste like melted vanilla ice-cream... i guess that's why it can give energy to ppl who dun eat...

The weekend is here... i miss the liver porridge at Crystal Jade...

Have a great weekend!

Braces - Day 4

Gd morning!

Every morning i wake up feeling better... maybe that's the only time i can rest my mouth... by the time at night, my mouth will be aching away... sore and tired.. because the thing is now there is something inbetween my lips and teeth.. i have to stretch my lips in order to close my mouth...so after a day of stretching, can you imagine the aching feeling? ... the pain to the teeth is also greater than on separators... and a few teeth feels shakey.. on the 2nd night, i cant even chew chee cheong fun properly.. there is practically nothing i can eat in SIM canteen.. but anyway, that was my last lesson for the semester ... so i hope i'll be ok the next sem..

The pain is actually quite annoying.. it moves around... sometimes the teeth on the lower right hurts.. the next day, it doesnt but the upper left starts to hurt.. you get the idea..

I havent had any form of coffee including my favourite kopi-o since the braces are up... i know i can kick the habit ... i just nd time and some power to hypnotize myself...will not risk anything that stains the ceramic brackets... I dunno if i am getting enough nutrients for my body anot... i havent been eating much nutritious food besides minced meat or fish porridge.. plain oatmeal .. thus, i'm increasing my multi-vits intake and it's making my body very heaty...

Stay Healthy!
 

Braces - Day 1

All Braced Up @ 13 April 2010

Wow... my braces are up ytd.. woke up in the morning feeling all excited and nervous.. what can i say... it's one of the big decisions i have made and probably something that will change my life and all... Had a decent wanton noodles for breakfast at lucky plaza before heading to see Dr. Cheng.. as usual, he was fast.. the braces were up in 10 minutes... it doesnt hurt when he is fixing up brackets.. only can feel the tight feeling when he put in the wire ... nw the wire is zigzagging... hopefully i will see the straight line soon...and the ugly gaps from the extracted teeth closed up soon... haha... dun think so fast ... research tells me about 4 months time.

Left the clinc at 11am... immediately can feel the tightness of the brace... like teeth is bounded tightly ... fiddle around in town.. get my dental supplies...floss.. mouth wash.. interdental brush etc.. had fish congee for lunch... ended with a mouth full of fish and spring onions stuff on my braces and teeth... dun dare to use my tongue to touch the front coz the wires seems quite sharp... brushed all of it out... and i notice a big piece of spring onion on the basin ... and i wonder to myself.. how can this chunk of spring onion get stucked and i dun feel a thing.. amazing!

By the time we got home... i was feeling quite uncomfortable already... so we watch 海派甜心 at home... so funny... but i cannot laugh too much... coz laugh also painful...anyway, finished the series.. so funny... at least there is something to cheer me up... by the time dinner time, i have absolutely no mood to eat... drank some cereal drink and that's it...

Woke up this morning... felt better... getting alittle used to the tightness... but find my mouth very crowded... i nd to get a new tooth brush with smaller brush head....

My New Set of Ceramic Braces!

Dental Care Supplies

The Dental Wax I was talking about earlier 

Next Appt :  21 April 2010 10am - Scaling, Polishing & Wisdom Teeth Surgery
                  05 May 2010 2pm - 1st Adjustment / Tightening

Extractions

Last Saturday noon, I had my extractions... I was pretty nervous the whole morning... after i left office, had a satisfying lunch before seeing my regular dentist, Dr. Ooi.. as usual he jokes around.. he tries to loosen me up abit... the injections for the local anesthesia was so painful and agonising... coz i need to anesthesize the whole mouth so for each corner is around 4 jabs.. so in total i was poked 16 times (?!) ... and then before he start, he had to poke my gums etc to see if i am fully anesthesized... initially, i dun feel anything but after everything wears out, these cuts does make my gums sore... however, as compared to the extraction site... it's chicken feet..

The extraction of the 4 pre-molars was a breeze, first i felt no pain.. just pressure, second... He was fast... the LA took like 20mins but the extraction is like 5mins... but having the whole lower face numb is no fun... when i tried to rinse my mouth, i couldn't control my lips and i ended becoming a merlion... splatter water all over the floor.. had a good laugh..

Over the weekend, i was dizzy most of the time, the bleeding was on and off.. up til now.. gums still swollen and my cheeks are swollen too...

Due to my job... i need to talk quite often.. be it the phone or face to face...i already like dread talking now... i wish everything can be done via email... like real...

Will post some photos later...

Pre-Extractions

In just a few hours' time, I'm goin for my extractions... oh no... I am feeling so nervous! never done anything that major before... 6 teeth... there will be alot of blood... *trying very hard not to think about it...

Molar Bands - Day 2

It's a nice sunny day.... my mouth and molar bands are fine.... which is great... I thought i will wake up with cuts as you know, i grinds my teeth when i sleep.. i took some precautions before i sleep and glad it worked... last night before i slept... i rolled 2 chunks of wax and stuffed them up on the 2 upper brackets to cover the sharp edges... this is my first time using this dental wax thing.. the texture feels weird.. It's whitish translucent and it doesnt quite stick well to the brackets... i thought with the saliva and all that, it will fall off or what-so-ever but anyway, this morning i woke up to find the wax still in place and it didnt dissolve or anything... which in a sense is gd to protect my mouth but worries me if i swallow it... will it get digested?

Anyway, I did sleep well.... I even woke up late this morning... and yes, my teeth don't hurt that much now... I could eat cup noodles for supper last nite .. Woohoo!

Appt for Extractions : 10 April 2010 1.30pm
Next Appt : 13 April 2010 10.30am

Molar bands

Fixing up the Molar Bands : 7 April 2010 4pm
Went for my 2nd appt today... the clinic was real packed with people... but I'm glad Dr Cheng attended to me right on time..like the punctuality..and yes... the moment when he plucked out the separators, my molars felt so much better... no more of this food-stuck-in-teeth feeling... phew!

After the separators were all out, he began to try out the sizes of the molar bands... he was pretty fast in getting the right sizes, he probably can tell by just looking .. the fixing up and gluing of the band to my teeth was very fast too.. no pain .. nothing.. maybe due to the separators.. there is more than enough space to put in and take out ..

The edges of the brackets on the band is alittle sharp i must say... maybe my mouth is still not used to it... it certainly gave me a preview of how it will be like for a mouth full of brackets... i was given some dental wax in case the sharp edges gets uncomfortable... there are 4 bands altogether in my mouth right now... can feel the top right one cutting my mouth now....

 

I hope i'll be ok tomorrow morning when i wake up... :)

Appt for Extractions : 10 April 2010 1.30pm
Next Appt : 13 April 2010 10.30am

Welcome!

Hi there~!

I am really glad that I finally made up my mind to put on braces at the age of 27. Hmm.. 27, it's like somewhere in middle... alittle old to have braces but never too old... but I kinda figured out that I still have so much time ahead of me... I might as well get my teeth done up nicely. Oh yes, I do have a grinding habit at night when I sleep... I start noticing some of my teeth shifting places in the recent years.. my family dentist also encouraged me to get braces to correct my bite to reduce and hopefully, stop the habit.

The next 1.5 years is going to betough... some sacrifies to be made but I know I can do it!.. hehe.. I wanted to get this diary started to encourage myself and also to share with everyone the things I am going thru.

First Consultation : 30 March 2010 1.30pm

Went for my first consultation at Dr. Alfred Cheng's office at Mount Elizabeth Hospital. We discussed the treatment program, period, costs and stuffs. He told me I will need to extract 6 teeth including 2 wisdom teeth and my treatment period is 1.5 years. As Dr. Cheng does not do extractions, I made an appt with my family dentist at De Pacific... I had 2 wisdom teeth extracted there.. it was all good.

So, for the first consultation, I had the mouldings, xrays, photo-taking done and 8 separators were inserted in between my molars to create space. The first day was fine... i managed to have rice for lunch and dinner... but my gums and teeth hurt like hell for the 2nd and 3rd day ... cant chew.. only liquid diet... in fact, i'm still on liquid diet but after the 3rd day... the soreness and pain don't bother me that much unless i eat. Who knew these small blue rubber rings can cause so much agony...

Next Appt : 7 April 2010 4pm